Research by employee engagement, resilience and well-being specialists, Robertson Cooper, into work and non-work related stress has discovered that 47 per cent of the 3051 respondents have encountered a major stressful event that has had an important effect on them in the last six months. 30 per cent of those who said they had encountered a major stressful event said the event was work related.
Professor Ivan Robertson, founding director Robertson Cooper explains: “”Challenging, demanding work is healthy and enables people to get a sense of achievement. Work that creates major stress is nothealthy – it damages people and their productivity. Robertson Cooper is marking National Stress Awareness Day, 7 November, with the launch of a free online community called ‘Good Day at Work’ to help employees, leaders and well-being professionals learn, share experiences and drive change.”
Robertson continues: As the evidence continues to grow on the effects of stress, it was no surprise to find that both sets of
respondents who had encountered a major stressfulevent scored significantly less on all measures of health and well-being when compared to those who have not encountered a major stressful event.”
The research also showed that work-related stress issues have a larger impact on productivitythan stress from a non-related work encounter. As well as reporting lower productivity, people who had a work-related stress issue were also:
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Less engaged
More likely to report day-to-day physical health problems (such as insomnia, headaches,muscular aches and pains)
More likely to report day-to-day psychological health problems (such as constant irritability, feeling unable to cope and mood swings)
than those who have non-work related issues.
Professor Cary L. Cooper, founding director, Robertson Cooper comments: “Your best day at work is not your easiest, it’s the one where you feel a real sense of achievement. We know the theory of what creates a Good Day at Work – the Six Essentials of Workplace Well-being, resilience, good leadership – and we know the positive effects it has on individuals and organisations.
Putting this into practice is not always easy, nor is it just a job for HR;individuals, managers and senior leaders in all teams have a responsibility for the well-being of themselves and others. Good Day at Work is here to support everyone do exactly that. It’s about learning, sharing experience and driving change.”
To mark the launch, Professor Cary Cooper will be online at 10am, Wednesday 7th November for a live well-being Q&A. Members of Good Day at work are invited to put their questions to Cary and fellow Robertson Cooper Director, Gordon Tinline. Additional online releases will be happening on the site throughout the the day and going forwards, the ‘Good Day at Work’ online community will be a growing resource of free information on well-being. It is full of downloadable guides on ways to tackle the latest issues, case studies, newsarticles and video clips, while discussion forums allow members to have their say, share their experiences and offer advice.
