Cut the stress: with HR-provided training, employees can learn how to avoid what makes them tense - Training & Development Agenda

HR Magazine,  May, 2003  by Kathryn Tyler

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Stress is everyone's problem. It can be triggered by war talk, terror ism fears, family problems, personal debt, or any of the common tensions on the job-50-hour weeks, demanding bosses or concerns about workplace violence.

Stress can cause some health conditions and worsen others, experts say. It can decrease an employee's productivity and increase absenteeism. But it can be managed, particularly with the help of employee training provided by HR, and there's credible evidence that such training works.

A study conducted by researchers from the Nevada Stress Center in Reno showed that employees who participated in a stress management program took fewer sick days than the employees who did not take part. In addition, those who received stress management assistance visited doctors 34 percent less often than did their nonparticipating counterparts.

The conclusion, according to the abstract of the article, published in the March/April issue of Psychosomatic Medicine: "A work-site program that focuses on stress, anxiety and coping measurement along with small-group educational intervention can significantly reduce illness and health care utilization."

Stress management training also can cut workplace accidents. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the frequency of medication errors dropped by 50 percent at a particular hospital after it introduced a stress management program, and medical malpractice claims decreased by 70 percent. There were no such reductions at the 22 hospitals that did not implement such a program.

Stress the Facts

In offering stress management training, HR should make sure it is quantifiable and grounded in science, and that it doesn't appear "touchy-feely," some experts advise. Give employees a mountain of scientific evidence showing what stress is, what causes it and how it can affect one's health and job performance.

"Stress is the internal, physiological reaction to external events;' says Bruce Cryer, CEO of HeartMath, a stress research, training and technology company in Boulder Creek, Calif. Dozens of times a day, he says, stress-triggering events cause the body to produce hundreds of biochemical changes. "We are consistently flooding our system with biochemicals-mainly the hormones adrenaline and cortisol."

Stress can lead to headaches, fatigue, anxiety, muscle tension, insomnia, depression and other problems, according to experts. It can even cause or exacerbate ulcers, strokes, heart problems, back pain, diabetes, hypertension and dozens of other conditions.

The costs of stress to the economy can be seen in the nation's fast-rising health care costs. The American Institute of Stress, a nonprofit educational organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., estimates that up to 90 percent of all doctor visits are stress-related. In the workplace, the effects of stress can include irritability, fuzzy thinking and a decline in creativity. "Productivity and morale go down," says Cryer. "Teamwork fractures, absenteeism and safety issues increase, [and] retention becomes a problem." Citing the latest available statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says: "The median absence from work for cases of occupational stress was 23 days in 1997. This was more than four times the median absence for all occupational injuries and illnesses."

"Workers are more stressed now than ever in history," says L. John Mason, president of the Stress Education Center in Cotati, Calif. "The pace of change has accelerated. We have pagers, cell phones, e-mail and the Internet. We're plugged in and connected all the time." A 1999 study by NIOSH refers to a Northwestern National Life Insurance Co. survey finding that about four of every 10 workers say their job is "very or extremely stressful."

Of course, a circumstance can be stressful for some people and not others. For example, an experienced TV news director may not find a fast-approaching 6 p.m. deadline a source of stress, but a new intern might be very stressed about it. "The deadline is not the stress," Cryer explains. "A person's reaction to the deadline is the stress. An organization that eliminates the external factors without addressing the people will not make headway" in training employees to manage stress, he says.

In many instances, "stress is about needs not being met," says David Bowman, chairman of TTG Consultants, an HR consulting firm in Los Angeles. For instance, he says, an employee who likes to work independently may become stressed when a micromanaging supervisor is on the scene.

If employees are taught the dangers and harmful effects of stress, the information can be a powerful incentive for them to change their reactions to stress triggers. "Emphasize education and practical tools to use before, during and after stressful events," Cryer recommends. "Emotion and perception are key factors in getting leverage over stress." He says employees feel empowered when they learn that "all this is going on under the surface of my skin and I can control it."