Stress Management in HRM

Figure 1: Stress depicted as a balloon that can burst with a single touch (Living, 2023)

WHO (2023, p. 1) defines stress as 'a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation' while Business Jargons (2023, p. 1) defines it as 'a state of mental and emotional pressure or strain, caused by challenging or unfavourable circumstances'. In essence, stress is a person’s response to an external stimulus. Stress at workplace is an important point to be addressed as it affects the productivity of individuals leading to the productivity of the whole organisation (Wickremasinghe, 2023).

Stress management in Human Resource Management (HRM) refers to the process that involves 'identifying, assessing, and addressing sources of stress in the workplace' (higherEd, 2022, p. 4). higherEd (2022) describes the following benefits of good stress management in the workplace.

Benefits of Stress Management

1. Highly productive employees.
2. Minimal absenteeism and presenteeism.
3. Healthy employees.

Strategies For Managing Stress

higherEd (2022) and Management Study Guide (n.d.) suggest the following strategies to effectively manage stress at workplace.

Improve role clarity and communication to ensure that there is no role ambiguity or conflict

When roles are ambiguous, it is difficult for employees to determine what they are exactly supposed to do at work. Some employees may contribute a lot to the business in many ways, but they can get confused when their efforts are not reflected in their remuneration due to the fact that the businesses expect differently from them. When the expectations of the employees are unclear, it can lead to stress, so it is important that role ambiguity is resolved.

When two roles perform the same tasks and constantly overlap, it can create stress to both individuals and leaders. To individuals, their efforts can go unseen, and they can lose time due to duplicate work causing stress. To leaders, productive hours are lost when two roles are performing the same work while it can be unclear for them about which role is performing which task. Therefore, it is important to resolve role conflicts to prevent stress.

Sound employee rewards and recognition culture

Efforts of employees must be rewarded properly to recognise their value. Leaders must also pay attention to providing recognition in a timely manner and to the people who truly deserve it. If a high contributing employee goes unnoticed while another low contributing employee goes noticed, it can cause stress and a negative workplace culture. Therefore, a proper employee rewards and recognition culture is important.

Flexible work options

Not every employee in an organisation has a similar day in their life like everyone else. Each employee’s circumstances are different. For example, some employees can be single while others are parents to newborns. In the former case, while a single employee may be able to spend eight hours straight in a day for work, it can be difficult for a newborn's parent to do so. It may be easier for the newborn's parents to cover the eight hours of a day split into several slots so that they can accommodate the sudden changes in their lives. In such cases, if an employer enforces that an employee works eight hours a day at a stretch nevertheless, it will add pressure on the employee and cause stress. Therefore, organisations can be open in these situations and provide flexible working options to its employees to help them to be productive.

Safe working environment

Employees must feel that the workplace is a safe place to work both physically and psychologically. A physically safe workplace includes clean floors, soundly built furniture, and comfortable air conditioning. A psychologically safe workplace includes listening to others, being professional in day-to-day engagements, and being able to raise concerns without the fear of repercussions or backlash. Promoting such a workplace can create a stress-free environment that nourishes happy employees.

Supportive culture

Employers and HR departments must be openly discussing about stress in the workplace moving away from terming it a taboo topic. The author believes that organisations can promote regular mental health sessions, open group discussions, Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), and even introduce innovative solutions like mental health hotlines that employees can reach out to in crisis. Employees can be encouraged to take tests like Am I Too Stressed? 3 Minute Test & Screening (psycom.net) regularly to assess their current level of stress and help them navigate through that phase of their lives. Team leaders or line managers who are closest to the employees can be encouraged to have frequent formal or informal one-on-one meetings with their subordinates to be aware of what employees are going through and help them with any issues. It goes without saying that special attention may need to be given to the stress levels of the leaders starting at the line management as their impact to the entire organsation is higher. Ensuring that they are in better shape psychologically in turn ensures that they are able to take care of their subordinates well.

As seen above, there are several strategies that organisations can take to manage stress in the workplace. The strategies above are not exhaustive and there are more actions that can be considered like encouraging learning and growth, fair conflict resolution, and promoting a positive work culture that other authors have described. For further exploration on those actions, the following articles are recommended.

• Stress Management in HRM: Why is it Crucial? - Edureka
• Employee Stress - Strategies for managing stress at workplace (managementstudyguide.com)

References

Business Jargons, 2023. Stress. [Online]
Available at: https://businessjargons.com/stress.html
[Accessed 16 August 2023].

higherEd, E., 2022. Stress Management in HRM: Why is it Crucial?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.edureka.co/blog/stress-management/
[Accessed 16 August 2023].

Living, T. A. A., 2023. How Caregivers Can Lower Their Stress Levels. [Art] (The Arbors Assisted Living).

Management Study Guide, n.d. Employee Stress - Strategies for managing stress at workplace. [Online]
Available at: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/employee-stress.htm
[Accessed 16 August 2023].

WHO, 2023. Stress. [Online]
Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/stress
[Accessed 16 August 2023].

Wickremasinghe, N., 2023. Stress and Its Impact on Employee Performance. [Online]
Available at: https://hr-journal-of-nimantha.blogspot.com/2023/08/stress-and-employee-performance.html
[Accessed 16 August 2023].