Stress Awareness Month – How Can Businesses Help Their Workers?

There were over 488,000 reported cases of stress, anxiety and depression in the UK last year, how can employers help reduce this number?

According to No Panic, a registered UK charity who help people with anxiety disorders, around three quarters of sufferers do not get any professional help. This April for Stress Awareness Month, we'll look at how both employers and employees can help combat stress in the workplace.

What can employees do for Stress Awareness Month?

No Panic give the following pointers as advice for someone who suffers from anxiety:

• Talk about Stress and its effects
• Share your coping mechanisms
• Share openly where you can get help
• Be nice to those who are stressed and anxious
• Look after yourself

What can employers do for Stress Awareness Month?

Back in March, we wrote about a report by ACAS which showed that nearly half of UK employees don't take their full entitlement of leave each year. Additionally, 44% of respondents fed back that they continued to work in some capacity whilst on leave, and 13% had been contacted by their line manager.

Managing absences more efficiently is the first step to reducing stress in your workforce. Not only does it mean that employees can check dates, book and receive approvals or rejections simply and easily, it also means that other people within the company can check if their colleagues are on holiday, and if so, refrain from contacting them with work-related issues during their time off.

Business should encourage staff to take all of their holidays, as it reduces the changes of burnout and means your staff are mentally and physically refreshed.

IRIS offers a comprehensive range of cloud HR software designed for all businesses. Just like our range of Human Resources softwareour cloud options also feature modular add-on features meaning you only pay for the tools you need. This means you can add stress-reducing tools like employee timesheet software to monitor hours worked, form builder software for employee feedback, and talent management software to help them realise their potential.

IRIS also offer absence management and holiday booking software. Employees can easily submit holiday and sickness requests to their line manager to approve or decline. Our HR software keeps track of used, pending and available absence totals, automatically calculates an individual’s Bradford Factor and provides a team calendar of leave booked by colleagues. This means you can stay on top of your workforce’s holidays easily and hassle-free.

If managing holidays more effectively is something you’d like to begin doing, browse our HR software today.