April marks Stress Awareness Month, a campaign designed to increase awareness about stress and promote ways to deal with it.
According to the Mental Health Foundation, 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope – this is a scary statistic! The thing with stress is, it can affect you both physically and mentally and can also cause health problems like heart disease, problems with the immune system, insomnia and digestive problems.
It’s important for managers to understand what is causing their staff personal stress and try and implement steps to reduce any impact within their control, this will not only result in a happier workplace but can improve output too. As an employer, you can help by making sure your employee has a manageable workload, that they take regular breaks and have your support. You could also try and encourage staff to take part in some form of exercise by arranging something in your office or having a corporate membership deal at a local gym – exercise is great way to get the endorphins going and a fantastic way of reducing stress. A healthy diet can also play a really big role, if you don’t have your own canteen, how about finding a healthy lunch offering locally and seeing if they can deliver.
Recruitment can be a very challenging industry to work in but finding great staff to join your team can also be stressful.
So how can you eliminate some of the stress? Read our top 7 tips on how to make recruiting as “stress free” as possible:
- Be clear on the role you are recruiting for and the skills that are required.
- Draw up a comprehensive but not overwhelming job specification.
- Advertise your job on all the main job boards and social media to ensure you’re getting your job under the noses of the best candidates out there.
- Be honest about the culture of your company, if your company oozes a relaxed, fun atmosphere, make sure you get that across as it may not suit all.
- Don’t wing the interview, make sure you offer a structured interview and ask the same questions of each candidate so that you can compare them fairly.
- Make your decision quickly. If you’ve completed the interviews and there is a candidate that you are keen to hire, make the offer swiftly. Don’t presume that they’ve only had an interview with you.
- Be flexible with your offering, don’t lose out on a best candidate because they want a slightly higher salary or the option to work from home occasionally.
So, in summary, be prepared before embarking on the recruitment process, be aware of the stress levels of your current staff, have support available to them and make sure they know it and lastly, look after yourself – a stressed manager/employee can make the team feel unnecessarily stressed, make time to relax and learn to delegate and set achievable deadlines for yourself.