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Too many people ignore the realities of their workplace. A lot of managers make the mistake of thinking that “results-oriented” means that they should leave employees on their own. This kind of thinking could potentially lead to an employee quitting seemingly out of nowhere and a manager wondering how to deal with unexpected staff resignation. A hands-off approach to employees is a surefire way to lose them.

As a leader, it is important to spot stress in your employees and do your part in curbing it. After all, your employees are what keep the business running, and without them, everything slows to a halt. Plus, it’s a decent thing to do and prevents business owners from losing touch with their roots.

The Signs of Stress

The signs of stress are your priority. Before you do anything, it’s important to know how bad the problem is, or if there’s a problem at all. There’s no point stressing over stress if the employees are well, after all. You need proper communication with your employees to spot the following signs before it gets worse:

High Staff Turnover

This is mostly for larger companies,  and it should be the most obvious. Most companies shouldn’t be replacing employees every few months or even every year. Employee retention is one of the best signs of a healthy company environment. If you find that the turnover rate for your staff is rather high, then it’s time to start looking for reasons why.

More Day Off Requests

If you’re suddenly noticing an influx of workers wanting more days off, or perhaps a single employee asking for days off more often, check out the reasons why. 

Sometimes, it might just be genuine emergencies, but other times, they may not like working in the office at all. It’s important to keep your work environment welcoming.

More Workplace Disputes

If your HR team (or lacking one, you) gets a lot of complaints from staff about arguments or facilities, that could be a sign of increasing stress within your team.  This is even more likely if your team does this consistently, and the complaints are seemingly minor. Most of the time, minor complaints are just a way for employees to vent their frustrations. Of course, you should still treat it seriously, regardless.

Caring for Employee Well-Being

Here are the ways to provide mental health care for your employees, both on a personal and professional level.

Mental Health Coverage

Your employee benefit programs should include EAPs (employee assistance programs) that cover mental health. Personal issues are intertwined with work performance, no matter how much businesses may wish it isn’t. 

EAPs are an effective mental health care tool, but are severely underutilized due to stigma and “cost concerns''. In any case, ensuring that people have access to therapists baked into their health benefits is a good thing to do.

Company Therapist

Alternatively, especially for high-stress careers in large organizations, a therapist on retainer might be the best course of action. Therapists are experts in dealing with mental anguish and could be far more effective than broad strokes efforts. 

It is effective and offers high returns despite the initial costs. However, it should be done properly. Secrecy must be kept at all times, and they should have their own private space.

Therapists could be onsite to provide easy access for employees as they need. However, some people want their struggles to be kept a private affair. For such cases, having a therapist from a nearby location 

Train Managers About Emotional Distress

Managers should be trained to handle emotional distress. Lots of “bad manager” stories are a result of managers not understanding their employees. A bad manager reflects poorly on the company as a whole and leads to high employee turnover. Your managers need to be kind and understanding, not abrasive and bossy. Managers need to be emotionally intelligent. It might be a good idea as a manager to read A guide to basic fatigue management to understand how best to prevent employees from feeling fatigued and stressed. A guide such as this will help managers provide resources for employees and foster a supportive work environment.

Communicate Clearly

Encourage clear communication between your employees on the ground level up to the higher-ups of the company. Miscommunication (or a complete lack of communication) is often the cause of many workplace troubles. 

Emotional well-being could easily be spotted if employees just tell you they have a problem head-on. This is possible with a company that values clear communication.

Normalize Self-Care

This is crucial because one of the biggest obstacles to dealing with people’s well-being is the stigma that they shouldn’t talk about it all. Many people separate their work from their personal lives, and that is perfectly valid. However, when one starts affecting the other, it’s important to be upfront about it. 

There should be no shaming if a person wants to take a break from the workplace to fix personal issues. Encourage your staff to be accepting and understanding, and crush any signs of gossip.

Check out our blog here to learn more about the minutiae of keeping your business running.