Reduce Stress at Work

Taming workplace stress: A must for organizations!

Imagine this: it's Monday morning, and as you step into the office, you're greeted with smiles, a relaxed ambiance, and an environment that just shouts 'productivity.' Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? Now, let's get to the crux of it. Why is reducing stress in the workplace a big deal?

First, it’s critical to the health of an organization. Picture a company where management pushes people to work longer hours with no breaks. Folks get burned out, mistakes happen and tensions between teammates reach a boiling point. The result is bad for the company and bad for employees’ well-being.

Keeping employees on edge, drained, and overworked leads to burnout, high turnover, and even severe health problems. If organizations turn a blind eye, they stand to lose big. Not only will they see a drop in productivity, but they will also face higher absenteeism rates. Top talent will begin to jump ship, lured by competitors that prioritize a healthier work culture.

Configure your own stress management practices as a team

Many companies address this issue with regular screen breaks, designated periods of intense work, or even yoga classes. While these efforts are well-intentioned, they don't always get to the root of the problem. Sometimes they just treat the symptoms, leaving employees even more frustrated.

Workplace stress is not an individual problem. Often, stress is caused by dysfunctional ways of doing work. In turn, significant improvements can only be expected if the challenge of reducing workplace tensions is addressed with the entire team.

Nyord is all about: How can we work better together? We believe in the power of collaboration and co-creation. Nyord makes it easy to involve everyone affected in the process of developing better solutions.

Step 1: Understand the needs and concerns of those affected by stress

Start by gathering everyone's experiences and observations about stress in the workplace. 

With Nyord, you can invite every team member to share their thoughts anonymously, creating a safe space to talk with each other. 

For example, you could highlight 

• the positive impact of regular breaks, while another might bring up 
• the stress of unclear communication.

You can structure the conversation with specific input categories, e.g. what needs to be improved, what people are concerned about, or what they hope for. Once shared, participants rate and provide feedback on each other's input. The beauty of it all? Nyord's ranking feature. At a glance, see which insights resonate the most with your team.

Benefits of Nyord:

• Every voice counts: Anonymous posting provides a safe space for a topic as intimate and emotional as workplace stress. Asynchronous access signals that everyone is invited, regardless of where and when they contribute. 
• Diversity of perspectives: Participants cannot read, comment on, or rate other posts until they have posted their own experiences, encouraging diverse views and avoiding groupthink.‍
• Heat map real pain: Mutual rating allows for real-time ranking of insights, even if there are hundreds of them. Hot topics will naturally rise to the top.

Step 2: Brainstorm solutions to ease tensions

Now dive into the treasure trove of insights you've collected. What actions, initiatives, or agreements might emerge from the team's observations? This is where your team brainstorms together. Someone may suggest introducing 'quiet hours' or 'mindfulness sessions'. The space is open for everyone to comment, discuss, and evaluate these ideas. As in step one, the most compelling suggestions will rise to the top through peer review.

Examples to consider include:

• Introduce a self-awareness cheat sheet, that everyone can use to understand the mental state he or she is in, when approaching work tasks.
• Establish a team-wide stress alert like a traffic light based on a periodic pop-up question, which provides a signal of the team’s overall health status.
• Allow everyone to reserve at least 50% of their work week for quiet time or deep work.

Benefits of Nyord:

• Scaling conversations: Ideas, suggestions, and solutions build on each other, one leading to the next. When people open their minds and hearts to a sensitive topic like stress, brilliant and fresh suggestions may emerge that you would not have heard of otherwise.
• Quick decision making: No matter who is in charge and makes the decision to experiment, the groundwork is done, the data is laid out, and your team's awareness and buy-in is in place. No more guesswork about "What's the right stress-relief intervention?

Step 3: Experiment and learn

You have the insights. You have the ideas. Now let's bring them to life. Pick the ones that resonate the most and turn them into experiments. Think of them as short-term trials. 

For example, if ‘quiet time’ was a top-rated idea, test it for a month. At the end, gather everyone's thoughts. Was it a hit or a miss? What were the impacts or fallout? Keep what is feasible and what people like, rework the rest. With all this feedback, you already have the basis for your next steps.

Benefits of Nyord:

• Improvement in days, not weeks or months: While workshops, surveys or one-on-one interviews take a while to rotate back and forth until the ideal stress reduction tactics are carved out, Nyord provides an inclusive, transparent way to improve your way of working in a much shorter cycle.
• Safe to try: At Nyord, we believe that change happens in small but continuous steps, more like organizational evolution. Even if an experiment needs to be tweaked, you will have learned a lot along the way. If it was a success, feel free to share it with other teams or your entire organization. 
• Measure progress: The scores - from the insights to the completed experiments - allow for detailed analysis of what your people care about and what actions were effective. From one challenge to the next, track the progress of how your team, group or organization is evolving.

Stress down now! Better ways of working - with Nyord

Nyord provides a simple framework that allows your team to collaboratively develop stress-reducing ways of working that are inclusive and transparent. No need for an expert facilitator! 

Through continuous and participative engagement in overcoming challenges, we see the ripple effects: happier employees, improved teamwork and a deepened sense of belonging. All of which paves the way for a more positive work environment.

Ready to tackle workplace stress together?

Sign up and try our Nyord today.