Estimates are that stress costs businesses $300billion a year.

Stress is becoming a serious problem for American employers, butthe ones paying the highest price are the employees.

The American Psychological Association (APA) Center forOrganizational Excellence finds that one-third of working Americansare currently experiencing chronic stress from work, but only 36percent said their organization provides sufficient resources tohelp them manage that stress.

Causes of stress in the workplace

The causes of stress in theworkplace vary from industry to industry, but common denominatorsinclude low salaries, excessive workloads, few opportunities forgrowth or advancement, lack of social support, conflicting demandsor unclear performance expectations, and not having sufficientcontrol over job-related decisions.

While some argue that stress in the workplace can increaseefficacy, it becomes a problem when the stress becomes chronic.

Chronic stress is a problem for people who are particularly badat separating their work and personal lives. They bring stress homewith them in the form of a smartphone, which results in constantpressure to respond to emails outside of hours, causing employeesto multitask in a way which is unnatural for the brain.

Greater speed and the always-on lifestyle have led to an inverseability for our brains to process information and thus acorresponding increase in national stress levels.

Employees need to feel useful, not used

U.S. workers put in more hours on the job than the labor forceof any other industrial nation, where the trend has been just theopposite, according to the American Institute of Stress (AIS). The$300 billion that U.S industries pay annually as a result of stresscomes from accidents, absenteeism, employee turnover, diminishedproductivity, and direct medical, legal, and insurance costs.

To reduce stress, it is critical to ensure employeesthrive in their work.

This can be done by fostering an environment where managementcarefully considers how they delegate work and offers usefulfeedback.

Happy employees give the organization and company a positiveimage and reputation, which is crucial for their business. Socialmedia sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, are commonly used by jobseekers to find out what current employees think, and (maybe moreimportantly) feel, about the company.

How employers are working to reduce stress forstaff

Companies have tried various methods to tackle the stressproblem.

In Europe, one successful attempt was recently carried out by anItalian textile company, who realized that constant communicationand the pressure to respond to emails quickly were one of the maincauses of stress.

As a result, they banned internal work emails for a week as anexperiment. What they found was that with limited access to emails,employees experienced significantly lower stress.

The company concluded, “These findings highlight the benefits ofchecking emails less frequently to reduc psychological stress.Lower stress, in turn, predicted higher well-being on a diverserange of well-being outcomes.”

Bryan Richards, managing partner at health and safetyconsultants Arinite, has expressed concerns about the increasingstress at work: “It is important to remember that employers have alegal duty of care towards their employees. The modern way ofworking in an office is fast and constant. If uncontrolled, thiscan result in excessive physical and mental pressure leading tostress related ill health, which is harmful for the business andthe employee. All businesses should have a health and safety policyimplemented.”

“Mental health was not considered in the past as it is today,”Richards says. “The cause of 'nervous breakdowns' in the past wereoften considered to be a weakness in the individual, rather than afault of management and working procedures.”

If you feel that limited access to emails could reduce stress inyour workplace, it's worth a try. Regardless of whether it wouldwork is another question, but the importance of reducing stress isdefinite: As predicted in a recent article titled “5 HR trends in2016, “competition for workers, demand for flexible benefits andpressure for more productive and healthier workers” is somethingfuture employers simply have to consider.

A health and safety policy should do thefollowing:

• recognize the need to assess work activities that may be deemedmore stressful, so that an action plan to minimize the risk andeffects of stress can be implemented;

• give management commitment to encouraging a supportive culturewhere colleagues assist each other to ease peaks in workload;

• incorporate procedures to include ensuring that staff areproperly resourced and trained to undertake their roles and thatthe personnel selection process matches individuals to the demandsof each job function.