There’s nothing new about anxiety in the workplace, save for the fact that there’s simply more of it now than there has ever been.

Today’s companies must consider how their work environment impacts the emotional and mental health of their employees and actively take steps to reduce worker anxiety.

Here are the top 10 causes of stress at work, what you can do to help alleviate it, and where to get additional support for your company and employees.

1. Lack of Paid Sick Leave

The novel coronavirus and COVID-19 are still running rampant in the United States and at the time of writing, it shows no signs of slowing down. Employees are highly concerned that they will become infected with the virus and not be able to take off work.

This is also problematic for your business; employees that cannot feasibly take time off until they test negative come into your workplace and transmit the coronavirus to other staff and patrons.

Not only does this directly impact your company, but it also allows the virus to continue to spread unfettered, risking overall public health.

How to Fix It

Offer employees robust sick leave coverage and make it one of the most attractive options in your benefits package. Be accommodating when you can and never make employees feel bad about needing to use their sick time.

Ensuring that employees don’t have to choose between working while sick or missing a paycheck reduces worker anxiety and benefits your business and community at large.

2. Organizational Changes

Sudden changes in how a company does business is a top stressor for employees. This has never been more evident than when companies across the globe had to quickly transition to remote workforces to stay in business.

While these changes ultimately keep businesses alive during uncertain times, they can be stressful for employees to navigate.

You can’t help when you have to make changes to your organization to continue generating profit and preserve its longevity. However, you can help how your employees are informed of these changes and what support they have available.

How to Fix It

Send emails and hold meetings informing your employees of organizational changes before they take place. Letting your staff know what to expect is key.

Once the changes go into effect, follow up with your employees and give them space to ask questions, air grievances, and get help navigating new processes.

3. Lack of Adequate Equipment and Resources

It’s an employer’s responsibility to ensure employees in each department have the equipment and resources they need to achieve individual, departmental, and company goals. If your employees lack these resources, they will be unable to perform their job duties according to your expectations.

This can lead to frustration that often culminates in a worker leaving the company; it’s highly stressful for employees to be in a position of failure that isn’t their fault and they have no ability to change.    

How to Fix It

Take the time to review the needs of each department in your company and if there are any that you’re clearly not meeting, act right away to ameliorate the issue.

You can also ask department heads for feedback or send out an anonymous survey to get information on how employees feel in general about the equipment and resources they have access to and what suggestions they have for improvement.

4. Changes to Job Expectations

Revisions in job responsibilities and expectations are often equally as stress-inducing as organizational changes.

This can be exacerbated when a company expects or demands more from an employee without providing the training needed or the raise in pay to compensate for additional responsibility.

How to Fix It

Again, make sure affected employees know ahead of time if there are going to be changes to their job descriptions, tasks, or overall function in the workplace.

Communicate with employees whose responsibilities are changing about what they can expect, as well as other staff members they will be working with. Be sure to touch base with your workers again after they’ve had some time to settle into their new roles to make sure their acclimating adequately.

Address any employee concerns as quickly as possible, and make sure you provide good support for employees undergoing changes in their job expectations from the beginning to the end of the process.

5. Poor Work/Life Balance

Employees today have little tolerance for jobs that don’t allow them any time to invest in themselves or enjoy their lives outside of work.

Without a good work/life balance, employees begin to feel trapped in their jobs and their work performance begins to suffer. Many high-talent recruits won’t work for companies that don’t actively prioritize a healthy work/life balance for all employees.  

How to Fix It

Make work/life balance a priority within your company. Help your team understand what constitutes a healthy work/life balance and what the benefits of having one are for both your company and its individual employees.

Do your best to show employees that their time is valuable to you, such as striving to wrap up meetings on time or making sure that each of your staff members get their full allotted break time during their work shift.

6. Unfair Workloads

Employees are quick to notice when they are doing more work than their colleagues – and, they’re even quicker to take note when your company does nothing to even the workload.

Unfair workloads can lead to workplace disputes, burnout, and other issues that impact your employees’ health and your company’s bottom line.

How to Fix It

Make sure you’re paying attention to how much work you’re giving each of your employees and that it’s relatively fair across the board.

Avoid the classic temptation to give the most work to your best performing employee simply because you need the work done and you need it done well. If there’s a team member that isn’t performing up to standards, don’t shift their responsibilities onto other workers to make up for it.

Instead, make sure you’ve provided the less productive employee with enough training and support to ensure that they’ve been given the best possible chance to succeed. If it’s still not working out, you may need to consider a replacement.

7. Micromanagement

If you’ve hired the right team members, they should be able to work relatively independently once they are trained and have had some time on the job to get their feet wet. Micromanagement can be extremely stressful for employees and even those who know what they’re doing will make more mistakes when they’re being micromanaged.

How to Fix It

Give employees the space they need to work without too much interference. Check in with your team members when they reach project milestones, or at the end of a specified time period.

It does mean also allowing employees the space they need to fail; however, failure is also a critical teaching tool in the workplace. Often, it takes an employee only once to get something wrong to learn the right way.

8. Inadequate Training

Your employees rely on you to show them how to do the job you want them to do. While it’s true that you’ve selected a new hire because they have at least some experience, remember that they still have no experience working with you or at your place of business.

Employees that aren’t provided the training they need to be successful on the job often end up frustrated and feeling stuck. They know they’re not performing up to your expectations, but they don’t know what to do about it.

How to Fix It

Ensure that your team has easy access to training materials in a wide variety of formats. Understand that there are different types of learners and offer more than one way to learn the information needed to be good at the job you hired them for.

Continue to provide ongoing training as a part of your workplace culture to foster employee efficacy and make your team feel supported in their roles with your company for as long as they work with you.

9. Lack of Growth Opportunities

Feeling stagnant, burned out, and like there aren’t any ways to move ahead can kill the motivation of even your best workers. Employees tend to perform their best when they have incentive and feel like there’s a goal they are working towards that will benefit them.

How to Fix It

Make sure your employees have access to growth opportunities within your company. When you replace a worker or create a new position, always look through your current staff for employees that may be a good fit.

Create titles, rewards, and recognition opportunities for staff members that have grown with your business.

10. Unpleasant Workplace Culture

One of the most significant causes of worker anxiety is an unpleasant or hostile work culture. If your workplace isn’t a positive one to be in, this makes it much harder for employees to meet deadlines and put their best effort into the quality of their work.  

How to Fix It

Create a zero-tolerance policy for workplace discrimination, harassment, and hostility, whether your employees are physically present in your establishment or you’ve transitioned to a remote workplace.

At the same time, encourage positivity within your team by giving praise and ensuring any criticism you offer is constructive.

Join Our Webinar What Employers Can Do to Reduce Worker Anxiety Today

At Business Watch Network, we understand the negative impacts that workplace anxiety can have on both employees and the companies they work for.

Join our webinar What Employers Can Do to Reduce Worker Anxiety to learn more about what you can do to help lessen on-the-job stress and in turn, increase worker productivity and efficacy. Contact us today to find out how we can help you provide the best possible support to your team.