Large corporations offer employees gyms and stress management courses.
It's well documented that work stress affects productivity and employee health.
It is a very real business cost. What can you do in your small business to minimize employee stress?
- Identify stressors and address these. This may take some sensitive discussion and mentoring.
- Organize discounted gym membership at a local gym for staff. You may even be able to work out a bartering deal with the gym.
- Install "stretch" programs on computers. Employees follow the brief stretching exercises at schedules they can set or that you agree on e.g. every two hours.
- Look at work flows. Are they efficient? How could they be more effective? Encourage employee input into finding better ways.
- Look at priorities. Are you always working on the most important or the most urgent? (not always the same thing).
- Make work rewarding
- Value staff, but more than that, let them know, preferably in person
- Have fun at work occasionally. Fun and work are not always mutually exclusive
- Anything else?
- What strategies have worked for you in your small business in terms of minimizing employee stress?
Yvonne, these are great tips. When I worked and managed in Corporate the great lesson I learned is that employees were most motivated when they felt connected. Good pay and benefits are of course important, but when people felt a sense of connection to the bigger goal, and felt valued and appreciated it was far better than any value add benefits. I also found that creating an environment where laughter and sharing were encouraged definitely made a big difference.
Posted by: Karen Swim | May 22, 2008 1:42 PM | Permalink to Comment