Do you know that April 2024 is ‘Stress Awareness Month’? This campaign has been around for over 30 years with the purpose of increasing public awareness of the causes of and potential cures for stress. Stress continues to be a major issue in society today, with around 75% of people saying stress has made them feel overwhelmed and unable to cope.
Stress is different for every individual and what causes one person to feel stressed may make another thrive. What is and is not a stressor is personal and subjective but there are numerous ways to reduce the likelihood of becoming stressed and even some seemingly small changes can make a difference and are worth working on.
Such as:
- Establish your priorities.
- Identify your stressors and how to manage them.
- Reaching out to friends or family.
- Taking time out – exercising or enjoying the outdoors.
- Take time to enjoy your hobbies or try something new.
Even little steps taken consistently can have a transformative impact on wellbeing and encouraging your colleagues to make manageable adjustments to their daily routine can produce profound effects in reducing stress.
Employers can do a lot to contribute to stress – a social media poll conducted by IOSH in 2023 indicated that 84% of those who responded said their work had made them feel stressed in the last 12 months. Equally, however, employers can also do a lot to help resolve stress, and should, as this forms part of their duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Addressing stressors and providing the right kind of wellbeing support, counselling and assistance can significantly reduce stress among employees.
It is important for employers to ensure that their Managers know how to identify stress and how to manage it. To coincide with the Stress Awareness Month campaign, Sentient are taking the opportunity to look at Stress in the Workplace and we will be delivering a webinar ‘Stress at Work’ on Wednesday 17th April at 10:00-11:30 in which we will try and identify the causes of stress at work and what actions we can take to address this. Further details will be sent out in due course but in the meantime if you want to register please visit our registration page.
Learn more about supporting your team
You can learn more about our HR services here, or talk to our team to find out more about how we can work with you to support your team.
In addition, we also have a relationship with Employee Wellbeing provider, We Are Wellbeing, who can undertake a free Wellbeing Health Check and provide tailored recommendations on how you can better support your team.
