by Shannon Murphy RobinsonPrincipal, The Oxygen Plan
Got stress? What about your employees? If I asked everyone in your company to raise their hand if they have stress in their life on a regular basis, most, if not all, hands would go up. Stress has become pandemic and carries a hefty price tag:
- Annual cost of stress per employee is $4,888 (based on key indicators such as group health costs, turnover, absenteeism, presenteeism, disability, and worker’s compensation)
- Annual economic impact of stress in the United States is $400 billion, a whopping 13% of the U.S. gross domestic product
Many companies are implementing initiatives such as weight loss, smoking cessation, nutrition, and exercise programs to increase employee wellness, lower group health costs, and improve the bottom line. Yet stress takes a toll on employee health and well-being. It is a root-cause health issue and a driver for unhealthy habits, such as overeating or smoking. - 75%-90% of all physician office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints
- Stress is linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, cirrhosis of the liver, accidents, and suicide.
- One in four workers reports missing work due to work-related stress
In a study by the American Psychology Association on stress, 77% of respondents reported experiencing physical symptoms of stress and 73% reported experiencing psychological symptoms of stress in the last month, yet only 7% sought help.
How Stressed Are Your Employees?
Stress has been declared a hazard of the workplace by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Work is the No. 1 source of stress for most people. Would you like to find out how stressed your employees are? The Oxygen Plan’s stress test measures how stressed your employees are at work, home, and socially. Why measure people’s stress outside of work? Because we are whole people and stress in one area of our lives affects another. Have you ever had a stressful day at work and come home and snapped at your kids, partner, or spouse?
So far, more than 7,000 people have taken the stress test to find out their stress number and what they can do about it.
A Simple Solution
So what can you do to effectively lower employee stress and health care costs while increasing wellness, employee engagement, productivity, and the bottom line? Stress reduction strategies such as those used at The Oxygen Plan can be an effective solution. The Oxygen Plan is a patent-pending stress reduction program with four simple steps to help employees reduce their stress and make lasting changes that increase their well-being, health, and happiness.
Utilizing a holistic approach, the Oxygen Plan guides the employee through the four steps (Inventory, Categorize, Set Rules ,and Repeat) with an actionable, easy-to-use framework for real and lasting lifestyle changes to reduce stress. Utilizing e-learning and online tools, employees learn how to look at the people, places, and things at work, home, and socially that cause stress and drain energy and those that give energy and vitality, color-code them and set rules to manage them more effectively.
Reducing stress in one’s life can bring a renewed sense of optimism, overall happiness and well-being, and the kind of energy that keeps replenishing itself. Lower employees’ stress and provide them with tools so they can manage their own stress more effectively long term and you will start to see gains in your other wellness efforts and the bottom line.
Shannon Murphy Robinson is principal at The Oxygen Plan, a stress reduction company. Shannon is an organizational development and learning specialist who has extensive experience implementing complex, global, change-management initiatives designed to increase employee engagement, productivity, and well-being. Contact Shannon at 612-803-7853 or Shannon[at]theoxygenplan.com.