Online training – Our top 6 business benefits

Keeping your employees’ skills up to date is a vital part of business success. Regular training can help your team develop new skills, keep up with evolving industry standards, and become more effective within their roles.

However, training can be expensive. In the UK, employers invest around £42.0bn in training each year, with an average spend of £1,530 per employee, according to 2020 government figures.

With rising bills and operational costs, many businesses may be looking for alternatives to traditional classroom or in-person learning without compromising their employees’ development and mandatory compliance responsibilities.

Is eLearning cheaper than traditional learning?

We’re often asked this question and the answer, in most cases, is yes! eLearning can save on huge segments of training and development budgets but also deliver business efficiencies and improvements. Some of our clients have told us that using online learning for mandatory H&S and compliance courses has saved them as much as 80% compared to the cost of classroom learning.  eLearning avoids some of the typical overheads that come with traditional training, such as:

  • Meeting room or venue hire – in multiple locations if you have a dispersed workforce or staff working in different geographies;
  • Travel and accommodation – for both the trainer and the trainee if they need to travel to a location to take part in a training session;
  • Instructors or facilitators’ salary and expenses – they don’t do their jobs for free!
  • Printing of materials – which will result in wasted resources and more printing costs if your company decides to update a policy or if legislation changes;
  • Time spent away from work – classroom training requires the instructor and the trainees to leave their workplaces, which can impact the business’s productivity.

What is the ROI of eLearning?

Like any other investment, a successful eLearning initiative must demonstrate value for money.

Calculating your online learning programme’s return on investment, or ROI, involves comparing the costs of designing and rolling out your training courses with the benefits of your online training. You can determine if your programme has been successful when you can demonstrate that the value and benefits outweigh the costs.

According to a study by IOMA, corporations can save between 50% and 70% when they replace instructor-based training with eLearning (IOMA 2002). For example, IBM found that up to 40% of its classroom training costs were spent on travel and accommodation, and when the company moved half of its training programs to an eLearning format, it saved $579million (approx. £479million) over just the first two years. And Microsoft‘s move to video-based training helped the organisation reduce costs by $303 per learner (approx. £250), from $320 to just $17 (approx. £14).

6 benefits of using online learning as opposed to traditional learning

The benefits of using eLearning to deliver staff training extend beyond the obvious financial savings. They are realised in several other efficiencies too.

For instance:

  1. Higher productivity – eLearning helps keep downtime to a minimum, allowing staff to log on when they can and complete their training quickly. Courses are interactive, making them highly engaging, and can be delivered in shorter sessions and spread out over a certain period so that businesses don’t lose employees for entire days at a time.
  2. No time wasting – Rather than being on a group course with people at different levels and learning speeds, online training puts people in charge of their own development and enables employees to complete training at their own pace. In addition, courses can be more specifically tailored to an employee’s job role and existing knowledge and understanding of a subject through adaptive learning. This short video explains more about adaptive learning and how it can deliver next-level ROI on your training investment.
  3. More inclusive – With eLearning, course content can be translated into many different languages. Providing training in an employee’s first language not only helps to improve learning outcomes and understanding, but it can also help employees feel more included and motivated and can help build a happier and more culturally inclusive work environment. At DeltaNet, our courses can be translated into over 100 different languages, so regardless of location or language preference, you can provide your employees with the right training.
  4. Flexible solution – eLearning is a fast and flexible solution to your compliance training needs which can be rolled out quickly to anyone in any location. Online delivery avoids many of the expenses and logistical planning associated with traditional learning, as well as the costs related to missed training sessions if a staff member is off sick. eLearning can simply be picked up when the employee is back at work.
  5. Promote long-term learning and behavioural change – German psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus, carried out numerous memory studies and found that people forget what they’ve learned shortly after learning it. He suggested that we forget about 50% of our learnings after the first hour and around 90% after a month. This is because people will forget what they don’t use – ‘Use it or lose it’. So for training programmes to be successful, training can’t be looked at as a one-off, box-ticking exercise. Instead, information needs to be refreshed and reinforced regularly to achieve long-term learning and create behavioural change across the organisation; this can easily be done with online refresher training courses.
  6. Identify and close skills gaps – Learning management systems allow you to automatically collect and interpret data about your learners so you can track progress, ensure employees are meeting their compliance objectives and determine how individual parts of your businesses are performing. Combining and comparing these figures will help you to draw an accurate picture of the overall health of your organisation, promote future learning opportunities and address gaps in knowledge that hold your organisation back or put it at risk.

