Management - It’s crucial to identify and prevent stress for your employees

It’s very important to maintain a relaxed atmosphere at work. In the end, we spend a large part of our day in the office. Good relationships between employees and executives affect operating results directly. 

Nine out of ten German citizens feel stressed at work. Particularly young employees are pushing their limits, as shown by the „Betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement 2016" study. The study was commissioned by pronova BKK and 1,660 citizens were interviewed. 

To find out how to avoid stress for employees, we talked to the executive director of Grupo Meta RH, Gutemberg Leite. Leite explains that respect, ethics and good communication are essential.

Good communication is always very important. Respect and diversity - in all their facets - are requirements for good relationships. New opinions and ideas should always be welcome and never be taken as an attack. 

Managers, like everyone else, are just human and make mistakes. Not handling stressful situations emotionally intelligently is a mistake that anyone of us can make. In difficult situations, it’s recommended to keep one’s composure and remain neutral to avoid any possible unfairness. Think before you take any measures. 

Competition and stress

You can motivate your team better if you identify difficult situations and stressed employees early. To reduce stress, managers should always talk to their employees and analyze the situation in order to help. They have to identify the situation fast and make use of the right motivation factors:

“In some cases, incentives to improve (performance review) and competition can motivate to perform better if the team lead knows when’s the right time to bring it up. Otherwise, such a discussion can have the opposite effect, and instead of developing resilience, your employee or customer can be disadvantaged”, explains Leite.

So, employees can get stressed if they are asked to raise their performance or find themselves in competition. Tensions are particularly high when contracts are made or lost, or prior to important meetings and events. 

The volume of work can also have a worrying effect. It’s the duty of supervisors to find the best working conditions for their employees and to help them wherever they can. 

Doubting your own skills

Every employee has had a stressful situation where he starts to doubt his own professional skills. This happens in particular when your own work is questioned. 

“A good relationship at work depends on a clear communication based on freedom of speech, ethics and respect for diversity. It’s also essential to observe the law. The code of conduct has to be clear within the company and for every single employee”, emphasized Leite.  

Comments or criticism are welcome! Please write me an email if you are interested in writing a guest article: gastbeitrag@alugha.com.

Thank you for reading this!

Wilgen and the alugha Team!

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