Managing Workplace Stress

The best gift you can give

Help your employees keep stress at manageable,

healthy levels

What’s the issue?

St ress can be de t r imen ta l t o emp loyee hea l th & pe r fo rmance .

80% of workers feel stress on the job

- Amer ican Inst i tu te o f St ress

Nearly half say they need help learning to

manage stress- Amer ican Inst i tu te

o f St ress

Not all stress is created equal.

•  Acute s t ress may improve menta l pe r fo rmance

•  Shor t - l i ved s t ress fu l s i tua t ions he lp genera te new b ra in ce l l s tha t improve your ab i l i t y to respond to fu tu re s t ress

Chronic stress has the reverse effect.

•  Resu l t o f manag ing comp lex p ro jec ts , consecu t i ve dead l ines , l ong days , and l im i ted vaca t ion t ime

•  Can cause hea l th i ssues , bu rnou t , and even mot i va te emp loyees to qu i t a job

What’s the solution?

Here ’s what we do a t Rhy thm Sys tems to

he lp .

“Remember, when times are rough, all

you need is… chocolate.”

-Gerald ine Solon A u t h o r

Well… maybe that’s not all you need.

We l ike chocolate, but we a lso wanted to create a

posi t ive, prec ise and ongoing method of

assessing and repor t ing work st ress.

First things first.

•  Peop le need to fee l sa fe enough to be hones t abou t the i r s t ress leve l

•  Our cu l tu re had to embrace be ing vu lnerab le

•  When peop le ra ise the i r hands , we had to be ab le to

o f fe r he lp

With those e lements o f sa fe ty and vu lnerab i l i t y i n m ind , we

pu t toge ther a KPI (Key Per fo rmance Ind ica to r ) to measure emp loyee s t ress

leve ls .

We developed an Employee Health Index.

How does it work?

Here ’s how we use the Employee Hea l th

Index .

We Use the Employee Health Index Every

Week

Before our weekly meetings, team members assess and rate their work stress level and record it in

their team’s dashboard. We use a Red-Yellow-Green® rating scale.

Green = Feeling Balanced

Th is i s t he goa l . Th ings fee l comfo r tab le , t he re may be a good rou t i ne es tab l i shed , and th ings

a re under con t ro l .

Yellow = Feeling Full

Work loads may be heavy, t igh t dead l ines may be

ahead, e tc . We take these ser ious ly and

d iscuss them fu l l y in our week ly meet ing to

de termine i f the person needs ex t ra he lp .

Red = Feeling Overwhelmed

Whi le i t is rare, th is s ta tus resu l ts in

immediate act ion. We commit our t ime and

at tent ion to develop ing a p lan to lessen our

teammate ’s load.

SuperGreen = Bring It On

Also rare, th is s ta tus means the employee is ready to take on more.

They have bandwidth to spare and can tack le

someth ing new or he lp o thers .

What are the results?

Here ’s what the Employee Hea l th

Index does fo r us .

The p rocess has the added benefi t o f encourag ing team members to work toge ther to

ba lance the co l lec t i ve work load ra ther than hav ing a

manager in te rvene .

Avoid Staff Burnout

In the long run , the g roup bu i lds un i t y and cohes ion ,

wh ich a re necessary fo r h igh per fo rming teams.

Build a High Performance Team

Looking for a better way to manage your team’s stress level?

Check out our book, Rhythm: How to Achieve Breakthrough Execution and Accelerate Growth. The book offers practical methods and tools to help streamline strategic planning, align teams, and stay on track with

KPIs and dashboards.