The start of a new year means new opportunities, new plans and a chance for you to reimagine your business to increase your revenue. However, in 2024, we recommend thinking beyond your profitability and to the welfare of your employees. After all, they are crucial to your operations.
One of the greatest challenges that employees face is stress, especially if they have many responsibilities or work in a fast-paced environment. To help you address and alleviate this issue, this guide will go over the top stress relief strategies for your business. By the end, you’ll see that you don’t need to work at a massage business to prioritize stress relief!
Why is stress relief important for employees?
Wellness is a concept that is becoming increasingly important for businesses. With 80% of workers feeling stressed and over half of them saying that they need help managing their stress, employers need to step up to prioritize wellness and address this issue head-on.
Employees are the pillars that your business stands upon—without them, operations will grind to a halt and so will revenue. Chronic stress has profound effects on the human body, including physical and mental health challenges. In terms of work, stressed employees have lowered productivity, are more prone to error and experience burnout. This leads to higher rates of turnover, disengagement and absenteeism.
Prioritizing stress relief and wellness allows you to combat these negative outcomes and, in turn, provide a better experience for your customers. Companies that include wellness as a core value have happier employees who are more likely to go the extra mile to satisfy clients. If you’d like an example, just take a look at the impact of Caesars Entertainment’s wellness commitment on the guest experience.
Now that you know why stress relief is so important for employees, let’s go into the top strategies you can implement for your organization.
1. Identify employee stressors
Your first step will be to identify employees’ current stress levels and determine what causes that stress. Do this by sending a survey to them with questions regarding the pressures they face. Reassure them that their answers are anonymous, as employees may be reluctant to answer candidly if they fear consequences for admitting to being stressed or overwhelmed.
Here are a few examples of questions you might include the following.
- On a scale of one to five, how stressed do you feel during the workday?
- How often do you experience mental or physical stress symptoms at work?
- Does your work stress impact your job satisfaction and performance?
- Are you able to manage your stress levels at work?
- What helps you manage your stress levels at work?
- How would you like your manager or supervisor to help you with your stress?
On a scale of one to five, how would you rate the stress management resources provided to you by our organization?
On the survey, you may also directly ask what factors contribute to your employees’ stress at work. Leave some suggestions for them, including workload, deadlines and interpersonal conflicts, but also give them blank space to specify if there’s a different reason.
Compile the results to get a general idea of the state of stress in your workplace. Then, you can begin making changes to improve the situation for your workers.
2. Encourage wellness practices at work
For smaller businesses with less room in their budget to spend on stress relief, encouraging wellness practices is a great way to start prioritizing the employee experience. It’s also effective for larger organizations as a way for employees to take charge of their health.
Wellness practices that are easy to implement at work include the following.
- Taking breaks
- Going on a walk
- Stretching
- Resting your eyes with the 20/20/20 method
- Eating healthy
- Performing breathing exercises
Additionally, you might consider making work easier and less stressful for employees by purchasing technology tools. For example, a massage business might invest in massage therapy software to help therapists take better notes on client needs. Or a nonprofit organization might choose a constituent relationship management tool to keep donor data in a single location.
3. Create a positive work culture
Encouraging wellness practices is relatively easy for businesses. However, if you’re serious about prioritizing employee wellness and stress relief, the key lies in creating a positive work culture. A positive working environment rests on three pillars.
- Supportive co-workers and management. Ideally, you want your employees to uplift one another, whether they’re co-workers, managers or leadership members. Everyone should be working toward the same goal and treat each other with respect and kindness.
- Employee recognition. When employees do a great job, they should get credit for it. Implement some form of employee recognition, such as an employee of the month program, to show your employees that they are a valued part of your organization. And, according to eCardWidget, peer-to-peer recognition is also important, so be sure to encourage employees to give kudos to each other.
- Work-life balance. It can be difficult for employees to say “no” to their employers, but as an employer, you should understand that employees have lives and responsibilities outside of the workplace. Respect that by not requiring them to come in on their days off and expecting them to work overtime frequently. You might also implement flexible work hours or a hybrid work policy.
Positive work culture doesn’t happen overnight—it’s something that you must intentionally cultivate for your employees. You can start by making employee wellness one of your core values and prioritizing it within all of your activities. By doing so, you’ll see your employees’ well-being improve over time.
4. Incorporate wellness in compensation
Compensation is the ultimate reward for your employees. To show your employees that you take their well-being seriously, incorporate wellness and stress relief into your compensation plan. You might offer the following as part of your employee benefits package.
- Health savings accounts
- Health insurance options and discounts
- Paid sick days
- Paid parental leave
- Gym membership stipend
As your business grows, so will the pressures on your employees. Start early by implementing stress relief and wellness strategies for your workers. This will result in happier, more engaged employees who are excited to push forward the goals of your business.