With the right training provider, eLearning can significantly benefit your employees and your business. So it’s no surprise that more and more companies are modernising their digital learning strategy by having eLearning in the workplace.

Book a free tailored demo today, and we’ll show you how we can help you solve your biggest training challenges with people-centred eLearning.


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Revealed: the common root causes behind ‘wholly avoidable’ workplace accidents

According to new research by our sister company, WorkNest, 200 organisations have faced over £47million in fines since 2005 for workplace accidents judged to be ‘wholly unavoidable’.

The study looked at 200 health and safety prosecutions brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) dating back to 2005, spanning ten different sectors to establish common root causes. WorkNest specifically examined the prosecutions with commentary containing phrases such as “wholly unavoidable”, “could have been prevented”, and “entirely preventable”.

In 97 of the 200 cases that were reviewed (48.5%), inspectors stated that the employer had failed to put in place adequate risk control plans and strategies to manage health and safety risks – a fundamental error which resulted in serious injuries and even fatalities.

The fact is, the vast majority of workplace accidents are preventable. These statistics are especially alarming, as in 2022, there is simply no excuse for organisations not to be managing their health and safety risks, and for business owners not to know what is required of them under health and safety law. Still, annual fatal injury statistics continue to remind us that serious incidents can and do occur in all manner of workplaces, and in order to drive down the numbers, business leaders need to know why.

So what health and safety mistakes are employers still making?

Whilst some accidents have multiple contributing factors, the three most common primary root causes of serious safety incidents in the workplace, according to WorkNest’s research was: Lack of planning (48.5%), Failure to risk assess (32.5%) and Lack of machine guarding/ maintenance (8%).

Other underlying failings cited by the HSE included a lack of training (3.5% of cases), poor supervision (1.5% of cases) and poor management systems (1% of cases).

A lack of training is a key mistake

The HSE’s Accident Prevention Advisory Unit has shown that human error is a major contributory cause of 90% of accidents, 70% of which could have been prevented by management action. Enrolling employees in courses such as Health and Safety Essentials and Introduction to Working Safely – as well as immersive training challenges – will help to prevent accidents by ensuring everyone in your organisation is aware of their responsibilities.

Note that training was also identified as a secondary reason behind many of the incidents that formed part of the research, so it’s importance should not be overlooked.

What does this analysis tell us?

Examining the root causes of these cases highlights that even in 2022 – nearly 50 years on from the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act – many organisations are failing to implement even the Plan and Do phases of Plan, Do, Check, Act. These are the basics of good health and safety management, and the fact that some employers are still not taking these steps – and are running the gauntlet for whatever reason – is very concerning.

Aside from the devastating human impact, these oversights are costing employers significantly. In fact, taking into account the fines and legal costs involved, these 200 prosecutions cost employers over £47 million, plus almost £4 million in legal costs.

Often, the rationale for poor practices is “I wasn’t aware”, “I don’t have the time”, “that’s not my job”, “we don’t have the funding” or simply “it will be alright”. When you run a business, time and money is precious, but a lot more time and money will be consumed by a serious incident or fatality – and many organisations have learned the hard way, so invest in good health and safety training practices now.

Not sure your safety training processes are up to scratch?

EssentialSkillz can help your organisation take a proactive approach to health and safety compliance through a comprehensive suite of RoSPA and IIRSM Approved Health and Safety e-Learning courses. From Fire Safety to DSE online training, all of our health and safety courses are fully interactive and provide users with everything they need to stay safe in the workplace. Each and every course is regularly updated to ensure technical accuracy and their alignment with best practice.

Get in touch with us to arrange your 7-Day free trial.

Revealed: the common root causes behind ‘wholly avoidable’ workplace accidents

According to new research by our sister company, WorkNest – , 200 organisations have faced over £47million in fines since 2005 for workplace accidents judged to be ‘wholly unavoidable’.

The study looked at 200 health and safety prosecutions brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) dating back to 2005, spanning ten different sectors, to establish common root causes. WorkNest specifically examined the prosecutions with commentary containing phrases such as “wholly unavoidable”, “could have been prevented”, and “entirely preventable”.

In 97 of the 200 cases that were reviewed (48.5%), inspectors stated that the employer had failed to put in place adequate risk control plans and strategies to manage health and safety risks – a fundamental error which resulted in serious injuries and even fatalities.

The fact is, the vast majority of workplace accidents are preventable. These statistics are especially alarming, as in 2022, there is simply no excuse for organisations not to be managing their health and safety risks, and for business owners not to know what is required of them under health and safety law. Still, annual fatal injury statistics continue to remind us that serious incidents can and do occur in all manner of workplaces, and in order to drive down the numbers, business leaders need to know why.

So what health and safety mistakes are employers still making?

Whilst some accidents have multiple contributing factors, the three most common primary root causes of serious safety incidents in the workplace, according to WorkNest’s research was: Lack of planning (48.5%), Failure to risk assess (32.5%) and Lack of machine guarding/ maintenance (8%).

Other underlying failings cited by the HSE included a lack of training (3.5% of cases), poor supervision (1.5% of cases) and poor management systems (1% of cases).

A lack of training is a key mistake

The HSE’s Accident Prevention Advisory Unit has shown that human error is a major contributory cause of 90% of accidents, 70% of which could have been prevented by management action. Enrolling employees in courses such as Health and Safety Essentials and Introduction to Working Safely – as well as immersive training challenges – will help to prevent accidents by ensuring everyone in your organisation is aware of their responsibilities.

Note that training was also identified as a secondary reason behind many of the incidents that formed part of the research, so it’s importance should not be overlooked.

What does this analysis tell us?

Examining the root causes of these cases highlights that even in 2022 – nearly 50 years on from the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act – many organisations are failing to implement even the Plan and Do phases of Plan, Do, Check, Act. These are the basics of good health and safety management, and the fact that some employers are still not taking these steps – and are running the gauntlet for whatever reason – is very concerning.

Aside from the devastating human impact, these oversights are costing employers significantly. In fact, taking into account the fines and legal costs involved, these 200 prosecutions cost employers over £47 million, plus almost £4 million in legal costs.

Often, the rationale for poor practices is “I wasn’t aware”, “I don’t have the time”, “that’s not my job”, “we don’t have the funding” or simply “it will be alright”. When you run a business, time and money is precious, but a lot more time and money will be consumed by a serious incident or fatality – and many organisations have learned the hard way, so invest in good health and safety training practices now.

Not sure your safety training processes are up to scratch?

DeltaNet can help your organisation take a proactive approach to health and safety compliance through a comprehensive suite of Health and Safety e-Learning courses. Our RoSPA Assured, IOSH Approved and CPD Certified Health and Safety solutions that fit flexibly around the needs of your business. Whether you’re looking to deliver a ready-made online learning programme, or create something entirely bespoke, we’ll work with you to enhance your business performance with our health and safety training solutions.


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Five Ways to Prioritise Mental Health and Wellbeing in 2022

With the pandemic continuing and Covid-19 cases still on the rise with the latest variant, it may seem that January blues are underway. However, organisations must avoid letting this get employees down and instead use January as an opportunity to kick start and make way for a year of prioritising good mental health and wellbeing.

Here are five ways organisations can provide support to employees:

1 – Effective Management

Strong leadership skills and good line management is essential in supporting employee wellbeing. Don’t drop short deadlines on colleagues. Instead, work with them to solve problems so employees don’t feel completely stressed out but remain in control. While it’s clear the country is facing a significant skills shortage and employees across industries are making moves due to The Great Resignation, it’s vital organisations keep up with recruitment. Keep internal processes moving quickly, so teams aren’t severely understaffed and overstretched, putting additional pressure on employees. This process will help to mitigate stress and burnout.

2 – Build awareness for self-awareness

One of the prime issues leaders face is not recognising when an employee is struggling with mental health. Educating employees to spot tell-tale signs in their colleagues, but also when they need the help themselves, encourages them to communicate these worries with their manager or a colleague. Make it clear that it’s OK not to be OK. Organisations must build an openculture in the workplace where employees feel comfortable to voice their concerns to management and have an open-door policy. This allows employees to talk to someone not just about their work – but also their wellbeing.

3 – Provide support mechanisms

Creating a solid network of support mechanisms is critical to building a wellbeing culture in the organisation. Employees should have access to the support they need internally or externally to improve their mental health. This not only includes being able to speak to managers, HR or colleagues but also access to mental health apps or possibly private healthcare. This will enable employees to speak to professionals and get the appropriate support or guidance they require when they need it most.

4 – Promote wellbeing training

Training business leaders and employees on how to look after their own and their colleagues’ mental health, spotting the signs of stress, and learning how to manage stress are fundamental to improving overall wellbeing. Line managers can only help improve their employees’ mental health if they recognise the red flags. Having good wellbeing isn’t just confined to mental health – it also involves having an overall healthy lifestyle, including exercise, sleep and diet – and avoiding harmful substances such as alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. Educating employees on the importance of going to sleep at a good time and not staying up until 2 am binging Netflix shows – is also critical to supporting their health and wellbeing ready for their work the next day.

5 – Foster a wellbeing culture

Building an organisational culture around wellbeing is vital to ensuring staff feel supported and recognise that they can reach out to someone in their team if they are struggling. Building a wellbeing charter, where employees understand that they can work flexibly, have support to deal with stress, get professional help, or just a helpful ear can make a world of difference. Whilst it’s not easy for anyone to admit they need extra help, fostering a culture where managers and colleagues regularly check in on each other will make employees feel more comfortable to voice their concerns.

To find out more about improving mental health and wellbeing training in your organisation, try a free demo of our wellbeing collection of courses.

How exercise contributes to a healthy lifestyle

According to the NHS, adults should do one type of physical activity every day. Adults should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week. Adults should also spread exercise evenly over 4-5 days a week or every day, reduce time spent sitting or lying down, and break up long periods of not moving with some activity.

Spending prolonged periods sitting down during the day isn’t good for your health, yet, with many of us having desk-based roles, 7-8 hours a day disappear sitting just at work. Unfortunately, with the average person spending 12 hours a day sitting down, physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. So, exercising moderately to vigorously during the week is critical to combat ‘sitting disease’.

Exercise can be a love-hate relationship for many people. Even though it can be hard to motivate yourself to go for a walk or run (especially when it’s cold and raining), regular physical activity does reduce your risk of various health conditions such as obesity, heart disease, depression, and dementia.

Since the start of the pandemic, lots of people have been working remotely, reducing their chances of exercising on the commute to work, e.g., walking, cycling. So, it’s necessary to consider how much exercise you actually do during the day.

A great way to monitor your activity is by using a wearable fitness tracker. Wearable fitness trackers not only count your steps but can measure heart rate and track if you’re doing a vigorous workout such as running.

Benefits of exercising

One of the advantages of exercising is that it boosts our ability to fight infections. Through working out, we encourage blood to circulate our body, which improves oxygen intake.

Being regularly physically active can help your general physical health. It:

  • Supports stronger bones, muscles and joints
  • Manages weight better
  • Lowers blood cholesterol levels
  • Lowers blood pressure
  • Reduces risk of a heart attack
  • Lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes and some cancers
  • Feels better, with more energy and healthier sleep

Exercise can help improve mental health:

  • It increases hormones linked to happiness, such as endorphins and serotonin.
  • Even low-intensity exercise can significantly reduce the symptoms of depression by boosting the production of a hormone called norepinephrine.

Types of exercise

Taking part in daily exercise is vital for a healthy lifestyle and choosing a physical activity that raises your heart rate is ideal. However, it’s important to remember that whichever type of exercise you do is good for you. It doesn’t matter if you can’t run, but if you prefer to do Yoga or Pilates because you enjoy it, then do it. The important thing is you do what works for you. Exercise is not a one size fits all. Small amounts of exercise each day, even if that’s a leisurely walk, can be a great place to start to improve your physical and mental health.

With moderate exercise, most people need between 150 and 300 minutes of it per week. This includes:

  • Brisk walking until you can’t talk without being out of breath
  • Cycling at a leisurely pace
  • Dancing until you sweat
  • Hiking
  • Swimming at a leisurely pace

With vigorous exercise, you should generally aim for between 75 and 150 minutes of it per week. This includes:

  • Running
  • Martial arts
  • Aerobics
  • Skipping with a rope
  • Swimming at a fast pace

When it comes to reaching your weekly targets for fitness, remember that the more vigorous the activity you do, the less time you will need to spend doing it each week. If you try fast-paced sports with friends such as football or netball, you will notice your speed slowly start to improve as your fitness gets better. However, doing a mix of both moderate and vigorous activities during the week is an easier way to ensure you hit your exercise targets, meaning you’re less likely to burn out.

Start exercising

Before you start thinking about what exercise routine you’d like to do during the week, ensure you check any health conditions you have with your doctor to ensure you don’t take part in anything you shouldn’t be doing, e.g., further damaging your back.

Make a list of activities you’d like to participate in and figure out if they are moderate or vigorous activities, so you can get a rough understanding of how long you’d need to spend doing each activity each week to hit your weekly target. If you’re considering doing brisk walking, as it’s a moderate activity, you will need to do a minimum of 150 mins a week. So, if you spread this out across five days, that’s simply 30 mins a day. The next step is then to find a time that works for you to fit in your exercise. 30 mins of brisk walking a day could be done before work, during your lunch break, or even after your evening dinner.

Time poor

One of the biggest challenges many people face is finding the time and effort to fit exercise into their daily routine. However, when you know the benefits of exercising, treating it as a priority becomes invaluable. If you’re able to, perhaps try a vigorous activity as you only need to do a minimum of 75 mins to hit your weekly target. Doing two x 40 mins vigorous workout such as running, or aerobics is all you need.

Who says exercising is expensive?

Not everyone can afford to pay for a gym membership, especially when you struggle to find the time during the week to go. Throughout the lockdown, people across the country found innovative ways to exercise at home. You can go for a walk, run, watch a YouTube video or join online classes for aerobics, Zumba or yoga.

Exercise with a friend

When people quit exercising, lacking the motivation to do it or finding the activity boring tend to be the reason. Well, try exercising with a friend or family member, or doing a group sport such as football where your presence is required. Working out with somebody else makes the activity more enjoyable, and you can also encourage each other to do it.

If you’re interested in improving your healthy lifestyle through exercise, then look at our latest course as well as the rest of our wellbeing collection to improve how you and your employees feel.

How to manage your personal stress

Work-related stress can lead to many health problems. It is one of the leading causes of absence from work and long-term sick leave for employees. When our stress is allowed to continue unchecked, it can lead to depression and anxiety, which can have devastating effects. According to HSE’s Labour Force Survey, 17.9 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2019/2020, this equated to an average of 21.6 days lost per person suffering.

Controlling work-related stress is a shared responsibility between employers and employees themselves. It can help employees cope if they know how to recognise the signs of stress in themselves and the steps they can take to control it.

What is stress?

HSE defines stress as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them’. Employees feel stress when they can’t cope with pressures and other issues.

Symptoms of stress

Everyone experiences stress differently, but when it starts to affect your health and wellbeing, you must learn how to manage it.

  • Feelings of constant worry or anxiety
  • Feelings of being overwhelmed
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Mood swings or changes in your mood
  • Irritability or having a short temper
  • Difficulty relaxing
  • Depression
  • Low self-esteem
  • Eating more or less than usual
  • Changes in your sleeping habits
  • Using alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs to relax
  • Aches and pains, particularly muscle tension
  • Diarrhoea and constipation
  • Feelings of nausea or dizziness
  • Loss of sex drive

Here are some ways you can manage personal stress:

1 – Understand the root cause of stress

Stop and think about the real reason why you feel stressed. Do you have little time to complete a project ahead of a deadline? Was this passed onto you with little to short notice? Then there are two issues here: one is time management – feeling stressed because you know it might be difficult to complete the task within the deadline, and the second is communication – being given a task to complete within an unrealistic timeframe and at short notice with no prior heads-up.

2 – Reduce unnecessary stress

  • Learn to say no

We often want to be ‘yes’ people both professionally and personally because it’s human nature to want to be liked or help one another. But you can only bite off as much as you can chew. Understand how much time a task will take and whether the workload is feasible. If not, simply say you won’t be able to do it within that given timeframe and ask for an extension or find out if somebody else on the team has the availability to do it instead.

  • Review your to-do list

If you have too much on, work with your line manager to review your to-do list. Analyse your deadlines and how long each task will take and prioritise them in order of urgency.

  • Learn to control the situation

Figure out if you can reduce the stress in a particular situation. For example, if you constantly get stuck in traffic and worry about getting to work on time, then work backwards. Wake up earlier to make sure you leave the house earlier, allowing time for any traffic on the journey and still making it to work on time.

3 – Develop your coping strategies

  • Exercise

Regularly exercising, even just going for a walk, is a great way to relax your body and take your mind off things. Allowing oxygen to flow into your body will help improve your mood.

  • Relax your muscles

When you’re stressed, it’s normal for muscles to tense up, leading to aches and pains. Consider loosening up the muscles by doing yoga (stretching muscles), having a massage, or even relaxing in a hot bath.

  • Deep breathing exercises

When you suffer from stress or even anxiety attacks, deep breathing exercises work well to help reduce the tension and improve the mood. Try playing mindfulness music in the background and learn to take slow deep breaths in and out.

  • Eat healthier

Eating a well-balanced diet should be a staple requirement in our daily lives. Although we may enjoy indulging in fast food, as long as it’s not a regular occurrence, then it should be fine. Your meals should consist of a good variety of fruit and vegetables since eating better can help reduce stress. Your body will also feel better in itself; more alert and full of energy.

  • Take a break

Your body can only go so fast before it crashes. Schedule some regular breaks for your body to rest and be still. This can involve going for a slow walk in nature, reading a book in the park, or even doing yoga.

  • Make some time to do an activity

It’s important to schedule some ‘you’ time and take part in activities you enjoy to relieve stress. Try playing a team sport such as football or tennis, or release stress through a martial art such as kickboxing. It could even be a solo activity such as solving puzzles such as sudoku or doing some painting.

  • Talk to someone about your worries

One of the most important ways to manage and reduce your stress is by talking to someone. Often, by bottling in problems, they seem worse than they are, but talking to someone allows us to voice those concerns. Speak with someone you feel comfortable with, whether it’s a manager, a colleague, family, friends or seek professional help with a therapist.

While these are some ways to manage your stress, check out our course on Stress Management for Individuals and our Managing Personal Stress Challenge to help guide the way. Remember to remain positive, talk to someone and get professional help from a doctor if stress is causing constant issues and worries. Have a look at the rest of the courses offered in our wellbeing collection for other courses.

How to manage stress in your team

Related Courses

According to Perkbox‘s UK workplace stress survey, in 2020, 79% of British adults commonly experience work-related stress, which is 20% higher than the findings in 2018. The most common causes of work-related stress included ‘work-related office politics’ (at 37%), then a ‘lack of interdepartmental communications’ (at 34%) and ‘the work and performance of others (at 33%). The research also revealed that 55% of respondents experience anxiety because of work stress, more than two-fifths (43%) lose sleep, and a third of respondents turn to comfort eating.
With stress having such a negative impact on employee’s physical and mental wellbeing, business leaders and team leaders must understand how to manage stress in their teams and find ways to alleviate that stress.
1 – Create a healthy wellness culture
When employees feel stressed it can cloud their judgement and affect their decision-making skills, as well as their creative ability. Organisations should create a culture that encourages good mental health and wellbeing. Managers should encourage staff to leave their desks during lunchtime and go for a walk to get some fresh air, as it helps to clear the mind. Organisations can also encourage healthy wellbeing by subsiding gym memberships, hosting (in-person or virtual) yoga or Zumba sessions or even team walking activities, aiming to hit 10,000 steps a day.
2 – Build a better working environment
Organisations should try to improve the atmosphere of the workspace because it’s no surprise that the working environment can impact a staff member’s stress or mental health. Business leaders can make small changes, e.g. if the office environment is genuinely dull, add some colour to the walls to brighten them up. Different and bright colours are known to lift moods, so add a splash of paint to the walls to improve the atmosphere. According to Erika Woelfel, a yellow hue is sure to brighten up your workspace because it infuses energy and optimism into a room to infuse creativity.
If painting walls might be a bit difficult, add some life into the office by getting your team some plants. Indoor plants are a great addition to creating a harmonious work environment as they emit oxygen, so why not try adding an Aloe Vera plant or a Snake plant to help reduce anxiety and stress? Although if you don’t have green fingers, fake plants can give the space a boost too. Make improvements to the work environment, such as organised desks and communal areas – all of which can add up to make an employee’s day less stressful.
3 – Have a flexible or hybrid working culture
Employees feel more responsible when they’re trusted to get on with their work when and where possible. This independence can help reduce stress levels in teams as employees can be more productive and happier working in a work environment that suits them. Research from Gartner revealed that 48% of employees are likely work remotely, at least part of the time after Covid-19.
Remember that employees have personal lives too so, sometimes this means allowing employees to work around their commitments such as school runs or family doctor appointments. Allow employees to work earlier or make up the time later in the day. This flexible approach can help them to become more productive and reduces stress about working around other commitments. Allowing people to work remotely can also help by removing the commute, as this can be a stressful activity trying to beat the traffic to get to work on time.
4 – Encourage company social activities
Employees can feel stressed when they’re trying to juggle their personal and work lives, trying to keep them separate. However, not talking about employees’ personal lives and understanding what’s going on creates barriers. To improve communications on the team, encourage company social activities such as going for a meal or a coffee together, or doing a team sport such as football.
Everyone has different personalities and commitments outside of work. So, getting to know each other in an informal setting can help cultivate these relationships. This way, managers can work with their employees to find any solutions to alleviate stress.
5 – Allow for quiet time
Employees can become disengaged or stressed if they have back-to-back meetings. Not only is this unproductive, but some meetings are not needed. Consider doing them over email or communication platforms such as Slack or MS Teams. Also, create dedicated slots where meetings aren’t allowed to take place, e.g. Wednesday afternoons. This quiet time can help employees to get in some focused time to get work done. Managers should work with their teams to understand where time is wasted and help them manage their workload to improve efficiency – overall, reducing their stress.
If budget allows, some large companies offer company benefits to help relieve stress, such as offer staff a head and neck massage or even days off due to staff burnout.
6 – Provide access to mental health and wellbeing services
Many organisations now provide access to external services such as healthcare or mental health apps to support employees. This allows employees to access virtual appointments with GPs, mental health services or wellbeing support such as nutrition.
Various factors can add up to stress for employees and having this on-demand access where employees can speak to a third-party confidentially over the phone and in personal time means more people are likely to make the most of this offer to reduce their stress.
7 – Provide training on stress management
Support staff with training that can help them pinpoint the reasons for their stress. This way, they can act on addressing it and feel much better about it. Organise activities to relieve stress, such as nature walks or playing with puppies to take their mind off things.
Stress can also be caused by poor time management and organisational skills, so if staff learn how to manage their time effectively and learn how to say no, or push back on deadlines, they are less likely to feel stressed. Managers must help staff manage their workload.
8 – Maintain transparency and encourage communication
Managers should keep team members updated about what’s going on in the business because leaving people out of the loop can create a disconnect and major “FOMO” (fear of missing out). Employees feel stressed about the future of their job security if senior management doesn’t communicate to the rest of the company what’s happening.
Maintain frequent communications with the team and share goals and values from the top-down – this will help them understand why their work is vital. But equally as important is to encourage communication both ways. Find out if an employee needs to care for an elderly member at home or drop their children off at school. It’s crucial to be respectful of one another and ensure everyone feels welcomed and recognised for their work. Communication is key to helping reducing stress in teams.
9 – Encourage plenty of sleep
While it’s tempting to stay up late to have a “Netflix binge”, it’s not healthy. Sleep deprivation is linked to lower productivity at work. In the UK alone, it costs the economy £40.2 billion in loss of productivity and a loss of 200,000 working days a year. Employees must get enough sleep since inadequate rest can adversely affect employee physical and mental health. This is also where stress and a lack of sleep feed into each other. Employees may be unable to sleep due to feeling stressed at work or inability to concentrate and likewise, they may be unable to feel productive at work due to sleep deprivation. It’s a never-ending cycle.
10 – Encourage staff to take breaks
It’s vital to take breaks away from work and mentally shut down your brain from work activity. According to a study by Spana, British employees feel the need to take a break every 43 days to avoid total burnout. The top tell-take signs of a holiday being due, include feeling stressed (56%) and finding mental wellbeing is starting to suffer (53%). Therefore, encourage staff to take a holiday – even if they don’t go away to another city, planned rest and recuperation time is necessary.
Hopefully, these tips can help you manage stress in your team. But, why not take our ‘Managing Stress in Your Team‘ course to further help understand how you can improve the wellbeing of your staff? Enquire with us today to book a free demo.

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