A Guide to Stress Awareness Month 2024
International Stress Awareness Month is an initiative that takes place in April each year, to raise awareness of the causes and symptoms of stress, and what you can do to effectively manage it.
For businesses, Stress Awareness Month 2024 is an opportunity to raise awareness of one of the greatest health issues of our time. The pervasiveness of stress lies in its ability to creep up on us gradually. Warning signs are often masked or difficult to recognise when stress is felt regularly, as symptoms become normalised. While some stress is beneficial and a natural response to pressure, prolonged stress can impact our health and ability to perform at work.
In this guide, we'll explore what Stress Awareness Month is, its significance for businesses, and practical steps for both leaders and employees to cultivate a healthier, stress-resilient work environment.
How Does Stress Affect Your Business?
With 38% of workers experiencing stress daily, and 1 million workers taking stress-induced sick leave daily, the human and business cost is clear: chronic stress impacts our health and ability to work.
The impact of stress on businesses not only undermines individual health and wellbeing but also results in significant costs to organisations, ranging from decreased productivity and morale to increased absenteeism and turnover rates. Recognising and addressing stress within the workplace is not just a matter of compassion; it's a strategic imperative for sustaining a healthy, high-performing workforce.
Essential information for employees in Stress Awareness Month
The Science of Stress
As an employee, gaining insight into the science behind stress can help to differentiate between beneficial stress that motivates and harmful stress that impairs performance. Knowing how stress affects the body and mind can empower each individual to take proactive steps towards managing it effectively.
Understanding Stressors
Whether it's workload, interpersonal conflicts, organisational changes or something else, understanding the sources of stress enables us to develop targeted strategies for addressing them. By learning about different stressors and identifying historical patterns or trends in responses, employees can more easily identify triggers specific to them that are likely to contribute to their stress levels.
Understanding Symptoms
Symptoms of stress are huge in range, highly individual and often masked by frequency. Symptoms can range from anxiety, to nutritional issues, to poor sleep - everyone experiences symptoms differently. It’s important to learn what the physical, emotional, and behavioural signs are, in order to take timely action to manage stress.
Learning About Effective Stress Management
Learning about effective stress management techniques equips employees with practical tools to cope with stressful situations constructively. Whether it's practising relaxation techniques, setting boundaries, or seeking support, understanding these strategies and building them into healthy habits that can be sustained when times get tough, can help employees to take control of their wellbeing.
Stress is a Personal Journey
Workshops are a great way to help employees identify their personal stressors and signs of stress, as well as giving them the opportunity to experiment with preventative solutions. Recognising that solutions vary for each person allows employees to explore and adapt strategies that best suit their unique needs.
What can employers do for stress awareness at work?
Host educational talks
Given the need to better understand personal stressors, symptoms and management solutions, employees are looking to be better informed on the science of stress and how it personally manifests for them. To meet this need, businesses can host a talk with a leading stress scientist and provide an opportunity for your team to ask questions through Q&As and breakout rooms.
One of the most powerful ways of delivering awareness and education on stress management is through a leadership team member. When a leadership team member hosts a talk or shares their personal experience with extreme stress, it opens up the dialogue within the business. The act essentially provides permission to those who may previously have felt it to be a taboo subject. It signals that leadership care about the topic and are willing to discuss it openly with their team members.
Another opportunity is to invite a key figure from your industry who has experienced extreme stress, who understands the unique pressures of your industry, and has an outside and impartial perspective to your organisation, to share their story and advice for effective, and preventative stress management.
Having these leading figures host talks and workshops will help employees relate to the experiences and challenges shared, providing valuable insights and practical strategies for managing stress.
Get personal with workshops
Workshops are a great way to help translate learnings from talks into practical understanding on an individual level. By designing a workshop where employees have a chance to explore their own stressors, share and reflect with each other, they can begin to spot patterns and determine what healthy habits to test out.
Providing a safe space for employees to discuss stress openly helps to create a supportive workplace culture. Encouraging dialogue without judgement allows individuals to share experiences, concerns, and preventative management solutions.
