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What is Stress?
Stress is a hormonal response to feeling threatened or under pressure. When this happens, our bodies release a hormone called adrenaline, which gives us the boost we need to act fast in response to perceived danger. However, too much stress can quickly become a bad thing, causing physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.
Introduction
We all know that stress is a common feeling, and for far too many of us, experiencing it almost day-to-day at work is, unfortunately, almost guaranteed. In 2023, a study found that nearly half of UK workers were ‘running on empty’, suffering from burnout, work-related stress, and mental ill-health, of which costs the economy £28 billion every single year. However, suffering from stress is neither good in the long-term or short-term – it can play a primary role in the development of mental illness, insomnia, and other physical health issues such as strokes, heart attacks, and cancer. High levels of stress are completely unsustainable, both on a company level and an individual one.
In recognition of the impact stress of this scale can have on our lives, to round off Stress Awareness Month this year, we want to do all we can to help you keep your employees’ stress levels as low as possible. So, in this blog post, we’re giving you the full tour of all the services we offer at Thrive4Life, designed and catered to lower your team’s stress levels and keep your business happy and healthy.
Stress in the Workplace & Why Combatting It Matters
Investing thought, time, and energy into supporting your employees’ wellbeing can help lower the risk of work-related mental health problems across your organisation. After all, employee wellbeing lies at the heart of every business, where it holds the key to your company’s success.
A Closer Look:
- More than half of work-related illnesses involve poor mental health. Long-term sick leave is often caused by issues like depression, stress, or anxiety.
- Workplaces have become more intense and demanding, with the line between work and free time increasingly blurred – especially for those who work from home every day or in a hybrid work pattern. This is a huge driver for burnout.
- Stress causes high staff turnover. In 2023, Deloitte reported that 64% of managers considered quitting to find a job that would better support their wellbeing. This is corroborated by Koa Health, whose research shows that 95% of HR leaders say high levels of stress and burnout undoubtedly harm retention rates.
- Organisational barriers are often the cause of poor employee wellbeing. Company policies, heavy workloads, unsupportive workplace culture, and lack of education are the things most concerning managers.
- Combatting stress can increase employee engagement and job satisfaction by creating a calmer and happier team. More energy and better focus means higher productivity levels, too.
- Research has found that the reason for high stress levels is often due to increased surveillance of employees’ progress and lack of autonomy. High intensity, and therefore stress, at work can be caused by managers using technology to enforce unsustainable productivity targets, as well as constant staff shortages caused by low pay and excessive workloads.
- Issues like absenteeism, presenteeism, and leaveism quickly become costly. Combatting the issues which cause these attendance-related problems and working to reduce them can improve your team’s physical and mental health while saving your business money.
Chronic staff shortages, intrusive surveillance tech and poor enforcement of workers’ rights have all combined to create a perfect storm. It’s little wonder that so many feel exhausted at the end of their working day.
Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary
T4L Services
Consultancy
This is a great place to start if you don’t know where to start! We help identify your company’s specific health and wellbeing needs and develop a robust and interconnecting strategy that supports creating and growing a work environment that has employee wellbeing at its heart. How does this work? We have a tried and tested 3-stage process:
1. Identify. We work closely with you to determine your company’s most pressing health and wellbeing needs, developing a strategy that addresses these.
2. Solve. We help you build a strong, wellbeing-centric strategy that follows our eight key action points:
- Make a commitment
- Build a wellbeing strategy
- Create a positive work culture
- Provide training
- Manage your health and wellbeing strategy
- Provide the right support
- Help employees thrive
- Monitor and evaluate your approach
3. Evaluate. According to your goals, our team will monitor the success of your new strategy, aiming to ensure long-lasting, measurable change that benefits everybody.
Health and Wellbeing Training
Our services are designed to equip everyone in your workplace with the knowledge and skills needed to promote a positive, healthy working environment.
