Stress alleviation of employees, hard job for employers

Bangalore: Even though holiday spirit cheer up employees, they might feel under stress due to added responsibility at home. During holiday season, people are stretched thin from the shopping, the spending, the social gatherings and the household preparations and to make it worse they are sacrificing their valuable weekends and leisure time to fit in more decorating, wrapping or baking. This causes employees to come in to work feeling anxious, burned out, depressed or distracted.

By providing ways to limit holiday-related stress, employers can help their people maintain the work-life balance they've worked so hard to establish during the year. According to Winnipeg Free Press, a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management has revealed few interesting things that employers do for their employees in holiday season. Around 51 percent schedule holiday events during regular business hours. 33 percent show appreciation for employees who work during a holiday. 32 percent encourage casual dress at the holiday party. 30 percent provide complimentary food and beverages. 23 percent give out year-end bonuses early to help out with gift shopping. 14 percent offer reduced hours so employees can run errands. Eight percent offer extra shifts to employees wanting to earn holiday spending money.

Many employees have successfully implemented these strategies as the survey suggest. Simply by showing some sensitivity and empathy, employers can ensure that the workplace is not adding to the merry mayhem and instead, offers employees some much-needed comfort and joy during the holiday season.

There are few additional steps that employers can carry out. An employer should be open to offer flexible schedules and extended lunch hours. When employees put in extra time to get their work done, allow them to take time off during the day when they need to run errands or navigate shopping malls. Instead of only offering a paid Christmas break, employer should consider creating floating holidays to honor all cultural and religious traditions in a diverse workplace. Also, employers should make it clear that attendance at holiday events are voluntary, not mandatory. No one should feel pressured to accept the invitation and there should be no repercussions if they choose not to come.

Many companies are open 365 days a year and need staff to work the holidays. Employers should remember those who are giving up their family time by doing something special for them, whether it is providing thank-you treats or small tokens of appreciation. Also, an employer should remind employees about the true meaning of the season by arranging a staff field trip to help wrap gifts, pack hampers, serve meals or any other activity that builds team spirit while helping the community in a meaningful way.