If HR teams want to keep on top of, or ideally even ahead of, workplace stress, they need to get better at facilitating or opening conversations among their different teams. Rachael Forsberg outlines six ways to get the ball rolling.
If you’ve worked in a stressful team environment, you’ll know how supremely damaging that can be to both your work and your wellbeing. In fact, more of us than ever before will know that feeling, as workplace stress is firmly on the rise.
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The latest annual report by the Health and Safety Executive, for example, found that stress, depression, and anxiety now account for nearly half of all work-related ill health cases.
Within that, a huge amount – also nearly half – of these were new cases, too, underscoring a significant rise happening in workplace stress levels.
Stress is not good for us, even in small doses. Many of us think that a little bit of pressure can help us achieve targets and deadlines; but it snowballs very quickly into overwhelming situations that are much harder to recover from.
Simply put, stress impacts the human brain’s ability to focus, make effective decisions and work creatively – and has a clear link to burnout, absenteeism, presenteeism and high staff turnover.
In the face of growing societal and regulatory expectation of action, HR teams need to get on top of it right now, or face high turnover alongside reputational and possibly even legal ramifications.
Group meetings and workshops
Stress impacts the human brain’s ability to focus, make effective decisions and work creatively – and has a clear link to burnout, absenteeism, presenteeism and high staff turnover.”
An important step, for any workplace, is to open up a conversation amongst different teams – perhaps through a group meeting or workshop – to identify their specific and unique sources of stress, and work together on potential ways they can tackle it.
It’s always best to walk towards the problem and have these conversations: problems relating to stress generally don’t age well and snowball with time; people’s positions are less entrenched the earlier the conversation happens; and difficult conversations handled well and acted on will build trust and encourage the repeated, routine action needed to make a difference on stress.
Sadly, many organisations struggle with executing this conversation. Often, it’s simply not given the priority it needs from the senior leadership team, who often think about mental health as an individual issue rather than a systemic one.
Or, managers simply don’t know how to approach these conversations, stemming from a culture that doesn’t have psychological safety carefully and intentionally baked into it.
Six simple steps
So, when you begin to facilitate these conversations amongst different teams, here are six simple steps to make sure it’s a success:
1. Building trust. Having these conversations begins with establishing safety and trust first. It’s about cultivating an environment where your employees feel genuinely safe to express vulnerabilities, share concerns, and admit challenges without fear of judgment or professional repercussions. And much of that comes top-down from leaders, who set the tone. HR needs to get them on board with doing this, before anything else.
This means leaders demonstrating authentic curiosity, active listening, and empathy. Normalising discussions about stress, mental health, and professional challenges. Practising transparent communication, sharing challenges, and creating regular opportunities for open, meaningful dialogue.
2. Preparation. When addressing potentially sensitive topics in a meeting or workshop, always provide advance notice to team members. Send clear communication outlining the purpose of the discussion, the expected duration, and any preparatory reflection or documentation you’d like them to consider.
Consider providing guiding questions or a loose agenda in advance, enabling everyone to feel mentally and emotionally prepared.”
This can reduce anxiety, and signals respect for their emotional and professional experience. Consider providing guiding questions or a loose agenda in advance, enabling everyone to feel mentally and emotionally prepared.
3. Set ground rules. In your meeting or workshop, ensure that every team member has a meaningful opportunity to contribute. This might involve techniques like round-robin sharing or using structured facilitation methods that prevent dominant personalities from overshadowing quieter team members.
Consider tools such as time-limited speaking slots and clear guidelines about respectful dialogue. These frameworks create a sense of safety, demonstrating that every perspective is valued.
4. Gain input. While direct conversations are crucial, supplement them with diverse feedback mechanisms too, to make sure everyone contributes. This could include anonymous surveys, digital feedback platforms, or suggestion boxes.
5. Get support. Recognise that facilitating these types of conversations often requires specialised expertise, from teams trained in emotional intelligence, psychological safety, and workplace dynamics. This may be beyond the in-house capabilities of your HR team; consider working with a credible third-party expert team if so.
6. Focus on action and accountability. Focus on building tangible organisational change, to demonstrate that stress management is an ongoing company commitment, not a one-time exercise.
After collecting input and insights from your meeting or workshop, establish clear action plans with measurable outcomes. And regular follow-up sessions should then review the implemented changes and assess their effectiveness.
Stress Awareness Month in April has now been and gone. Did workplaces really have the introspective conversations they sorely need to tackle and identify stress?
In conclusion, HR teams must lead the charge now and start the ball rolling with these conversations. Perhaps then we’ll start to turn the tide on the ever-growing shadow of stress on workplaces.
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