High stress levels can negatively impact employees’ day-to-day lives in both large and small ways. Stress can show up as body aches, angry outbursts, a lack of focus, or even feelings of depression or anxiety. Prolonged stress can also dampen workplace productivity — as well as employees’ health and well-being.

By drawing attention to the damaging effects of stress, HR managers can help their teams begin to address the problem. Don’t ignore employees’ stress levels or assume they’ll self-correct. Instead, make this fall a season to talk openly about the importance of mental well-being.

Build Honest Dialogs
When it comes to managing stress, acknowledgment is key. People may feel pressured to downplay or deny their emotional struggles, especially at work. As a manager, you have the power to flip that script. Take steps to create a work environment that embraces honest and open discourse around anxiety and mental health. 

• Introduce a series of articles focused on stress awareness in your office newsletter or social media platforms.
• Develop a poster campaign to normalize honest responses when someone at work asks, “How are you doing?”
• Invite employees to speak openly with managers if they’re experiencing stress at home or work.

Limit Destructive Messaging
Your staff may experience heightened stress simply from tracking daily news headlines. In fact, how to deal with news-related stress has emerged as a frequent concern among workers of all ages. Encourage your team members to stay aware of the news in a healthy way.  

• Create messaging about limiting social media “doomscrolling” before bed. Offer tips for nighttime activities that promote relaxation and sound sleep, like reading, taking a bath or working a puzzle.
• Develop an email campaign to highlight the role of media fatigue and mental health on overall well-being. Share tips for ways to engage with outside media in a way that prioritizes emotional health. Encourage staff to limit their news scrolling to 30 minutes a day, or one time per day, for example. Suggest ways to “unplug” from online media — including taking a walk or a bike ride — to help de-stress and regain a sense of personal calm.

Deal with Stress Openly
When employees experience stress at home or on the job, offer strategies to address it head-on. Create a workspace where people can talk about stress — and deal with it — openly. Employees will see they’re not alone in experiencing feelings of distress or anxiousness. 

• Offer guided, lunch-hour classes to introduce the stress-reducing power of yoga or meditation.
• Encourage employees to take short stretch breaks when they feel overwhelmed. Taking a break to get a coffee or walk around the office can help staff return to their workspace feeling refreshed and ready to move forward.
• Create incentives to try at-home stress relief methods, such as streaming workouts, app-based meditation and journaling. To encourage participation, design a month-long office raffle where employees earn tickets for each stress-reduction technique they try. Consider choosing a grand prize that relates to stress reduction such as mindfulness classes or stress-reduction devices.
• Develop a messaging series focused on “Tips for Managing Anxiety at Work.” Kick off the series with some of your favorite tips — like tackling small work tasks as they arise, rather than allowing them to become larger, more overwhelming to-dos. Then, invite staff to submit anxiety-busting strategies for sharing with others.

Mental health is a critical component of overall health. Support your teams with tools to promote stress reduction and emotional well-being for a healthier more productive workforce.