April is Stress Awareness Month, led by the Stress Management Society to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures for our modern stress epidemic.

The past year has been incredibly stressful for many. A study conducted by the University of Nottingham and King’s College London, in September 2020, found that stress, anxiety and depression were all significantly higher in participants compared with previously published norms:

• 64% of participants reported symptoms of depression; and
• 57% reported symptoms of anxiety.

The theme for this year’s Stress Awareness Month is ‘Regaining Connectivity, Certainty and Control’. This article provides some guidance on how employees and organisations can build and support each of the three areas.

Connectivity: Returning to work

The past year has shown that we can remain highly connected with our organisations through technology – which has created its own complications.

However, with lockdown rules easing, many employees will begin to experience some changes to their way of working over the past year; whether that’s returning to a place of work or coming off furlough – this can lead to a great deal of stress and anxiety.

Organisations will play a huge role in managing such emotions through:

• Communication with employees and acknowledgement that it will not be ‘business as usual’;
• Preparation in order to ensure employees have a safe space to work;
• Boosting employee morale by recognising contributions and monitoring engagement; and
• Providing safe spaces and channels for employees to be heard, especially when it comes to voicing concerns about returning to work.

It’s important to ensure you have taken the suitable steps to get your team ready for the return to work in order to avoid unnecessary stressors – and as always, communication is key!

Certainty: Job security

In incredibly uncertain times, it’s difficult to promote certainty. However, there are ways organisations can help employees.

Within the world of work over the past year, many have felt uncertain about their job security with a number of organisations facing redundancies.

Here are four ways organisations can help to improve employee’s feelings of certainty around their job security:

1. Honesty - acknowledge that/if redundancies are happening and be transparent around expectations;
2. Open communication - encourage employees to voice concerns through open channels of communication;
3. Update - regular updates will stop guessing and reduce the likelihood of a rumour mill; and
4. Be in tune with employee engagement - organisation wide engagement surveys, focus groups with impacted departments or one-to-ones will help keep your finger on the pulse and react in a timely manner if engagement dips.

Research by the CIPD has found that the risk of redundancy has led to many employees working long hours in a way to prove their worth and avoid being made redundant.

Having the right performance management system can help employees not fall into the vicious cycle of working long, unsustainable hours – and focus instead on key aspects of contribution of their roles.

Such system should support employees to develop new skills and competencies through regular check-ins with a supportive coach, which in turn can encourage feelings of positivity and confidence.

This will also provide the opportunity for line managers to monitor and review employee workload.

Control: Work-life balance

With a large proportion of employees working from home as a result of the pandemic, the line between work and home has become blurred – it is now quicker than ever to check into ‘work mode’ by simply logging into a computer.

This makes it even more important for employees to set boundaries in order to maintain a good work-life-balance. We have found the following points helpful in achieving this:

• Try to stick to your typical working hours. When you log off for the day, either shut the door to your ‘office’ or put your laptop out of sight to avoid temptations to check emails or ‘just quickly finish something off’;
• Turn email notifications off on your personal phone. When you’re facetiming friends or family and the notification bar drops down at the top of the screen with a work email, it’s too tempting to just open it and alas - you’re back into work mode;
• Use your annual leave! Many of us have fallen victim to saving all of our leave in case there is the opportunity for travel - but you still need a break. It’s important to use your leave for exactly that – leave. A relatively new term has been coined ‘leavism’ where employees use their leave to work, which totally misses the point; and
• Finally, avoid presenteeism. The CIPD have found that the number of sick days recorded by employers has dropped – but presenteeism (where employees feel the need to work when unwell) is now widespread.

A recent article written by the Guardian talked about the 8-8-8 notion: eight hours of work, eight hours of free time and eight hours of sleep. Whilst this may not work for all professions all the time, it’s a good guide to bear in mind when you’re trying to set boundaries.

It is important for organisations to be mindful that employees may be struggling to set boundaries between their work and personal lives. We recommend line managers having open conversations with their reports in order to guide boundary setting.

Senior Management should also be open about how they manage their boundaries between work and home in order to set an example for the rest of the organisation.

Feel free to contact ku/oc/gcq//hteb if you would like to discuss how we can help you support employee wellbeing through recognition and performance management.