Top 3 sources of stress for employees and employers

1. Employer: Lack of work-life balance <br> Employee: Inadequate staffing

We have no doubt that healthy and stress-free employees are actually just more engaged and energized. They perform better, they are more productive, the companies where they work are more profitable, and that the staff turnover is also lower, says Dr. Henriette Coetzer, global medical director at Towers Watson.
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2. Employer: Inadequate staffing <br> Employee: Low pay or low increases in pay

This disconnect is an interesting one because I think that employees are telling employers that they are not getting the support that they need, Coetzer tells EBN. But employers respond in quite a tactical way. In other words what are the programs I can put in place that[can get to the] root causes of that stress.

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3. Employers: Technologies that expand availability during nonworking hours <br> Employee: Unclear or conflicting job expectations

The root causes are perhaps a little tougher to tackle from an employers perspective, Coetzer says. They are not going about it in the optimal way and some of these root causes are hard to address in a tough economic environment because what employees are saying: we need support, and we need it on how we work and whats expected from us, how were paid and also how you manage us. And that speaks a lot more to company culture than easier things like work-life balance and having rules and boundaries around answering emails or responding to after hour requests.

[Images: Shutterstock]