Use data to understand stress in your business
Businesses who collect and analyse data to comprehensively understand the prevalence and impact of stress within their organisation are able to provide relevant and lasting support to their employees. Metrics such as absenteeism rates, turnover data, and employee surveys can provide valuable insights into the extent of stress, how much of a priority it should be for your business, and what help employees need to effectively manage it.
By asking for feedback from your employees, and for them to identify their needs and preferences for stress management tools and resources, you’re more likely to provide solutions that will be used and have a chance of being impactful. Providing a range of options, from offering preventative stress solutions to flexible work arrangements, ensures that employees have access to the support they find most beneficial in navigating their personal stressors.
Data should be collected and analysed regularly throughout the year, but sharing this data with your employees during Stress Awareness Month is a great opportunity for businesses to promote the work you are doing behind the scenes to support your employees.
Launch a Manager Training Program
On the one hand, poor management is a leading cause of employee turnover, and often the leading cause of negative interpersonal relationships that can cause daily stress. On the other, managers are often the ‘first line of defence’ when an employee is experiencing extreme stress - putting them in a situation where professional skills are needed to support that employee.
Stress Awareness Month is a good time to launch a new program dedicated to supporting managers in your organisation. By implementing a comprehensive manager training program you can minimise poor management and at the same time help to equip managers with the skills to recognise and address stress effectively. While manager training programs should not replace professional support where it’s needed, it will help that manager to spot key signs of burnout before it happens, so they can direct that employee to get the help they need.
Implement Stress Management Solutions
A big opportunity is to introduce a program dedicated to preventatively managing stress.
Walking on Earth is a preventative health platform that targets workplace stress. Underpinned by breakthrough science and technology, our AI powered coach for stress measures levels of stress and prescribes personalised interventions for employees, delivered through a work calendar integration. Our focus on micro moments of recovery means that employees are able to build healthy habits into their working day, regularly downregulating their nervous systems. By introducing a platform like WONE to your business you are not only supporting employees all year round, but demonstrating a meaningful interest in managing stress across the organisation.
Take the time to promote your resources and assess your policies
For leadership teams who are busy, assessing workplace health may be a priority that’s simply not at the top of your list. April is a time to take stock.
Assess their organisational culture to determine if demands outweigh resources and whether open dialogue about stress is encouraged. Review and adjust policies to promote good work-life balance, including your leave policies, flexible working arrangements, and workload distribution to ensure that employees can maintain a healthy balance between their professional and personal lives.
And finally, often a lack of engagement with existing resources is because of a lack of awareness. Take the opportunity this month to promote the resources and information you have available to employees year-round.
Stress Awareness Month Activities at Work
Here is a summary of the stress awareness activities to implement at work:
- Host educational talks and workshops
- Host workshops on stress management techniques
- Share information and resources on stress and health
- Launch a stress management solution
- Launch a manager training program
- Launch a wellbeing champions program
- Gather data and feedback
- Take stock of your culture and policies
- Promote open dialogue
- Promote your healthy work-life policies
Stress Awareness Should Be a Year-Round Program
While Stress Awareness Month serves as a valuable catalyst for spotlighting stress in the workplace, addressing stress should not be confined to a single month. Rather, stress awareness efforts should be integrated into the fabric of organisational culture, prioritised year-round through ongoing education, support initiatives, and proactive measures to mitigate stressors. By adopting a sustained, holistic approach to stress management, businesses can encourage healthier work environments where employees can thrive.
In conclusion, Stress Awareness Month 2024 presents an opportunity for organisations to redouble their efforts in promoting employee wellbeing. By raising awareness, providing support, and implementing practical strategies, businesses can mitigate the impacts of stress. Let's make stress awareness a priority not just in April but throughout the year, ensuring the sustained wellbeing of employees and the success of our organisations.
To find out more about Walking on Earth, get in touch with us here: https://demo.walkingonearth.com/
