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Our blog offers important resources, helpful articles, and practical ideas on the human resources topics that matter to you.
Home / Media / Blog / Stressed Staff Can Equal Stressed Profits
Statistically speaking, working adults typically spend 33% of our waking hours at work. Compounded with personal, financial and physical demands, the ability to manage overall stress can become, well, stressful.
From the employer’s perspective, healthy levels of stress can actually be motivating and effective in helping employees problem solve and overcome workplace challenges. However, when faced with a fast paced and ever changing work environment, too much stress over a prolonged period of time can manifest in undesirable behaviors such as low productivity and absenteeism, hence negatively impacting the bottom line.
According to a Forbes article published on March 20, 2013, “the average business professional has 30 to 100 projects on their plate. Modern workers are interrupted seven times an hour and distracted up to 2.1 hours a day. And four out of 10 people working at large companies are experiencing a major corporate restructuring, and therefore facing uncertainly about their futures. This may be why more than 40% of adults say they lie awake at night plagued by the stressful events of the day.” Time management has never been more important.
Stress has become well recognized as a serious wellness issue that also impacts the cost of employer supported health benefits. In a December 2012 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), stress and mental illness were identified by HR professionals as their top employee health concerns. Stress has the potential to cause headaches, anxiety, substance abuse, high blood pressure, obesity, exhaustion, heart disease, and diabetes.
One authority has estimated that 60‐90% of medical problems are associated with stress and one large insurance company estimates that 45% of corporate after tax profits are spent on health benefits. But that only reflects a portion of the actual cost. A true calculation should include absenteeism, job turnover, replacement cost for employees who leave the job, accidents, workplace injuries, as well as the costs of quality control, administration, and customer service problems related to stress among other indirect costs. The American Institute of Stress claims that chronic stress actually adds over $300 billion each year to cover associated health care costs and absentee rates. That represents a cost of over $600 to every “stressed” worker – an investment of dollars that gives no return on investment.
Stress can appear in many forms at work:
Remember: Suffering job stress is a process. Watch for the warning signs in your staff. If you catch the symptoms in your employees early, you will have an easier time finding and fixing the root of the problem.
Click the link to view the recent INFINITI HR blog: ROI of Hiring Disabled Workers or check back for more on human resources, payroll, insurance and benefits.
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