Managing workplace stress through a new approach to wellbeing

International Stress Awareness Week is back, giving businesses a chance to reassess their wellbeing strategy. Research published in January 2024 potentially turned the workplace wellbeing industry on its head. In looking at wellbeing from a fresh perspective, where should businesses begin?

The number of people expressing stress, sadness, anxiety, anger, or worry has reached its highest levels since 2009, according to the UN’s 2023-2024 Human Development Report.

Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report found that 41% of employees experience “a lot of stress” and that people in companies with bad management practices are nearly 60% more likely to be stressed than people in well-run companies.

Each year, one in six UK employees experiences a mental health issue at work, such as stress, anxiety, or depression, costing UK employers around £51 billion annually, according to Deloitte. Presenteeism is the largest contributor to this cost, where people work in spite of illness and don’t perform at their full ability, which costs employers around £24 billion each year.

What is stress?

According to the NHS, stress is a natural reaction to pressure or threat. Stress causes the body to release adrenaline, the hormone associated with ‘fight or flight’.

A little workplace stress can be a good thing, many people find they perform better under pressure. But too much stress can affect a person’s mood, body and relationships. When stress feels out of control, it can make a person feel anxious and irritable, and affect self-esteem.

Long-term or severe stress can lead to physical, mental and emotional exhaustion, often called ‘burnout.’ In 2019, the World Health Organization defined burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

– feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion.

– increased mental distance from one’s job.

– reduced professional efficacy.”

What’s the link between stress and disengagement?

Disengagement at work is a widespread problem, with 77% of the global workforce not actively engaged, according to Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report.

Gallup noted that “employees who dislike their jobs tend to have high levels of daily stress and worry, as well as elevated levels of all other negative emotions”,  with 54% of actively disengaged workers saying they experienced a lot of stress the previous day.

The stigma around stress

Stress is sometimes brushed under the carpet. When hired to help a client’s employees manage stress, Working Voices staff were asked by the client to change the name of our training course and refer to resilience instead.

Stress can be associated with working practices which leaders might be reluctant to address. Many prefer solutions aimed at tackling the impact of stress rather than its causes, such as wellbeing perks,  including everything from fruit bowls to occupational health specialists.

For employees, accessing mental health care at work may require them to reveal details to their line manager, which is not something everyone is willing to do. A survey by campaigners Rethink Mental Illness found that 88% of people severely affected by mental health issues feel that discrimination is widespread.

The survey also suggested that for 86% of people the fear of being discriminated against stopped them from doing things they wanted to do, which for 61% included applying for a job or promotion at work.

Tackling stress by improving company culture

In January 2024, Dr William Fleming, of Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre, published research assessing comments from 46,000 survey respondents on the outcome of wellbeing initiatives. Of the approximately 90 interventions that were mentioned, 89 had no positive effect on wellbeing.

Fleming wrote that he found “little evidence in support of any benefits from these interventions, with even some small indication of harm that would confirm fears from critics.” Only voluntary work was found to be of some benefit.

Fleming later contributed to the Work Wellbeing Playbook, published by the World Wellbeing Movement. The playbook advocates a holistic approach to wellbeing strategy, relying on a mix of initiatives based on a company’s circumstances.

Similarly, the Thriving at Work Framework, from the MindForward Alliance, offers a “roadmap…to building a mentally healthy workplace.”  The Framework highlights three areas that organisations can focus on to promote workplace mental wellbeing: organisational culture, working environment, and support for individuals.

Team engagement: a sustainable way of working

In recent years, we at Working Voices have been taking a similar in-depth look at effective wellbeing strategies, supporting clients who have encountered challenges to engagement and productivity.

Employers have become increasingly aware of the need to safeguard their people’s mental health. Many have invested in wellbeing interventions, yet disengagement and fatigue continue to undermine productivity.

Before we thought about better solutions, we wanted to know more about what we were trying to solve. This meant understanding the causes of stress and disengagement, which neither the Playbook nor Framework address in detail.

We found that disengagement, fatigue, and stress are not short-term effects but the deep-seated consequences of long-term problems. We explore these in detail in our forthcoming book Engaging Teams. For the short version, take a look at our article assessing the good, the bad and the unhelpful in workplace wellbeing.

Social wellbeing: a new approach to company culture

Our work on the causes of stress and disengagement led us to think about three questions for employers:

What are the causes of stress?

Employers who are reluctant to accept that their workplace practices may be stressful might prefer to think about resilience. Nevertheless, the growing need to genuinely safeguard people’s wellbeing persistently leads back to questions about managing stress. Companies that want to get the best from their people will have to choose whether or not to accept the truth about stress.

Are wellbeing interventions working? 

Employers who struggle with the truth about stress may try to get by with wellbeing perks like gym discounts and apps that monitor sleep, steps, or nutrition. These can now be regarded as a sticking plaster, hiding rather than preventing problems. How successful are they as part of a long-term solution?

Who benefits from the current strategy?

Typical wellbeing interventions have little impact partly because of their voluntary nature. Not everyone will monitor their own sleep, join the gym, or use mindfulness. When only a handful of individuals are trying these things, wellbeing is at best only an optional extra.

Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report found that two-thirds of leaders feel burned out at least sometimes. They know workplace stress is a problem – they’ve seen the data, heard it from their colleagues, and experienced it themselves. Beyond typical interventions, what can leaders try instead?

As part of our complete guide to wellbeing, we looked at relevant academic and business research stretching back over 30 years. We noticed that time and again, writers advocated one or more of a small group of sentiments: trust, respect, belonging, and psychological safety. Bringing these together, we developed a social approach to wellbeing.

Social wellbeing relies on a shift in culture. It shapes everything, from meetings etiquette to communication strategy to feedback, and it’s supported by a range of training modules. These were initially part of our Sustainable Human programme but they have recently been rebranded as Team Engagement. Our Team Engagement courses offer future skills that are learnable and effective. For employers looking to develop a better wellbeing strategy, they are a perfect place to start.