Workplace stress is the silent productivity killer. But the solution shouldn’t be just about ‘fixing’ the individual. It’s about fixing culture; building organisations where people don’t just cope, they thrive, argue Dr Leandro Herrero and Mike Tyler.
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New data from wellbeing firm Fruitful Insights finds a clear link between increased employee stress and reduced productivity, especially where workloads feel unmanageable. But stress isn’t just about deadlines. It’s also about being seen and supported. In other words, it’s about culture and behaviour.
For those who can handle their daily affairs well – who are resilient – productivity losses are more than halved, in comparison to those who can’t. And organisational culture directly shapes this. More on these findings later.
Meanwhile, some context. ‘Resilience’ has arguably become a dirty word in recent years. But, in our view, it’s time for a rebrand.
Fully resilient and ‘ready for battle’
Around a decade or so ago, the notion of building a resilient workforce to help reduce work-related stress, was all the rage. It makes sense, when you consider the meaning of resilience is the capacity to withstand difficulties; to handle daily life and work well.
A culture of training to become resilient is not the same as a resilient culture.”
But then management consultancies and tech platform providers got hold of this. And, hey presto, an off-the-shelf solution was designed; resilience training.
The idea behind this is that resilience is down to the individual to fix. How? Through having the ability to act all ‘full metal jacket’-trained into them.
Resilience comes from within. That much is true. But a culture of training to become resilient is not the same as a resilient culture. Training is a vehicle, but a true ‘culture of…’ is grounded in behaviours; what people do and what the organisation shapes, so that the outcome can be called resilient.
Paraphrasing Winston Churchill’s “we build our house and then they build us” the same can be said about resilience and culture. In other words, an individual’s environment and the behaviours of those around them, has a crucial role to play.
Thinking has moved on from only ‘fixing’ the individual. It had to, because despite all the training solutions, work-related stress has continued its upwards trajectory over the years.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) data shows that levels of work-related stress in the UK had significantly increased in the years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and hasn’t significantly decreased since then.
At the same time though, awareness of the importance of stress risk assessments/psychosocial risk management, has improved. Whether via the HSE’s Management Standards or the international standard ISO 45003, tools and guidelines are available to help employers identify and manage stressors in the workplace. Such stressors might include anything from high workloads and poor management practices to bullying.
Like training, this all has an important place. But we would argue there needs to be a much better balance in organisations between ‘doing no harm’ and ‘actively doing good’. Identifying and removing the negative, doesn’t automatically result in the presence of the positive, in terms of feeling and functioning. The latter necessitates a focus on culture and behaviour. And all too often, this takes a backseat.
Rebranding resilience – the modern-day skillset?
In the words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus, “The only constant in life is change”. Organisational change has long been the norm. And resilient employees will undoubtedly be the ones who thrive; able to handle uncertainty and demands better.
Those who can handle daily affairs well have a much lower level of productivity loss than those that can’t. So, our focus should be on bringing the tail up.”
Indeed, Fruitful Insights’ data shows a stark contrast in productivity between employees who manage daily demands well and those who don’t.
Those who ‘definitely agree’ that they handle daily affairs well show a £4,600 productivity loss; 57% less than the productivity loss of those who ‘definitely disagree’, at £10,700.
It is worth pointing out here that it would be impossible to get productivity loss to zero. Thinking you can, might only lead to work-related stress and burnout.
The important point is, those who can handle daily affairs well have a much lower level of productivity loss than those that can’t. So, our focus should be on bringing the tail up.
Culture and resilience – completely interrelated
Fruitful’s research indicates that organisational culture directly shapes resilience. Employees with high resilience report greater energy and lower burnout. A total of 63% of those who report high resilience also report feeling energised.
They’re also more likely to feel valued and supported. Seven in 10 who report high resilience also say they feel valued. And more than eight in 10 feel they have high manager support.
Key takeaways – what should organisations do?
Firstly, don’t ditch the training, or the stress risk assessments. But, at the same time, understand that this isn’t the complete solution to work-related stress.
It needs to be balanced with a focus on culture. And that aspect all too often gets overlooked. Academic research (Schaufeli and Barker and Anthony-McMann) and has long evidenced the need to get this balance right.
It’s vital to instil and nurture the day-to-day behaviours that create the conditions for employees to feel valued and supported (and, hence, resilient).”
It’s vital to instil and nurture the day-to-day behaviours that create the conditions for employees to feel valued and supported (and, hence, resilient).
Contrary to popular opinion, this isn’t achieved through a written set of values, r even through leadership role modelling alone. Large-scale behaviour change comes from social copying, peer-to-peer. We’re influenced by ‘people like us’.
In recognition of this, The Chalfont Project pioneered ‘Viral Change’ 25 years ago, a programme for large-scale culture change and transformation.
This involves identifying those with influence in an organisation, then getting them on board to model a few simple, day-to-day behaviours, supported by storytelling and leaders taking a backstage role.
It also requires ongoing monitoring because if you can’t measure impact, you simply don’t know whether you have been successful or where problems persist.
It’s only through behaviours becoming part of daily experience that real change happens. And it’s only through real change that we’ll build organisations where people don’t just cope, but where they thrive. Let’s start a resilience rebrand revolution!
References
Schaufeli W B and Bakker A B (2004). ‘Job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study’. Journal of Organisational Behaviour 25(3), available at: https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/Schaufeli/209.pdf
Anthony-McMann P E (2014). ‘Exploring different operationalization of employee engagement and their relationships with workplace stress and burnout among IT professionals in community hospitals’. Human Resource Development Theses & Dissertations, Paper 3, available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311529398_Exploring_Different_Operationalizations_of_Employee_Engagement_and_Their_Relationships_With_Workplace_Stress_and_Burnout_EXPLORING_DIFFERENT_OPERATIONALIZATIONS_OF_EMPLOYEE_ENGAGEMENT
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