Managing Workplace Stress
The best gift you can give
Help your employees keep stress at manageable,
healthy levels
What’s the issue?
St ress can be de t r imen ta l t o emp loyee hea l th & pe r fo rmance .
80% of workers feel stress on the job
- Amer ican Inst i tu te o f St ress
Nearly half say they need help learning to
manage stress- Amer ican Inst i tu te
o f St ress
Not all stress is created equal.
• Acute s t ress may improve menta l pe r fo rmance
• Shor t - l i ved s t ress fu l s i tua t ions he lp genera te new b ra in ce l l s tha t improve your ab i l i t y to respond to fu tu re s t ress
Chronic stress has the reverse effect.
• Resu l t o f manag ing comp lex p ro jec ts , consecu t i ve dead l ines , l ong days , and l im i ted vaca t ion t ime
• Can cause hea l th i ssues , bu rnou t , and even mot i va te emp loyees to qu i t a job
What’s the solution?
Here ’s what we do a t Rhy thm Sys tems to
he lp .
“Remember, when times are rough, all
you need is… chocolate.”
-Gerald ine Solon A u t h o r
Well… maybe that’s not all you need.
We l ike chocolate, but we a lso wanted to create a
posi t ive, prec ise and ongoing method of
assessing and repor t ing work st ress.
First things first.
• Peop le need to fee l sa fe enough to be hones t abou t the i r s t ress leve l
• Our cu l tu re had to embrace be ing vu lnerab le
• When peop le ra ise the i r hands , we had to be ab le to
o f fe r he lp
With those e lements o f sa fe ty and vu lnerab i l i t y i n m ind , we
pu t toge ther a KPI (Key Per fo rmance Ind ica to r ) to measure emp loyee s t ress
leve ls .
We developed an Employee Health Index.
How does it work?
Here ’s how we use the Employee Hea l th
Index .
We Use the Employee Health Index Every
Week
Before our weekly meetings, team members assess and rate their work stress level and record it in
their team’s dashboard. We use a Red-Yellow-Green® rating scale.
Green = Feeling Balanced
Th is i s t he goa l . Th ings fee l comfo r tab le , t he re may be a good rou t i ne es tab l i shed , and th ings
a re under con t ro l .
Yellow = Feeling Full
Work loads may be heavy, t igh t dead l ines may be
ahead, e tc . We take these ser ious ly and
d iscuss them fu l l y in our week ly meet ing to
de termine i f the person needs ex t ra he lp .
Red = Feeling Overwhelmed
Whi le i t is rare, th is s ta tus resu l ts in
immediate act ion. We commit our t ime and
at tent ion to develop ing a p lan to lessen our
teammate ’s load.
SuperGreen = Bring It On
Also rare, th is s ta tus means the employee is ready to take on more.
They have bandwidth to spare and can tack le
someth ing new or he lp o thers .
What are the results?
Here ’s what the Employee Hea l th
Index does fo r us .
The p rocess has the added benefi t o f encourag ing team members to work toge ther to
ba lance the co l lec t i ve work load ra ther than hav ing a
manager in te rvene .
Avoid Staff Burnout
In the long run , the g roup bu i lds un i t y and cohes ion ,
wh ich a re necessary fo r h igh per fo rming teams.
Build a High Performance Team
Looking for a better way to manage your team’s stress level?
Check out our book, Rhythm: How to Achieve Breakthrough Execution and Accelerate Growth. The book offers practical methods and tools to help streamline strategic planning, align teams, and stay on track with
KPIs and dashboards.
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