Stress prevention: reduce absenteeism and increase the working atmosphere

Are you a director or manager struggling with absenteeism? Do you see your profits evaporate and your company goal disappear on the horizon due to structural failure due to stress from your oh so important employees? Are you wrecking your head over the question of how to intervene effectively?

We can reassure you: there is really something to be done about high absenteeism due to illness. In fact, at Meulenberg Training & Coaching we provide a structural solution where the knife cuts both ways: both you and your employees will be a lot happier!

Work pressure leads absenteeism due to illness

We can’t ignore it any longer: work-related stress is a problem that should not be underestimated within companies and organisations and occurs in all sectors, and certainly not just in you.

Stress is healthy and part of our work ethic. It allows us to peak our performance for a while. Only when this stress lasts too long and causes problems do we talk about unhealthy stress that can make a person ill. Absenteeism causes underutilisation, high costs and countless other problems.

Figures from Statistics Netherlands show that work-related absenteeism has been at the forefront of work-related stress for years. That is more than 1 in 3 employees, a shocking number.

The general complaint about this workload is that people feel that there is no end to the flow of work and the result is snowed under by pressure and voltage. A rat race in which the finish never comes in sight, no matter how hard you run.

Reducing stress stops the downward spiral

As a manager, you can sometimes be ambushed by a report of illness due to work-related stress. Why didn’t you see that coming? Maybe you also don’t understand the cause of the stress and feel responsible for the failure of that fine colleague. Stress is like an oil slick. When someone reports sick, someone else will have to take over his or her duties. As a result, the pressure of work now falls on someone else. This creates a downward spiral.

As a manager, you are the one who can stop this process. If you allow the situation to run its course, this can have unpleasant consequences for your department or even for the entire company.

The influence of absenteeism due to stress and burnout on the success of companies

When one of your employees drops out due to stress or burnout, you as a company are immediately at a disadvantage:

• Employees who suffer from work-related stress fail more often than average with a variety of complaints.
• Stress reduces employee productivity.
• Employees with a burnout cost the company an average of € 80,000 a year.
• On average it takes 6 to 8 months to recover from a burnout, but can take up to about 2 years.
• The work of the sick employee comes on to the shoulders of colleagues, which means extra work pressure.
• If the work is outsourced to a temporary worker, this causes extra costs.
• Rising healthcare costs weigh heavily on the organisation’s profitability.
• Structural absenteeism is killing for organisational goals.
• Accompanying sick employees requires expertise and takes time and energy.

In addition to all this damage, there is also the human suffering of the sick employee. A burnout makes people literally and figuratively small. The symptoms are numerous and many are serious and undermining. Recovering from a burnout requires a long time of both employee and employer. Professional help can make an important contribution to faster recovery, but don’t underestimate your own role as a manager.

Our training courses in absenteeism and stress prevention deal with this in detail.

Now for the good news: you can hit the brakes!

Eliminating stress is impossible. Healthy stress ensures that one can peak when one has to perform. As soon as the performance is achieved, the stress hormones disappear from the body and one becomes calm again. If stress lasts too long and is too intense, complaints arise. These are alarm bells warning of a burnout. A burnout can put someone’s life completely on hold for a longer period of time.

Of course, as a manager, you want to save your employees. That is also possible. During our prevention training, we can show you where the brakes are and when to apply them.

Our prevention training not only teaches you how to recognise stress, but also how to intervene in case of signs of stress. Communication is very important here. Stress quickly evokes emotions. It is therefore not easy to ensure that an emotional employee feels understood. So how do you deal with that roller coaster of emotions?

By understanding, attention and the right guidance you can prevent worse. And the great thing is: you can learn to get a grip on absenteeism.

Why communication and engagement are so important

So during the training we pay a lot of attention to your communication. After all, the word ‘success’ has taken on a new dimension in directors, executives and managers. Nowadays, a successful manager is someone who is genuinely interested in his employees and who inspires and enthuses them. His involvement creates a relaxed corporate culture. This people-focused manager is carried on the move.

However, the performance-minded manager turns work into a race; a rat race that only knows losers. He creates a tense corporate culture and will be dropped below the line.

Communication and involvement make the difference for your employees. An employee who receives attention and recognition for his work, who feels supported when the pressure of work increases and who feels valued as a human being, is better able to cope with stress. Loyalty is not for sale, loyalty has to be earned. And that is exactly what this successful manager is very well aware of.

Stress prevention: count your profits

The art of stress and absenteeism prevention therefore lies mainly in the way we deal with our staff, how we monitor the balance between work pressure and relaxation, and how we can better prevent than cure through communication.

The result?

• Less stress and more relaxation create a pleasant working atmosphere
• The rate of absenteeism decreases, even during work peaks, because…
• A loyal employee is a loyal employee
• Growing effectiveness and creativity
• Stress and burnout is a safe and discussable topic within the company.
• A reduction in healthcare costs leads to a better operating result
• Attention to your staff gives a boost to the company image.

Get your business goals back on track

We have mainly talked about how attention and commitment lead to lower absenteeism due to illness. And how communication makes your job as a manager a lot more fun and easier.

But in the end, of course, there is a higher goal: a result that you have in mind for your company or department. We are not only talking about ambitions and ideas, but also about the financial result. Stress prevention makes an important contribution to your objectives. Motivated employees are your most important asset!

Can we think along with you about absenteeism prevention?

Would you like to spar about how you can reduce your absenteeism rate? We like to think along with you. Stress prevention is not a ready-made job. It is the art of exposing the core of high absenteeism. From experience we know how to get that core on the table in such a thought session.

Let me just say this: there are often different interests at play within the organisation when it comes to stress prevention. That is why our prevention training always takes place outside the company location, so that you can talk freely about the bottlenecks within your organisation in a safe environment.

Anyway, we’d like to think along with you for an hour. With the fair closed, so ring that bell!