Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a national business group with a focus on health, recently took a survey among 275 employers to find out the key issues affecting employee productivity.

Their findings show the stress was identified by 72% of the employers as a key issue relative to productivity.

Stress has been building in the workplace as employers find it increasingly necessary to have more work done by fewer employees. The result has been that employees have been asked to take on additional responsibilities, work longer hours, cross train with other departments, and do more multitasking.

After stress in the survey, 59% said a key issue affecting employee productivity were personal and family issues. Personal and family issues include such items as day care, family illnesses, marital stress, financial troubles, and other personal issues.

Following close behind in third place, 58% cited chronic medical conditions. This issue barely squeaked ahead of unscheduled absences.

Stress becomes an issue because so many people are unable to deal with stress. A certain amount of stress is necessary and an important part of daily life. However people often will ignore this routine stress until it amplifies and starts to take a toll on their life.

What you can do

As an employer, you are able to do many things to help reduce stress in the workplace. Here are just some suggestions:

==> increase the lighting, particularly natural lighting, it has many workplaces as possible

==> do not overcrowd your employees, provide as much space as possiblespread live plants throughout the workplace as they create calmness

==> align an individual employees ability to handle stress with the normal stress of each position -- the use of employee of assessments is vital in this endeavor

==> encourage employees to cut absenteeism through programs that reward attendance or unused sick payprovide stress management classes for your employees -- companies like Max Impact offers viable stress management classes on-site or online

The bottom line with stress is that an employer can have a huge impact on the stress levels of the employees.

Through proper training and proper site management, stress can be significantly reduced.

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Rick Weaver is an accomplished business executive with a wealth of experience in retail, market analysis, supply chain enhancement, project management, team building, and process improvement. Building on a strong retail background, Rick moved to full supply-chain involvement, working with hundreds of companies to improve sales, processes, and bottom-line results.

As Rick's interaction in varied industries expanded, he became troubled as he increasingly noticed that people and companies had untapped or unfocused talent.

Coupled with Rick’s passion for training and development, popular style of interactive workshops and seminars, and strong desire for continuous improvement, he founded Max Impact Corporation to be singularly focused on helping individuals and organizations achieve high performance.

Rick is a popular speaker at seminars, workshops, and conferences. He has spoken in 43 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and in Canada and Puerto Rico. He is available to speak at groups of all sizes.

Contact Rick at 248-802-6138 or [email protected].

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