How to Manage Employee Stress — Part 1

Employee stress can be caused by many fac­tors in the work­place, and an impor­tant role of man­age­ment is to not only keep employ­ees engaged and pro­duc­tive, but to also acknowl­edge and teach employ­ees how to han­dle stress. Effec­tive stress man­age­ment will not only cre­ate hap­pier and more pro­duc­tive employ­ees, it will also mea­sur­ably improve busi­ness results.

Com­mon Causes of Employee Stress

Fol­low­ing are some com­mon causes of stress in con­tact centers.

• Lit­tle or no con­trol over work­ing conditions
• Repet­i­tive tasks, monotony
• Upset or dif­fi­cult customers
• Lack of nec­es­sary tools, infor­ma­tion, or resources to do job
• Unsat­is­fac­tory lead­er­ship or management
• Dif­fi­cult co-workers
• Non-working or poorly per­form­ing equipment
• Noise level
• Job inse­cu­rity
• Pres­sure to move quickly through calls, emails, or webchats
• Not know­ing what’s expected

Work-related stress is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make an effort to reduce it. Uncon­trolled or unac­knowl­edged stress can lead to decreased pro­duc­tiv­ity and increased employee turnover. Observe how employ­ees respond to stress­ful phone calls and activ­i­ties at work. Do they embrace the chal­lenges? Or do they run from them? Encour­age employ­ees to eval­u­ate their behav­ior when stressed. Tak­ing note of phys­i­cal and men­tal responses to stress­ful sit­u­a­tions will aid employ­ees in suc­cess­fully man­ag­ing their stress level.

Man­age Stress and Improve Busi­ness Results

By help­ing employ­ees to effec­tively man­age and reduce stress, you’ll see con­sid­er­able busi­ness improvements:

• Reduced turnover
• Decreased absen­teeism
• Improved call quality
• Higher pro­duc­tiv­ity
• Increased call efficiency
• Increased employee sat­is­fac­tion and loyalty
• Improved morale
• Reduced Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion claims
• Sta­bi­lized health insur­ance costs

Also, you’ll show employ­ees that you respect them. Tak­ing time to edu­cate employ­ees about stress man­age­ment shows you care about their well-being, and acknowl­edges the impor­tance of their role in com­pany suc­cess. Happy and healthy employ­ees are pro­duc­tive employ­ees who will trans­fer their pos­i­tive energy to cus­tomers, and cre­ate an excep­tional cus­tomer experience.

Con­tact cen­ter employ­ees have many exter­nal fac­tors con­tribut­ing to work stress. Off­set­ting these fac­tors with a dynamic work envi­ron­ment, peer col­lab­o­ra­tion, and effec­tive employee coach­ing will improve the pro­duc­tiv­ity of your con­tact center.

Down­load Best Prac­tices for Improv­ing Super­vi­sory Skills to learn what you need to know to increase employee engage­ment and reduce employee turnover.