Reducing stress can boost production

DINING OUT: Newport Harbor Company’s Ben Emmons, marketing account manager, left, and Kristin Fahey, human resource manager, center, discuss dining options with Bowen's Wine Bar & Grille’s Bob Schone, dining room supervisor, right foreground, and waiter Brian White. / PBN PHOTO/CATIA CUEN
DINING OUT: Newport Harbor Company’s Ben Emmons, marketing account manager, left, and Kristin Fahey, human resource manager, center, discuss dining options with Bowen's Wine Bar & Grille’s Bob Schone, dining room supervisor, right foreground, and waiter Brian White. / PBN PHOTO/CATIA CUEN

Ever wish you could pick up your dry cleaning, deposit a check, or grab last-minute dinner ingredients while at work – errands you often struggle to find time for during the daily grind?
You’re hardly alone and, in some cases, employers are listening.
“Some major employers use concierge services so that workers can concentrate more on work than trying to fulfill personal and family responsibilities,” said David Wudyka, president of Westminster Associates, a human resources consulting firm in Wrentham, Mass.
The point, Wudyka said, is to help employees manage a better work-life balance than appears to be going on in much of today’s workforce and at all employment levels.
Forty-one percent of chief financial officers interviewed for a survey by Accountemps, a job-search-services firm with offices nationwide, said their main work-related stress came from trying to find a balance between their work and personal demands topping a list of expected grievances ,including office politics and co-worker conflicts, industry-education challenges, higher workloads and a challenging commute.
“With chief financial officers working in such a finite [environment] you’d think the greatest source of stress would be getting rights,” said Sarah Pontarelli, Providence branch manager for Accountemps. “I think over the past three or four years, people have really felt [they have to] take on as much as they possibly could for job security.”
The Accountemps survey was conducted by an independent search firm of 1,400 CFOs from a random sample of United States companies with 20 or more employees.
The company’s chairman, Max Messmer, said in a statement that businesses should be concerned about their employees’ ability to maintain a work-life balance and work to help alleviate that stress source.
“Organizations that commit to these efforts enhance morale and productivity and make their business more appealing places to work,” he said. How to do that falls to human resources and, in part, to executives to help set the correct tone dependent on business size and employee needs.
“I don’t think [executives] are stressed more today than others [though] it could be assumed if you believe that executives work longer hours,” Wudyka said. “There’s no doubt [the recession] has changed things. Employers are responding in various ways.”
John Geysen, communications supervisor at Collette Vacations in Pawtucket, said his company adjusts summer hours as one way to help employees who may at other times feel overworked.
“Human resources does a nice job of creating the sense that work and life don’t have to compete against each other,” Geysen said. “The executive team sets an entrepreneurial tone. Collette has always been a family-owned company. I think that’s why we manage this so well.”
A flexible work schedule is one of Accountemps’ suggested ways to, as Pontarelli said, help keep employees from feeling as though they are “tied to your desk.”
Wudyka agreed – if a flexible schedule fits well for employers and workers.
He pointed to a time when he had two assistants who both worked on flex hours and both were dependent on that schedule. His own business needs allowed for that but he acknowledged it isn’t always the case.
“[These] schedules are wonderful, but it takes people out of that unified office of communication,” he said. “[Also] if someone says you can work on weekends or nights, it imparts a personal responsibility.”
He points out that, though ignored feelings of work overload are what often lead to employee stress, it can be difficult to self-manage.
Pontarelli said a way to remain in charge of that is to set clear boundaries. If you are home during work hours on the company clock, you should be working. The idea is not to take a break from doing work; it’s to work in a different environment to reduce stress.
“Or, instead of a commute to work, you’re staying home [and working on a project] and getting in a little bit later,” Pontarelli said. “It depends on what your function is and if it makes sense. There are other [companies] that on a Friday close at noon and that’s a nice bonus. It may cost a little but having your employees’ morale up pays back dividends.”
Morale is reported to be good at Newport Harbor Company, where flexible schedules aren’t always an option in the hospitality-centered company, thanks to its employee-owned structures. But that’s not the only thing that keeps people working there.
Kristen Fahey, NHC’s director of human resources, said the company has various programs in place to help employees manage stress.
“We strongly encourage our employees to use their earned time off. We don’t allow a buy-back program [on vacation time],” she said. “We feel this is critical to providing a work-life balance and it rejuvenates people’s creativity and, frankly, just reduces their overall stress.”
She credits a commitment from the corporate level in helping to get employees to participate in a recently held series of wellness programs aimed at helping workers manage stress by managing the way they react to their environments.
Programs are also centered on coping skills and NHC regularly promotes the benefits of exercises as an aid to emotional health and stress management.
“I think one thing we’re learning is that stress is really induced internally and not entirely by external factors,” Fahey said. “I think there’s stress in every single position in every single job and it’s how you respond to that. As the employer, I think it’s our responsibility to provide guidance and confidence.” &#8226

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