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In a recent poll by recruitment firm Robert Walters, three in five employees stated that their mental health has declined this year due to work-related stress. In the poll of 2 000 people, 63% of professionals stated they had suffered from some form of workplace-related stress.
This, according to the recruitment firm, is "despite South African employers spending millions on wellness initiatives every year – increasing their spending by 20% since the Covid-19 pandemic – 55% of professionals still believe that their employer is not doing enough to combat stress in the workplace."
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According to the poll:
35% of professionals stated that workload and the type of work they do are the biggest triggers.
55% don’t think employers are doing enough to help combat work-related stress.
42% of professionals felt it was down to senior leaders & HR to manage workplace stress, followed by line managers at 32%.
21% state that high workloads have resulted in low-quality work being produced.
Samantha-Jane Gravett, a director of Robert Walters Africa said:
Gravett added that employers needed to find the balance between not breaking the bank or piling pressure onto managers to solve workplace stress, and rather be more proactive in listening to the needs of their employees.
"For instance, conducting internal and anonymous surveys with employees will ascertain greater insights into where a business may need to focus on as this is not as simple as a one size fits all," she said, adding that while everyone in a business has a hand in creating workplace stress "it is down to senior leaders and HR to set the tone for how it is managed to avoid employee burnout".
The survey further revealed that less than 13% of professionals feel that employers are doing enough, and a further 31% feel "some" efforts have been made, however, they are lacking – whilst the majority, a staggering 56%, stated that employers simply "aren’t doing enough".
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Some of the other causes of workplace stress participants pinpointed, according to the survey, included heightened pressure from management (24%), company culture and job culture (23%) as well as colleague competitiveness (18%).
Gravett said:
