As an entrepreneur, you’ll be used to dealing with high levels of stress. However, that doesn’t mean that your employees are or even should be. Workplace stress is a real issue for every team in every business in the world.
Set Clear Goals
As a leader, it’s important that you’re transparent about the goals you have for your company, as well as how individual job roles help to support them. This gives staff peace of mind, as it shows them exactly what they should be focusing on and why. Just be sure that these goals can be met. If you expect your team to achieve the near impossible, you could all suffer as a result.
Provide Flexible Hours
No two people are productive at exactly the same time throughout the day. While you may enjoy the traditional nine to five hours, others prefer to start later, earlier, or even split their work between several different times. To get the most from your team, you should allow them more flexible work hours. This takes the pressure off and is particularly helpful for staff with children.
Encourage Healthier Living
Mental and physical health are greatly linked, meaning that, if you take care of your body, you’ll feel better in your mind. For this reason, you should encourage healthier living by creating a gym space and offering healthy snacks and lunches. You should also provide health and safety training to staff. This reduces the chance of employees getting sick or injured in the workplace.
Share Your Profits
When it seems as though your boss doesn’t appreciate your work, it can be incredibly frustrating. This is especially true when you can see money coming in, but don’t feel as though you’re getting your fair share. If your company is profitable, you should show staff you care by sharing the wealth. Even if yours isn’t, there are other rewards and incentives that cost very little.
Improve The Office
A working environment can be a major source of stress if it isn’t designed properly. However, there’s no one size fits all design that you can go with. Because of this, you should speak to your employees and ask what you can do to improve the office. Typical suggestions include adding plants and letting staff decorate their individual spaces. You should also ensure it stays clean.
Open Your Door
Your team needs to know that they can talk to you about anything that might be bothering them. Unfortunately, this just won’t come across if you keep yourself locked away in your office all day every day. To show that you’re always available, you should introduce an open door policy.
You can also add a suggestions box for staff who would rather not speak to you directly. Your employees are your number one asset, so make sure that you look after them by tackling their stress.
