Coping with the changes due to the pandemic is stressful for everyone. We are all individuals with varied sources of stress in the workplace and tolerance Employers, employees, bosses and workers alike find their worlds turned upside down.
Facts:
- We are all affected
- Our ability to cope and adapt is very individual
- Our coping may affect others around us (e.g. aggression, bullying, negativity)
- People who work well under normal circumstances may struggle now.
Under normal circumstances manager or team leaders can pick up on signs of individual stress and can respond accordingly. What do we do now, when stress is all around us, in every direction? How can a responsible leader look after their team, maybe make small changes to spread the load evenly or signpost employees to services available to them?
This is why Thomson Screening has developed a targeted, actionable Stress Factor questionnaire that can highlight where risks are and point towards likely actions. And Stress Factor Checker delivers the actionable information to employers to enable effective, fast interventions.
The questionnaire is a non-clinical – it won’t tell you how much stress a person is under, but it will only inform you about the risk factors. It won’t tell you how a person is coping, but it can tell you what they would appreciate help with the most and you will also be able to identify issues across the workforce.
It boils down to 4 simple actions that you, the employer can consider changing to improve employee wellbeing during Covid-19:
- The space: where the person is working; maybe the commute to work is too stressful or the equipment or the surroundings cause extra stress, or something simple like making the coffee machine more accessible
- The time: maybe the work pattern that was OK previously is now unmanageable or the person simply needs extra rest before returning to work
- And the people: is the team dynamic or composition still OK? Maybe there are signs of bullying or lack of support
- Getting help: maybe this is a good way to ask
Some actions from the data may not be possible, at least not all at the same time, but if you can do something, you don’t want to guess, you need to assess and have the data and analysis on your screen.
Similar to the Covid-19 Isolation Checker, your workers just complete a simple but very specific questionnaire online. Questions will explore areas of current situation and risk factors that are related to stress. There are many factors that influence this and you can see them all.
“Under normal circumstances manager or team leaders can pick up on signs of individual stress and can respond accordingly. What do we do now, when stress is all around us, in every direction?“
Our management dashboards and screens have been developed with risk and flag management in mind and is used by NHS workers to manage large volumes of health questionnaires. All the answers are instantly mapped into a risk category that you can see either on an individual level or for groups or types of risk. And when we say, map, yes, we map this, by your location or work unit – without requiring any work by the employer.
We also help you manage the information and repeat the process weekly, because as part of your contingency planning you don’t want just a snapshot, but to build up a picture and predict, pre-empt and prevent problems building up.
You can read helpful, comprehensive guidance about employee wellbeing during COVID-19 here. We also recommend the WHO poster for employee health
Stress Factor Checker can be used independently or together with our Isolation Checker.
Get in touch with us to find out more.