1. Line Manager Training in Managing Stress and Mental Health. This 90-minute course for line managers covers effective management of employee stress and mental health.
2. Wellbeing Champion Training. Wellbeing Champions exist within a business to champion the cause of mental and physical wellbeing in the workplace, promoting and driving change. This training course will equip these volunteers with the know-how and tools they need to promote awareness of health issues or topics and support their colleagues with any wellbeing issues they encounter.
3. Mental Health First Aid Training. This course teaches delegates how to recognise when someone is dealing with poor mental health, approach and talk to them about their emotional wellbeing, and assist someone in crisis. Attendees will receive an MHFA England-certified qualification.
4. Mental Health Skills Development. This course is a supplementary course designed to develop and refresh the skills of those already qualified as Mental Health First Aiders.
Having completed the Mental Health First Aid course, I now feel equipped to deal with an emergency situation and am aware of the more subtle signs of those who may be struggling with their mental health. Considering the prevalence of mental ill-health, I feel these are invaluable skills to have.
Shane, Osteopath.
Health and Wellbeing Promotion
The more we know about our physical and mental health and wellbeing, the more we can support ourselves and each other. That’s why education is at the centre of our services.
1. Health and Wellbeing Discovery Hub. We designed our Discovery Hub to help you take the headache out of your health and wellbeing provision. With an ever-expanding library of articles on the latest research and developments in a vast range of health and wellbeing topics, our Hub’s focus is on increasing employee proactivity and interest in health and wellbeing.
2. Wellbeing Talks and Webinars. From leading medical consultants and wellbeing experts straight to your team, our online or London-based talks and webinars empower employees to lead healthier and more productive work lives. Some of our past events include:
- “The Power of the Gut Microbiome” with Daisy Tappenden, Nutritional Therapist.
- “The Secrets of Your Cycle: Unlocking Period Health” with Dr Varsha Jain, obstetrician and gynaecologist.
- “Hidden Diabetes: The Symptoms You Might Miss” with Professor Ketan Dhatariya, specialist consultant in diabetes and endocrinology.
- “Decoding Stress: Exploring the Mind-Body Connection” with Karen Liebenguth, executive leadership coach and mindfulness/meditation teacher.
3. Health and Wellbeing Publications. Fascinating, fully-designed health and wellbeing newsletters that our experts can tailor to target specific audiences, produced monthly by our experts. By providing regular, engaging content, we aim to inspire your employees to take charge of their own health and wellbeing.
4. Health and Wellbeing Promotional Stand. Promotional stands designed to raise awareness about health and wellbeing at corporate events.
5. Mini Health Checks. Quick 15 or 20-minute on-site employee health checks improve your team’s knowledge of their key health statistics, including blood sugar levels, BMI, and cholesterol. These checks are quick, easy, and fuss-free, giving your employees the information they need to care for their health and detect early warning signs of any developing physical health issues.
Mindfulness and Meditation
Our mindfulness and meditation coach can help your employees experience lower stress levels, better focus, and improved overall physical and mental wellbeing. This session can cultivate positive thinking habits amongst your team and raise awareness about how we can all take better care of our minds.
Employers have a statutory duty of care to their employees and need to do all they can to promote good mental health in the workplace and support those employees who become unwell.”
Dr Ananta Dave, the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ lead for wellbeing and retention
A Closing Note
As we round off Stress Awareness Month for another year, it’s important to remember that stress affects people all year round – it’s not something we can ‘fix’ during a single month. Putting your employees’ wellbeing first should be a company priority 365 days of the year, and by engaging with our services, you can build an all-encompassing health and wellbeing framework that is nuanced, tailored to your team’s needs, longlasting, and above all – effective.
If you want to discuss our services with us, email us at info@thrive4life.co.uk or sign up for our mailing list, which delivers bi-monthly health and wellbeing content straight to your inbox.
Take the first step towards better health and wellbeing for your team today.
