Acquired Consulting

Don't Waste Your Money On Stress

Today's economy certainly feeds stress in nearly all Americans.  Top that with other day to day, or chronic stressors and we have ingredients for dumb decisions.  Dumb decisions waste our money.  Dumb decisions can destroy the business.  Making your organization more aware of stress can avoid waste.

There is little owners or CEOs can solve to completely remove all stress.  There are stressors that are out of the experience or capabilities of the organization.  As owners or CEOs, the awareness of employee stress can often lessen employee stress and provide the employee resolution by acting as a sounding board.  Not know certainly does not resolve anything, including production.

There are however, events that employers can resolve to reduce stress in the workplace. Creating an awareness of the environment and practicing that awareness will resolve at least some of the stress. This awareness can also create a more engaged workforce when enlisting the help of employees.

Consider the following stress relievers as possibilities:

Safety Fairs

Maintenance Mondays

Customer Focus Groups

Fire Drill Days

Building Familiarization

The idea is to create a better awareness of the workplace. These events also give the employee a better sense of engagement, contribution, and less workplace stress. The added benefit is an improved workplace and a more current picture of the organization.

Knowing that stress also migrates from the home to the workplace, getting to know your employee's stress generators can also provide an opportunity to either provide assistance or connect the employee with assistance outside the workplace. Examples of ways to provide assistance to employees and provide a better awareness of the stresses might include:

Provide information packets/brochures

Invite guest speakers from other organizations

Invest time in researching expert opinions

Provide corporate resources as mentors, coaches, or trainers

Building an awareness and opportunities to remove stress from the workplace could remove stress at home. Just as stress migrates from home to work, stress also migrates from work to home. Reducing stress at work might at least make better employees and better business.

Favorite Web Sites

http://www.khake.com/index.html

http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm