How to spot signs of stress at work

Employees suffering from stress will find it has significant detrimental impacts on their mental and physical wellbeing. According to the Health Safety Executive (HSE), 1.6 million workers in the UK suffered from work-related ill health in 2019/20 – more than half (51%) of these cases were due to stress, depression, or anxiety. 55% of all working days were also lost due to work-related ill-health. The predominant cause of work-related stress, depression or anxiety was tight deadlines, lack of managerial support, organisational changes at work and workplace harassment.

Stress can be an unbearable burden, and all too often, employees continue suffering without recognising it or treating it. If employees are feeling stressed, it can significantly impact the whole team, affecting productivity, and it can also cause conflict and tension between colleagues. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires employers to assess the risks to the health and safety of employees from the hazards of work. This act includes the risk of employees developing stress-related illnesses because of their work.

Organisations and their line managers must do all they can to promote high levels of wellbeing in their teams. Providing managers with training gives them the confidence to engage with mental health and wellbeing and the opportunity to support those employees who need some extra help. According to HSE, here are some ways to spot if your colleagues or employees feel stressed at work. Usually, it involves a change in behaviour or the way they think or feel, resulting in them:

  • Taking more time off
  • Arriving for work later or working longer hours
  • Becoming more twitchy or nervous
  • Mood swings and becoming increasingly irritable
  • Being withdrawn – shying away or socially isolating themselves
  • Loss of motivation, commitment, and confidence
  • Increased emotional reactions – becoming overly sensitive

If some employees do feel stressed, they might not be the only ones and it is worth finding out if stress is affecting the whole team. If the reason for the stress is not found and addressed, then not only does the team suffer, but so does the company. Here are some signs if the team is feeling stressed (HSE):

  • Arguments within the team
  • Higher staff turnover
  • More reports of stress
  • More sickness absence
  • Decreased performance
  • More complaints and grievances

It takes time to find the right members of staff who are a good cultural fit with the rest of the team and have the right level of knowledge to fulfil the role. Not addressing the reasons for stress and nipping them in the bud will cause employees to feel irritable or overworked, especially if it’s due to too much workload. These effects can have a detrimental impact on the organisation. Resulting in not just a loss of valuable staff, but also time and financial loss.

If do you spot these signs of stress in your employees or your team, then business leaders must make it a priority to speak to them individually and as well as a team, to find out the reason for the way they are feeling. Transparency is key to understanding your employees and your team. Having a heart-to-heart with employees allows trust to build, so employees don’t feel worried or scared to confide in their business leader.

If the cause for stress is a work issue such as dealing with short deadlines or client demands, then support your team by helping them to prioritise their work. Speak to the client directly to ask for extensions and highlight the time taken for particular projects, so employees don’t feel like they are constantly chasing the clock. If employees feel stressed because of increased workload, then it’s crucial to ramp up recruitment efforts as quickly as possible to reduce the likelihood of losing valuable members of staff.

If employees feel stressed due to a personal issue, speak to them on a one-to-one basis and offer advice on what to do, or be supportive or empathetic, if you’re unable to provide support. Alternatively, if you think the employee may benefit from professional expertise, it’s recommendable to share a list of resources the employee can access inside or outside of work. For example, this could mean employees attending a mental health discussion group, support from a mental health and wellbeing charity, using an app, or perhaps taking up an activity such as yoga to relieve mental stress.

If you are worried about your colleagues or employees feeling stressed, why not take our course on ‘Identifying stress in your team‘? Don’t forget to check out the rest of our eLearning solutions in the Stress Management collection and speak to our team to book a demo.

Mental Health – Top Tips to Support Employees

Mental Health issues are not something we ought to treat lightly. Recent research by the ONS revealed that around 1 in 5 (21%) adults experienced some form of depression in early 2021 – an increase since November 2020 (19%) – and more than double that seen before the pandemic (10%).

For organisations, it’s crucial mental health is prioritised as it affects employees’ wellbeing and productivity. Worryingly, the latest findings by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England found that a quarter of employees had not received a mental health check-in since the beginning of the pandemic, and 29% of those surveyed said they have never had a conversation with their line manager about mental health.

Mental Health Awareness Week serves as a reminder for organisations to consider their mental health and wellbeing policies and initiate conversations not just with colleagues but also with loved ones.

Organisations and HR teams must recognise that their duty of care not only extends to compliance and health and safety training, but to taking responsibility for mental wellbeing too.

Here are some top tips organisations can do to support employees with mental health:

1) Remember to check-in

It may sound simple but checking in with your employees and colleagues to find out how they’re doing is important. Many of us will simply reply with “I’m fine”, but as a line manager, get to know your staff better and understand if they really mean it or if they’re brushing off something they don’t want to talk about. The fact that 41% of respondents revealed they had none or less frequent wellbeing check-ins is worrying. Employers need to encourage their managers to regularly have a wellbeing check-in with their employees. The pandemic has taken its toll on most of us, and the anxiety around it has affected our personal and working lives.

2) Encourage leaders and managers to undertake training

Organisations that provide the training and resources for their leaders and managers around mental health and wellbeing will be able to better support their employees overall with guidance. Unfortunately, according to a study by IOSH, 62% of line managers are not receiving enough help from their organisation to support their staff’s mental wellbeing. In addition, only 31% of respondents said they feel they have been sufficiently trained to recognise the signs of poor mental health in their direct reports. It’s clear that organisations need to be doing more, and ensuring your leaders and managers understand the signs to look out for means they can start supporting their staff to get the help they need.

3) Support employees with mental health and stress training

Self-care goes a long way when dealing with mental health issues including stress and anxiety. Providing a training course for your employees to take part in can help them recognise if they need help or understand how to cope with it. Dealing mechanisms for stress such as learning to be better organised with work priorities or learning to communicate with colleagues and managers can be the first step in the right direction for them.

4) Create a mental health culture

Creating a culture that is supportive of mental health in the organisation is important. Put up posters around the office or in the kitchen about mental health and make it clear who they can reach out to if they want to discuss issues. Normalise discussing topics in the open, bringing up mental health in team meetings. This will make employees feel more at ease to discuss their worries more openly.

5) Go outdoors

This year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness Week centres around connecting with nature. Over the past year with the various lockdowns, unfortunately, it’s been hard to get out and about. Organisations need to encourage their employees to go for a walk during lunchtime (whether at home or in the office), stretch their legs and get fresh air. Not only is it good for them and encouraging exercise but having some reflection time in green spaces can bring a sense of calmness. This is ideal for those with stressful jobs.

Don’t forget to check out our training courses on stress management for both managers and employees. Keep an eye out on the site for our upcoming mental health courses.

Britain’s Favourite Office Snacks – The ULTIMATE Ranking

It’s a conversation that sparks disagreement in the office time and time again, but the debate can finally be put to rest.

Here at DeltaNet International, we’ve pulled data from more than 60 ‘top UK snack’ rankings to devise the list to end all lists. The ULTIMATE snack ranking, if you will.

The Results

The full list of top 10 crisps, biscuits, and chocolate bars can be seen below, although the results may prove divisive.

Walkers Sensations Thai Sweet Chilli bagged first place for crisps – and Brits are also loving Quavers and Pickled Onion flavour Monster Munch.

When it comes to the age-old debate of Dairy Milk versus Galaxy, we can report that Cadbury bagged the honour of first place, closely followed by its Wispa bar in third place.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Mcvitie’s famous chocolate digestive finished in first place for biscuit rankings, although coming in at number two, the Jaffa Cake is bound to reignite the ‘cake or biscuit?’ debate.

Promoting Wellness

Snacking at work is a hot topic for organisations interested in prioritising employee wellness, particularly since junk food consumption has links to stress (both as a symptom of and a catalyst for).

With this in mind, it’s important we indulge in our favourite treats as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle – rather than a reaction to stressful working environments or means of comfort.

Indeed, alongside more traditional health and safety training, many organisations are promoting stress management initiatives that help empower the workforce by getting them involved in their own physical and mental wellbeing.

Some Practical Tips for Businesses:

Encourage physical activity – Given that we spend about one third of our waking hours working, initiatives like walk-to-work and cycle schemes have helped UK workers fit physical activity around their employment. It’s encouraging to report that many UK workers now have access to onsite shower facilities and/or lockers to make it easier to be active whilst still getting the job done and maintaining professionalism. From boardroom workouts to lunchtime yoga and discounted fitness apps, encouraging physical activity can help promote productivity and maintain the good health of your workforce.

Offer healthy snacks – As our rankings prove, Britain loves sweet and salty treats! However, these aren’t the only delicious snacks health-conscious organisations have to offer. Initiatives like fresh-fruit deliveries can help employees make beneficial choices, as can recipe swapping clubs and team lunches aimed at raising awareness about nutrition.

Keep employees moving – Office workers often sit for hours in front of their computer – sometimes spending as much as seven or eight hours a day completely sedentary, which puts both physical and mental health at risk. Simply encouraging employees to take short but regular breaks can help, as can raising awareness about display screen equipment (DSE) use and what office-based exercises they can do to help reduce fatigue, pain, and discomfort.

Final Word

Whilst our snack rankings were a bit of fun for the DeltaNet International office, we can’t ignore the fact that workplace health and wellbeing is a very serious issue as we move into 2020. It’s important that employees are empowered to make good choices and that awareness training and information about healthy workplace initiatives are available and suitable for everyone.

See below for the UK’s ULTIMATE snack rankings in full:

Workplace Mental Health: Where to Start?

Workplace mental health is arguably the most discussed topic in health and safety right now – and with good reason.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have released their statistics on workplace safety for 2019. They contain some shocking figures on work-related stress, depression and anxiety. 602,000 of us suffered from them (new or long-standing cases) in 2018/19 and 54% of working days lost due to ill-health are attributed to them.

Workers’ mental health is an issue none of us can afford to ignore.

The Basics of Workplace Mental Health

First things first: what do we mean when we say “workplace mental health”?

“Mental health” and “mental illness” are often used as interchangeable terms but this isn’t technically correct. We all have mental health – and like our physical health, it will fluctuate throughout our lives. Mental illnesses are common but if people are properly supported, they can be successfully managed.

We spend a lot of our waking hours at work, so it stands to reason that work can often have a profound effect on our mental health. When we feel fulfilled, appreciated and in control of our work, that optimism can spill over into the rest of our lives. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true: if we’re under unreasonable work stress, suffer from bullying or otherwise feel undervalued, that can affect us at home too. It can cause us to withdraw socially, take it out on our loved ones or misuse alcohol.

Sadly, 300,000 people suffering from mental illnesses lose their jobs each year. As well as the adverse career and financial impacts this may have on them, their employers lose out: they take their skills, experience and expertise elsewhere. With better understanding and management of mental health and wellness in the workplace, many of these job losses could be avoided.

Where to Start

For employers, the physical safety side of the “health and safety” equation has traditionally received most – or all – of their attention. Addressing employee mental health can seem a confusing and difficult task. Many employers fear “overstepping”, as everyone’s mental health is affected by their personal lives as well as their jobs.

Sometimes reaching out to someone and giving them a safe space to discuss their mental health can make a huge difference. When people feel their workplace is supportive, they are more likely to stay in the role. They use less energy trying to hide their condition out of fear for their jobs. Senior people sharing their own stories in this area can often help to set the tone, though, of course, it should be entirely voluntary for every individual.

Creating a Mentally Healthy Culture

We’ve all heard of workplace wellbeing initiatives. Though well-meaning, many of these focus on surface-level interventions like free fruit or free yoga classes. These can be exceptionally beneficial for some and are to be welcomed – but they’re not the whole story.

Creating a workplace that complements employees’ mental health rather than damaging it requires a genuine effort to meet people’s needs. Flexible working can help people who need work-life balance; for some, being able to drop off their children at school in the morning can have a huge effect on their mood for the rest of the day. Financial problems are a major cause of workplace stress and stress-related illness in general, so employers that ensure their staff are paid fairly are making an investment in their wellbeing.

One of the major components to a cultural shift is communication. People need to feel safe bringing up mental health concerns or related issues, such as feeling overloaded with work. Ideally, they should speak to their line managers in the first instance, but it’s best to provide a neutral alternative for people who don’t feel comfortable doing this.

Recognising the Signs

When it comes to personal stress, identifying stress in a team or managing an employee with stress, there’s no substitute for quality training.

It’s beneficial for people to learn to recognise the signs of stress, both in themselves and others. People respond to undue stress in different ways, but the following symptoms could be clear signs:

  • Change in mood – for example, seeming low, anxious or irritable
  • Difficulties concentrating
  • Increased negativity in attitude
  • Feelings of emotional “distance” from work and other activities
  • Getting physically ill more often

There is no quick fix to the epidemic of workplace ill-health in all workplaces and industries. Problems are so widespread that it’s statistically likely that at least one colleague of everyone reading this blog will be struggling with a diagnosable mental health issue.

Despite the scale of the problem, there are positives. The discussion around mental health is now more open than ever before and more and more people are sharing their stories to help others.

Are You Biased? Understanding Unconscious Bias in The Workplace

As human beings, we are conditioned to think and assume based on what we think we know, sometimes leading us to act with unconscious bias. Bias is usually based on our perceptions inherited through our kith and kin, influenced through what we watch in the media (news, TV and film) and sometimes based on our own experiences with other people.

The problem is when unconscious bias affects our perception of another person or groups of people in a professional work environment, it impairs our ability to act fairly and make the right decisions. We believe it is detrimental for individuals but it’s also bad for the business and workplace culture. After all, who wants to work in an unhappy environment or buy products or services from a business with a reputation of being biased?

So, what do we mean by unconscious bias, how does it affect your business and what can you do to reduce its impact in the workplace?

What is Unconscious Bias?

Unconscious bias enables us to make assumptions about others. It is a bias triggered by our brain making quick judgements and assessments of people and situations, influenced by our background, personal experiences, societal stereotypes and cultural environment.

Unconscious bias can be categorised as follows:

  • Visual bias: Making assumptions about a person based on how we view them judging by their appearance, the way they dress, etc. This bias is more commonly understood as stereotyping and is sometimes based on gender and/or age.
  • Cultural or social bias: Classifying people based on their culture or social status such as religion, social class, accent, job title etc. This sort of bias can cause exclusion in the workplace and give rise to groupism.
  • Experience bias: Biases ingrained from personal experiences and based on our values, morals and beliefs.

Having preconceived thoughts about people before getting to know them are likely to affect your working relationships with colleagues as well as customers.

Impact of Unconscious Bias

Unconscious bias may affect personal conduct and decision-making at work. There is evidence to suggest that unconscious bias seeps into decisions that affect hiring practices and workplace conduct in ways that can disadvantage certain groups of people. It can cause you to:

  • Treat colleagues and customers with prejudice;
  • Behave with discrimination or favouritism when it comes to performance reviews or promotions;
  • Miss out on retaining or hiring talented and dedicated employees.

For those individuals at the receiving end of biased behaviour, it can lead to stress in the workplace, affecting productivity, performance and morale. A recent survey reveals that the key cause of stress and mental ill-health at work is often down to poor treatment, including bias and discrimination.

The biggest impact, however, is on customers and how they view your business. As individuals, we are becoming more conscious of our buying behaviour and how it impacts our surroundings and environment, for example working with ethical suppliers. Therefore, customers are less likely to associate with businesses that have a poor reputation for biased behaviour or treating others less favourably.

Combating Unconscious Bias in the Workplace

You can reduce the impact of unconscious bias by recognising the signs and making a conscious effort to act fairly rather than acting on what you assume. Here are some helpful tips on tackling unconscious bias in the workplace:

  • Set the tone across the business: Starting from the top, ensure that you are adopting zero tolerance to biased practices such as discrimination, prejudice and inequality, and promoting fairness and respect in the workplace. Having a Code of Conduct policy will ensure that you are driving the message across the business and aligning your staff with organisational values.
  • Recognise and act: By becoming conscious of your biases, you can actively work at reducing them. The most important step is to recognise which areas of your business are exhibiting unconscious bias and act to change those behaviours. Develop a transparent and fair process for raising concerns and encourage staff to speak out confidentially.
  • Challenge the stereotypes: Educate your employees with training programs on equality and diversity in the workplace. Empower individuals to seek out opportunities to interact with people outside their normal social circle. Positive experiences that contradict stereotypes are known to help override biases and potentially eliminate them.
  • Empathise with those around you: Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Consider how you would feel if someone made decisions about you based solely on preconceived notions and assumptions.

We live in times when conversations around equality and diversity are more frank and transparent than ever. Whether we would like to admit it or not, we may have been guilty of unconscious bias at some point in our lives. What’s important is that we acknowledge our biases and work towards changing perceptions. We need to ensure that we are acting fairly towards one another and reducing the impact of unconscious bias while working with colleagues and customers.

Work Mates Behaving Badly? What you can do to Prevent Bad Behaviour in the Workplace

Any behaviour that makes someone feel intimidated or offended at work could be classed as bullying or harassment. However, due to the ill-defined nature of bullying (there is no legal definition for the term), it can often be the case that only extreme forms of workplace violence get reported (e.g. physical attacks, verbal abuse, and threats). Managers might even dismiss accusations of bullying and harassment as simple personality-clashes or someone’s robust management ‘style’, but this attitude severely undermines the damaging effects bullying and harassment can have on the workforce – even in organisations which have implemented anti-bullying policies.

Sadly, it appears that bullying is on the rise in Britain’s workplaces; Acas recently released a report stating they receive around 20,000 calls each year relating to bullying and harassment at work, with some callers even contemplating suicide and many reporting that the experience of being bullied has caused them to develop health issues such as anxiety and depression. Acas’ report also highlights areas where bullying seems to be more prevalent, e.g. for women working in male-dominated environments, LGBT workers, and for public sector and health-care workers.

Bullying is repeatedly named as a top-five workplace hazard in polls, which begs the question: why aren’t anti-bullying policies working? We know such policies are widespread in Britain’s workplaces – they are widely recommended by Acas both as an educational tool and as a deterrent for those who would commit workplace abuse – but it remains that simply having a policy isn’t enough.

It’s up to top level management to model and promote a culture of shared responsibility, one in which employees are empowered to report unacceptable behaviour, and feel safe in the knowledge that it will be swiftly and appropriately dealt with. It’s also important to outline what constitutes workplace bullying and harassment, to show examples (particularly of more subtle instances of bullying/harassment), and allow employees to explore bullying scenarios and grey-areas in a safe environment. After all, simply putting something in writing will not change peoples’ behaviour if they lack a full understanding of what it means and how it can affect the people we work with.

So, how can VinciWorks help?

We offer a number of eLearning courses that are designed to educate members of staff and help prevent abusive behaviour in the workplace. Useful as induction tools as well as refresher training for your employees, our courses employ a number of learning techniques and devices to ensure staff stay motivated, engaged, and retentive to the key learning objectives of each module.

What courses do you offer in this area?

Introduction to Equality and Diversity – familiarise your employees with equality and diversity principles, and encourage a fair, honest, and respectful workplace.

Manager’s Guide to Equality and Diversity – Lead by example with this course especially designed for managers. Learn about your responsibilities when it comes to equality and diversity legislation and how to implement principles of equality and diversity in your day-to-day working practices.

