Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com April 13, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 23 A new research study from Stanford University and Harvard Business School has named workplace stress as a contributor to at least 120,000 deaths a year and up to $190 billion in health care costs. If that's not sufficient motivation for you to reduce stress in your workplace, consider these additional negative business outcomes associated with high levels of employee stress and anger: • Employee fatigue, concentration difficulties and diminished problem-solving abilities; • Diminished quality, productivity and customer service; • Underreporting of critical business issues (to avoid blame); • Poor teamwork and coordination among individuals who are resentful and feel they've been treated unfairly; and • Increased absenteeism. We would be outraged by 120,000 preventable employee deaths every year because of chemical poisoning, industrial accidents or other hazardous work-place conditions. So why is the reaction to deadly results of workplace stress so tepid? Why aren't businesses more determined to reduce the associated risks, which extend well beyond health and safety and into productivity, quality, customer service, innovation and profit? Here are two reasons organizations are not consistent and diligent in combating it: 1) Employers aren't certain about what they can do and how to be effective in reducing stress. As a result, front-line managers receive inadequate training (if any) on how to lead in a way that minimizes employees' stress and maximizes engagement and motivation. 2) The effects of workplace stress are cumulative and invisible. That's unlike the impact of other risks such as accidents, which are obvious and immediate. How can you protect your business? Know what to look for. The Stanford/ Harvard study calls out several damaging workplace stressors, but you have to recognize them before you can plan to reduce them. The key stressors are work/family conflict, low job control, high job demands, low social support, and organiza-tional injustice. And here are two strategies you can employ to ease those stressors: 1) Provide leadership training for frontline supervisors and managers. You can dramatically reduce all these stressors by training frontline supervisors and managers in leadership skills that promote respectful two-way communication, conflict resolution, problem solving and team building. These skills are behavioral, observable, controllable and, most importantly, teachable. 2) Take a more integrated approach to stress reduction and wellness promotion. Stress in the workplace has to be prioritized as an organizational problem and an individual employee health issue. Wellness advocates and coaches who work to improve employee health should work with health and safety, human resources, employee assistance programs and frontline management. Creating an environment of healthy, high-performing and engaged employees is everyone's business. Yes, it's a complicated subject, and we have a lot more to learn about the causes and impact of workplace stress. But your business can apply what's already known to reduce the significant risks of workplace stress to employee health, safety, engagement and productivity. Q Mark Sagor is co-founder of Comprehensive EAP, based in Marlborough. Contact him at msagor@compeap.com. By Paul Hanlon Paul Hanlon is CEO of BlueHive Strategic Environments, of Worcester. 10 Things I Know About... Take stress out of the workplace KNOW HOW 10. Don't show strain. The pressures of being an owner are not always visible to the employee, and it should be kept that way. 9. Live on the EDGE. Always follow the EDGE rule: energy, dreams, goals and ethics. 8. Why are you doing this? Have a reason for what you are doing. Mine is to ensure my children are comfortable and never need to worry. 7. Stay in control — of you. Before you can manage the emotions of others, you must be able to manage your own. 6. Crystal clear persuasion Management isn't telling someone what to do, but rather sharing what needs to be done through gentle and friendly persuasion. 5. Show your appreciation. What happens in the workplace can transcend into personal life, so always ensure that your employees feel safe and appreciated. A simple "Thank you" goes a long way. 4. Understand how to understand. Learn to be intuitive. Learn empathy. 3. It all begins with people. Your people must come first, vendors second and clients third. If you have the best people, who work with the best suppliers, only then will you be able to provide your clients with the best service. 2. Why some business owners fail. There are only three reasons owners fail: substance abuse, failing to find the edge over your competitors and bringing the wrong people into your close circles. 1. Eye the prize, then win it. Never underestimate the magic of believing. Establish a goal, believe in it, and you'll succeed. Q The mind of a business owner W ith to day's advances in t e c h n o l o g y, y o u r competition, your industry and your market, the only constant is change. Businesses must adapt to stay relevant. And it isn't enough to innovate and generate changes; managers are held accountable for sustaining change and making changes more profitable. Here are three things to keep in mind about business change: Consider all angles. Phil Buckley of Bloomberg.com suggests five crucial questions to ask when you're trying to weigh the potential success of major change. First, ask how the vision is different or better. Then, ask if the leaders involved are committed to the change. "Does the organization have the capacity to make the change? How ingrained is the current culture? And will the change actually deliver the identified outcomes?" All these questions are crucial, Buckley says. Let company culture lead the way. So says DeAnne Aguirre and Micah Alpern at Strategy-business. com. They cite a study that shows 76 percent of executives with failed change initiatives did not take existing culture into account. Making change isn't always about tearing down and rebuilding. The key, they say, is to tap into the emotional energy that's already there and "look for the elements of the culture that are aligned to the change, bring them to the foreground, and attract the attention of the people who will be affected by the change." Be a matchmaker. Keith Ferrazzi of HBR.org says 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies use this method: pairing up people. Whether you call it mentorship or peer coaching, it can work. "Identifying and celebrating early adopters of the behaviors a company wants to instill can create positive contagion," he writes. "Pairing these role models with slower-to-adopt colleagues can be far more effective than coaching by outside experts." Q 101: MANAGING CHANGE >> BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal BY MARK SAGOR Special to the Worcester Business Journal Know how to pick up on signs of stress, and how you can combat it

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