With Stress Awareness Month taking place in April, now is the perfect time for businesses and HR professionals to prioritise employee wellness and revisit their policies on one of the most prevalent workplace challenges: stress.
While a small nudge can help focus employees on deadlines, and key performance indicators can motivate a close-knit team to meet targets, feeling chronically stressed can be negative and costly for individuals and the entire business.
According to recent start-up news, highly-stressed employees can cost a firm more than £4 million a year, and when staff feel burned out productivity decreases and staff turnover rates increase. Understandably, creating a workplace that acknowledges and addresses undue stress and avoids punishing workloads isn’t only compassionate but makes sense for a business, as this guide explores.
Identifying Different Stress Indicators
According to The Workplace Health Report: 2024, almost 14 million working days are lost each year due to work-related stress, anxiety, and depression. The same report stated that close to 80% of employees report moderate-to-high or high levels of stress and that higher stress levels have a direct impact on productivity, with 33% of employees pinning their low output on stress.
Different industries present unique stress challenges yet businesses can create stress-resilient physical environments early on. Designing a stress-free workplace starts with the basics, such as having a clean office and presentable building to work in. Employees similarly appreciate working in a comfortable office that offers reliable air-conditioning, good ventilation and quality commercial heating, from experts such as BN Thermic. These features ensure that temperatures remain healthy throughout the year.
Understanding Different Signs of Stress
Workplace stress also manifests beyond the physical workplace and can impact employees differently across various dynamics and demographics. While tight deadlines and heavy workloads are commonly recognised stressors, some employees might hide their feelings. If HR professionals and managers suspect this might be the case, they can prioritise ways to identify and support an employee who might be concealing their stress.
Being mindful of telltale signals, including increased absenteeism, irritability, or decreased engagement, as well as conducting regular assessments on who might be hiding any mental health struggles, assist in being able to provide the best support to employees. Similarly, understanding key differences across the workforce allows business owners to develop comprehensive support strategies.
Older Employees
With an ageing population and more people working after retirement age, businesses have had to adapt. They have been busy developing effective and age-inclusive health and safety policies and suitable risk assessments that take both the age of employees and the physical challenges of workplaces into consideration. It’s important to think about their future roles and whether any changes are necessary not just when a senior worker reaches a certain age but afterwards. Concerns about job security, retirement readiness, and health issues can all compound stress levels for this demographic.
Similarly, as technology continues to rapidly evolve, older employees often silently struggle with adapting to new systems or embracing emerging tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI). In fact, according to studies, the widespread adoption of AI has triggered a surge of AI anxiety not only in older workers but across all age groups and industries.
Lone Workers
Employees who work in isolation—whether remotely, on night shifts, or because of a certain role such as greenkeeping—can often experience unique stressors and mental health stress. Safety concerns, lack of immediate support, and diminished social connection can create anxiety that goes unnoticed by management. These workers may hesitate to report stress, fearing it signals inability to handle independence.
Neurodivergent Employees
Open-plan offices, unpredictable schedules, and social expectations can create overwhelming sensory experiences for neurodivergent employees. These stressors often remain invisible to neurotypical colleagues and managers who might feel stress more than their colleagues and managers realise.
Caregivers
Employees balancing work with caring for children, ageing parents, or disabled family members face tremendous pressure. The mental load of managing these responsibilities while maintaining professional performance creates stress that extends beyond typical work hours.
Offering Support for Stress-Resilient Workplaces
In recent years, thanks to increasing knowledge, research and awareness about the prevalence of stress, with the support of the Government, industries have seen an abundance of strategies to help mitigate, address and tackle stress. The “Thriving at Work” policy suggestions support mental health across businesses of every size, shape and sector and for evolving remote and hybrid work patterns.
Employees will feel valued and appreciated if they are provided with the right desk chair, digital equipment and any support to furnish their home office spaces. Beyond their physical space, it’s also valuable to:
- Create mandatory breaks, relaxing spaces, and peer support networks.
- Check physical safety measures with stress-prevention training that addresses issues.
- Cope with sedentary stress by encouraging healthy activities at work and carrying out ergonomic assessments.
- Tackle loneliness and isolation from remote working with regular video check-ins, virtual social events, and establishing clear boundaries for work and personal time.
This April, mark Stress Awareness Month by creating workplaces where stress management isn’t a one-size-fits-all programme, but a considered approach that recognises the diverse experiences of all employees. By acknowledging both common and hidden stressors, businesses can build inclusive environments where everyone can thrive.