Violence and Aggression – Approved by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) this course focuses on nurturing a safe and happy work-place, and takes a closer look at how employees can avoid violence and aggression in the workplace and protect themselves should it occur.

Code of Conduct – Equip your employees with a common framework and set of values from which they can work. A code of conduct is a reference point for members of staff, it guides behaviour and helps explain away any grey-areas they may encounter during their time with the organisation.

Additionally, we offer a range of online compliance and health and safety training courses covering a variety of important topics. All our training is developed in collaboration with subject experts and accredited by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. To view the complete collection, please click here.

Mental health at work

Poor mental health at work is one of the biggest threats to businesses and organisations today. It costs UK employers billions every year in sickness absence, reduced productivity and staff recruitment and takes a terrible toll on individuals’ well-being – yet a huge number of employers are unsure of how to approach the problem and for many it remains a taboo subject.

Workplace stress

Working through lunch every day might impress the boss, but sooner or later it’s going to take its toll, creating an opportunity for unnecessary workplace stress. And it’s not just holidays and lunch-breaks that we’re talking about, either – even short screen breaks are essential for re-charging your batteries and giving you a much-needed chance to rest and recuperate.

Workplace stress- what’s the answer?

Stress is a big problem for people at work. And the cost to employers is enormous. A few shocking statistics summarise the size of this problem:

  • 440,000 people in the UK reported that work-related stress was making them ill (according to the Health and Safety Executive)
  • 11.7 million working days were lost in 2015/16 due to stress
  • 23.9 days are lost, on average, for every stressed employee
  • 45% of all working days lost to illness are due to stress

Clearly, stress is a huge problem for working people and their employers. But what exactly is stress, and what can employers do about it?

One definition of stress is ‘an adverse reaction to excessive pressures and demands’. Stress is felt when someone is struggling under the weight of expectations, rather than thriving under pressure. Stress can result in a wide range of symptoms, including a racing heart, palpitations, loss of appetite, trouble sleeping and depression.

Stress can be triggered by a wide range of factors, but common causes include overwork, lack of support, intimidation, bullying and a hostile working environment.

For some individuals, stress becomes a problem when things change at work, such as when their team changes, or when their workload increases. A sense of instability or unclear expectations can leave employees feeling unsupported and anxious.

Unsurprisingly, given the enormous cost of stressed employees, many organisations look for ways to reduce the risk. So what can employers do to support their teams?

A positive first step is to discuss the issues with senior managers, and ensure that they understand the causes and treatments of stress. Training is important, in part because stress can be difficult to identify, difficult to understand and difficult to treat. Senior buy-in helps ensure that a positive, supportive environment permeates down from the top.

Employers can encourage people to talk about stress and acknowledge that sometimes, situations at work can lead us to feel stressed. Employees should be given advice on coping with stress and training to help them spot potential causes. This can help people sidestep potential dangers before they become overwhelming. For example, an individual who is becoming overworked might recognise the beginnings of stress and decide to raise their concerns with their line manager. Together, the pair might agree to delegate some work to a colleague, and perhaps take a short break from work.

For some colleagues, time management training may help them manage their workload differently and prevent feeling stressed. For others, resilience training may help people to cope with stresses at work. This might mean changing their lifestyle, diet or exercise routines to help them relieve the stress they encounter at work. It might also mean taking a break from work, or turning to friends and family for support in times of stress. By learning how to become more resilient, people can gather tools to use when times are difficult.

So while stress might seem like an enormous, inescapable challenge for working people, evidence suggests that there are solutions, and that a little training can go a long way in preventing stress-related absences from work. By simply making employees feel supported, aware of the dangers of stress and capable of developing their own resilience, employers can reduce the impact of stress on their workforce.

VinciWorks provide a number of resources dedicated to identifying stress and managing stress both on an individual level and within a team.

Online Stress Management courses include:

Managing your Personal Stress
Identifying Stress in your team
Managing Stress in your team