#stressatwork #mentalhealthatwork #qualityoflifeatwork #Telework #manaevents #eventagencyMontpellier #internalcommunication
Do you know what RPS are? These are the psychosocial risks that can lead to burn-in and burn-out.
They generally include :
Stress at work (work overload, lack of resources, lack of autonomy, etc.)
Violence within the company (harassment, conflict, etc.)
Violence outside the company (insults, threats, assaults, etc.)
At the start of 2022, with the return of forced telecommuting, it's not easy to manage these RPS, particularly the work-related stress and microaggressions that have become so common in remote exchanges.
If stress is bad for employees, it's just as bad for companies. In France, the social cost of stress in the workplace is estimated at between 1.9 and 3 billion euros. This estimate includes the cost of medical care and the loss of wealth due to absenteeism, early retirement, and premature death (National Institute of Research and Security, 2010 study based on 2007 figures).
What's more, these figures are only increasing in the current context, 41% of employees say that the health crisis has hurt their mental health at work.
Worse still, at a given time in March 2021, almost half of workers (45%) said they were in psychological distress, according to a study by Opinion Way.
These are chilling figures.
Forced teleworking and the often too-early digitization of working environments have only reinforced professional stress.
So how can we take concrete action to reduce stress in the workplace and prevent relational conflicts in the remote environment?
Communication is essential to avoid letting people become isolated, which could lead to increased stress. It's vital to maintain communication between your employees, to keep them connected.
Maintain moments of collective exchange. You used to have a team meeting every Monday morning. This can be switched to videoconferencing, but it absolutely must not be canceled. It allows everyone to exchange ideas and find out what everyone is working on. It also allows us to take the pulse of everyone's mental health. Why not kick things off with a moral check, or some other similar ritual, to enable everyone to freely express their state of mind?
Set up individual exchanges. As a manager, check in with your staff daily, taking an individual interest in them and asking them directly how they are coping with the situation, whether they feel supported, whether they feel they have sufficient technical resources to carry out their mission, or even what their situation is and how they feel about telecommuting (what about telecommuting with children under the age of 3, we'll get to that very quickly with YellowJune).
Set up free discussion tools. If you haven't already, now's the time to set them up.
Tools such as Discord, Slack, or even a WhatsApp group enable everyone to exchange ideas spontaneously and break down the isolation some may feel.
Tools such as Discord and Slack enable you to create different "lounges" to classify discussions according to theme.
Be careful, however, to respect working hours when communicating with your teams, and to respect their right to disconnect (often forgotten when working remotely...).
Organize remote meetings, without a program. For example, you could set up a team lunch every Thursday by videoconference. Everyone at home, teleworking, can connect to a video platform to share this more personal moment. Be careful, however, not to make this compulsory, to respect the right to disconnect mentioned above. It can be an opportunity for your employees to chat simply with each other, and to reduce the gap that naturally arises when working remotely.
These last two solutions can be used to replace the interstitial spaces where we chat with our colleagues while drinking our coffee from the machine, or waiting in the cafeteria. "These spaces are not unproductive time; they're the oil in the gears that keeps the engine running for so long. Without olive oil in your salad, it would be dry and tasteless", says work psychologist Adrien Chignard. The game aims to leave time for employees to resolve misunderstandings, unspoken ideas, and conflicts, or to help each other by naturally sharing the difficulties and successes of the past few days.
Organizing extra-professional activities from a distance. And that's where we come in. It could be a team-building videoconference (read our article on the subject to find out more about the various possibilities).
You can also organize a virtual aperitif with a live band, a sports class, a blind test, a team quiz, a recipe exchange... In short, the possibilities are endless. You can call on us to help you propose and organize this fun time.
Moments of relaxation and harmless discussion are vital to relieve the pressure and prevent implosion. Keep this in mind to maintain healthy and serene relations within your company.
Don't hesitate to contact us. We can help you put in place a clear and effective policy to combat stress in the workplace daily.
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