Team Stress Can Effect Productivity
A business owner must manage the levels of stress in the organisation. This is essential for improved productivity levels and happy teams. This can be driven by both, policy as well as conscious effort. Mental stress is passed on from top to bottom, in every organisation. It is important to manage it at every level.
A Happy Workplace:
The organisation must envision to be a happy work place. This should be a part of the vision and mission of every company. Creating a happy work place, requires some ground work to keep each and every individual happy. Organising weekly laughter sessions is a very effective technique do away with stress levels and a dull workplace atmosphere.
Skill Development:
Helping employees in developing their skills and updating themselves helps in reducing the stress related to professional growth. Treating every employee like a human being and helping him or her plan for career development should be the goal of every manager. This builds a much needed level of trust among employees and gives them a sense of security at the workplace.
A Culture Of Appreciation:
Appreciating employees for the good work they are doing, builds a positive work environment. Team leads must pro-actively help the teams in achieving the expected levels of productivity. This should be done through encouragement, patience and acceptance of mistakes. Developing situations where they are coerced to perform, creates stress and reduces output. Every individual must be encouraged to come up with ideas and solutions. There should be a culture of equal opportunities for all employees at all times. This keeps the teams motivated and ready for more.
Health and Fitness:
A good manager isalways aware of the health and fitness levels of his team members. It must be ensured that all team members are happy and healthy. Employees must be provided with free health check-ups from recognised doctors on a quarterly basis, to ensure they are not going through stress or illness of any sort. Organising sporting events on weekends is a good way to improve team fitness and health.
Time Management Workshops:
Weekly time management workshops help in understanding the work levels of employees and the time they are using to complete the required tasks. Teams must be trained to manage their time well, to be able to complete their tasks on time. If some employees are stressed out because of the burden of work they have, the manager must listen to them carefully before setting his/her expectations. Teams must be trained divide their time into tasks. Using a time and task tracking software like Invoicera helps simplify the process. They should record their hours and add tasks on a daily basis. This helps alleviate the stress caused because of non-completion of tasks and non-achievement of goals. The timesheets must be carefully analysed for sudden downfalls in productivity. These should be discussed on an individual basis to reason out and solve the respective queries.
Managing Stressful Situations:
Stressful business situations may arise every now and then. This may happen because of non-achievement of goals on time or a systematic shortfall. The manager must ensure that this stress is not passed on to the team members. Failures should be taken as opportunities to motivate the teams for performance improvement. Gaps in the performance must be used to introspect and improve. Free riders in the team must definitely be penalised and others must be sought feedback and solutions. More participation must be encouraged to make the situation better. Minimizing stressful situations at the workplace, is a responsibility, every team lead should take, on an on-going basis.
