As a business owner, you’ll know that creating a safe, welcoming workplace is crucial for both your staff and your business.
For your staff, working in a stress-free environment can promote positivity, make them feel at ease, and have a positive effect on their wellbeing. For you and your business, you are more likely to find that having happy, stress-free employees can enhance productivity.
So, what makes a workplace stress-free? Here are some ideas about how to create a soothing space that can keep staff calm, positive, and productive.
The impact of stress
Before we look at how to enhance your workspace to help both you and your employees, it’s worth thinking about the impact of stress on an individual. According to a 2019 survey, over a third (35%) of employees considered leaving their jobs because of work-related stress.
This was before Covid-19, and it’s clear from BACP’s ‘Mindometer’ survey of the impact of the pandemic has had a profound impact on people. Here, anxiety (87%) and stress (82%) were the top mental health concerns affecting respondents.
By not addressing stress levels, staff members can face burnout. This can be detrimental to them and impact on your business – especially if you lose talented team members because they’re struggling with the demands of the job.
Therefore, it’s imperative that, as an employer, you’re aware of the impact of stress on your staff and introduce ideas to minimise the risk.
Ideas to help your employees
There are several ways to reduce the likelihood of your staff being stressed. Some of these include:
- Access to counselling
Providing access to counselling services, either by inviting an in-house therapist to join the team or through other services like health insurance can be the support that your team members need.
Also, consider other types of wellness, such as financial wellbeing sessions. Money concerns can often be considered a taboo subject, but introducing sessions on budgeting and money management, for example, could help to reduce worries and stress around finances and help to calm your employees who might be finding things hard.
- A relaxation area
Create a relaxation space where staff can make phone calls or have a moment away from their workstation. Make this a soothing space that allows for a little privacy. It may be a breakout room where your employees can be creative, or it may be a space for switching off.
Make this informal, with comfy chairs or beanbags and add some art to the walls to make it a very different place to the rest of the office or work area.
- Go green
Creating a greener office promotes a sense of connection among your staff at they work towards goals like recycling and refraining from printing unnecessarily.
For instance, if energy is generated via solar panels or through a heat pump, the way energy is consumed is slightly different to typical methods. This can make team members think about how they do their job.
Working in a green building can also be beneficial as employees are more likely to be mindful of energy consumption and how this impacts how they work.
- Organisation and storage
Keeping the workplace tidy and organised can help to create a calm environment as everything is in order. Introducing storage solutions can be an easy win that gives team members who are prone to stress the opportunity to find comfort knowing that there is a place for everything.