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Employee health

Stress is bad for business

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:14

At a time when employers need staff to be more productive to power companies out of the financial crisis, employees are crumbling, disempowered by stress.

The figures are staggering: workplace stress costs United States employers $200 billion a year in absenteeism, lower productivity, staff turnover, workers' compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses. And the United Nations' International Labor Organization says occupational stress is a "global epidemic."

Vicky Eriksson of The People Element which runs staff training courses says that although there are no ongoing formal studies on workplace stress in South Africa, “it could be costing the economy at least a billion rand a year. In 2004 the World Health Organisation called workplace violence in South Africa “alarming’ with half of all healthcare workers in government hospitals reporting verbal abuse, and 42,5 percent witnessing or being attacked at work (compared to 19,5 percent in private hospitals).”

Ebben van Zyl of the University of the Orange Free State noted that South Africans “experience abnormally high levels of stress” in the workplace compared to the rest of the world.

Eriksson said: “Look at the headlines: the rand drops to a new low, the International Monetary Fund slashes the global growth outlook, a mining group fires 5,000. Few people who read those headlines don’t experience anxiety – and in the workplace it causes overstressed bosses to push already overworked employees, who although frightened by their job prospects are exhausted, and so become angry and sabotage. This creates a lose-lose situation for everyone.”

The People Element which conducted it’s own survey of “employee happiness” last year will release those figures at a one day workshop on People Effectiveness@Work at Midrand on February 21. Local and international experts, “the new guru’s of the global upturn,” as Eriksson puts it will speak.

Her colleague Karin Wellman pointed to research from Harvard and the Florham-Madison Campus which shows that, “Employees work more today than they did 25 years ago - the equivalent of a 13th month every year. Staff get downsized but the work remains, so workloads are upsized.

“But the harder bosses push their smaller workforces the less able they become to perform well. This puts companies between a rock and a hard place because they fear taking on more staff in case the economy gets worse, but less capable employees also pose a threat.” Wellman said that: “Sixty percent of lost workdays each year can be attributed to stress. An estimated 75 to 90 percent of visits to health care providers are due to stress-related conditions, like sleep problems, depression and irritability, causing higher health care costs. Stressed employees tend to be irritable, make mistakes, lack creativity, become angry and even sabotage the company.”

And they may take it out on each other as long lists of complaints before the labour court and the CCMA show. It is estimated by the U.S. Justice Department that each year more than a million people are the victims of violence at work, accounting for about 15 percent of all violent crime. This causes a half million workers to miss 1,751,000 work days per year, and $55 million in lost wages. Wellman said: “In South Africa we see an increasingly militant work force that strike readily.”

Wellman and Eriksson say there are reasonably easy techniques bosses and employees can implement to turn the situation around without resorting to hiring additional staff. “Times are tough,” Eriksson said, “everyone needs to work smarter, but also with greater empathy.”

Do happy staff really create returns for companies? Britain’s Sytner Group, a major car retailer — ranked third in the Sunday Times 25 Best Big Companies to Work For 2010 — says yes, and can prove it. Sytner reported record profits of £56m last year, even though a year earlier profits fell 25% to £34m because of the global financial downturn, which hammered car sales. Geoffrey Page-Morris, chief operating officer, says putting staff first helped the company to turn the corner. “From 2008 to 2009 we increased our profitability by nearly 75%, which is unbelievable. It was an amazing performance if you look at the industry we are in.”

“People need to stop obsessing on the downturn,” Eriksson said, “now is the time to start creating the economic upturn and creating a happier workplace is a key ingredient to success.”