In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, this is a great opportunity to ensure that we are proactively managing stress levels in ourselves and our team.
With the post-pandemic pressures and new perspectives still in play, we are seeing an increase in stress responses, absenteeism and related behavioral, wellness and performance issues.
As leaders, what can we do?
First and foremost is to grow our skill in seeing stress in ourselves and our people.
When you begin to see (even small) changes in behavior, that is the time to be proactive.
Some of the key indicators that stress may be impacting your people (or yourselves) include:
- A change in attendance and punctuality. We often notice when there is an increase in absenteeism, but also watch for people to suddenly come in much earlier, staying later or a change in how breaks are used. Returning from breaks late, taking extra breaks or a change in routine during break time can also be a sign.
- Patience and People Skills. This can be a highly problematic sign, as it can also have larger ramifications including customer service, health and safety compliance, respectful workplace concerns and a general degradation in performance. If you see that a member of your team has a decline in patience, is increasingly communicating with less professionalism or kindness there may be an underlying stress issue. This sign is one that needs to be addressed quickly to avoid a verbal or physical outburst or inappropriate conduct that may find you having to investigate a complaint of violence in the workplace, harassment or respectful workplace violation. Remember, that verbal conduct can be both violence in the workplace and unsafe working conditions if this escalates.
- Booked time off. This is different than absenteeism and may be harder to identify as it often appears planned. Medical leaves, Unusual Vacation Utilization and requests for extended unpaid time, may all be routine or even pleasant, but they may also be signs of someone trying to manage stress before it manifests as distress.
Often, we know our people well enough to be able to detect these changes but are left challenged by what to do next.
Here are a few suggestions for managing stress proactively.
- When you detect an issue or charge in an employee’s behavior, addressing it though positive enquiry can be both compassionate and efficient. Positive enquiry occurs when we ask genuine questions based on our interest in assisting and assuring employees to proactively manage issues together. This is also an opportunity to ensure that the stress is personal and not professional and where appropriate provide the resources needed to reduce or eliminate work-related stress points.
- When there have been issues that an employee is unable or unwilling to share with management, ensuring that they are aware that, whatever the issue is, it has begun to impact the workplace can often have them open up or seek the assistance they need before it becomes a serious discipline or performance issue.
- When signs of excessive stress or distress appear, helping staff access resources can go a long way to managing challenges. Providing employees with your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) information, options for planned time off or reminding them of services that are covered through your benefits plan are all good starting points.
- Bring forward tangible data-based information. Approaching an employee with a “blame” statement when they are likely already heading down a path of overwhelm and distress is unlikely to help the situation. However, approaching an employee with specific examples of behavioral change, real-time absenteeism data, and attendance rates by absence reason provides a concrete and blame-free way to initiate a turnaround.
If you are facing challenges with managing stress in the workplace, absenteeism, attendance or other employee relations issues, CADA 360 has the resources you need. Subscribers to HR Automation can track and retain data at their fingertips and have access to Certified Human Resources to help guide them along the way. Remember that your CADA 360 benefits plan also provides employees with access to EAP to help with long term solutions.