StaffScapes Reveals How to Help Your Company’s Employees Perform Under Pressure

Pressure and stress are unavoidable in daily life, both in and outside of the workplace. High amounts of stress are harmful to one’s physical and mental health, though. Continuing to undergo stress with no proactive changes can even result in serious illness. 

Rather than throwing employees into stressful situations with little guidance on how to accurately navigate their duties under stress, companies can provide a healthier solution for both the organization and the employee. When pressure rises, leaders in the company can proactively help employees manage their performance while under stress. Below, top Colorado PEO, StaffScapes, details how:

Encourage a Different Approach to Pressure

For many new employees, training is required to understand company processes. Some companies use process training as an intimidation tool to force individuals to perform flawlessly under pressure. As imagined, this training tactic is not always the most effective.  

The perception of pressure can often be enough to cripple the mind. It is common for a thought process under stress to play out worst-case scenarios. To help coworkers avoid this mental battle, encourage employees to focus on a single task at a time. 

Provide a Stress Outlet 

Individuals often utilize coping mechanisms or an outlet to deal with personal stress. For some employees, the freedoms to apply helpful tactics are limited or unavailable in the office environment.  

To assist in expanding such limitations, companies should provide employees with alternative stress outlets to promote motivation. An excellent option to consider is wellness programs. Employees enjoy having access to health and fitness programs, and they lower insurance rates for businesses. Also, new hires often look for benefits such as fitness classes. 

Providing nutrient-dense food in the break room is another approach. Employees having access to healthy food when energy levels run low can make all the difference when facing fast-approaching deadlines. 

Manage Management 

One in three managers does not possess the correct skillset to handle high-stress situations. Ineffective communication and poor navigation can hurt a team’s performance level. 

Often, times of pressure trigger managers to become angry or completely withdraw. These toxic reactions can create a snowball effect for team failure. An unfit manager can damage a team’s morale. Such damage leads to missed deadlines, going over budget, or failing to meet company standards for producing quality work.

If a company needs a manager make-over, leaders should always encourage managers to seek feedback from employees. “Valuable managers never stop asking for performance feedback and never assume they handled situations with flying colors until collecting facts,” stated StaffScapes.

Require Employees to Leave Work at Work

A strong work ethic is an excellent characteristic for an employee to have, but only if they also know how to unplug when the day is over. Stressful workloads can often be tempting for employees to bring home, but companies should not encourage it. Employees who do not practice unplugging from work burn out quicker.