Bosses and staff are at odds over the impact of workplace stress on
productivity.
Research shows more than a fifth of employees see stress as the biggest
block to their productivity. However, while UK managers agree that it does
affect productivity, only 11 per cent see it as the main problem.
Carole Spiers, chairwoman of the International Stress Management
Association, believes stress can have a catastrophic effect on staff and
businesses.
"Employers need to wake up and recognise that a stressful work
environment can wreak havoc on the output of a business. Inevitably it will
increase staff turnover, resulting in recruitment problems, and absence rates
will rise due to sickness.
"Many of us spend a third of our lives at work, and being stressed for
much of this time can only damage our quality of life as a whole," she
added.
The research also highlights a disparity in attitudes over pay, with
employers citing pay as a key motivating tool, while staff do not believe pay
has a major impact on productivity.
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The survey People and Productivity was commissioned by Investors in People
and is based on 1,568 interviews with employers and 1,275 with staff across a
range of sectors and regions.
