I heard a report the other day from Comcare saying that stress claims are on the increase. I put this down to a number of things.

 

1.	People are indeed stressed, particularly
	▪	people who don't know what they want to do when they grow up
	▪	people who are in the wrong job
	▪	people who feel under-appreciated at work
	▪	people who are in poor physical condition
	▪	people who haven't been exposed to a continuous program of personal development and/or career development
	▪	women with young children
	▪	people under financial stress
	▪	people under relationship stress
2.	Much of the stress is personally generated. Stress is not what happens to us. It's our response to what happens to us.
3.	The workplace is unfairly blamed for a lot of it.
4.	Organisations don't measure the risk.
5.	Organisations don't manage the risk of being blamed for stress.
6.	A lot of managers don't want to manage.
7.	A lot of managers want to concentrate on their job and not on managing their staff.

 

I've been measuring the risk of stress for a long time using the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile. To see how you're travelling, circle the numbers appropriate to the degree you get the symptoms on the left hand side of the profile. A good score is a low score.

 

		Symptom	None		Not much			A fair bit			A lot
	1.	Headaches (including migraines)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	2.	Lack of energy and vitality	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	3.	Candida - jock itch, thrush, tinea ...	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	4.	Poor sleep. (On medication score 10)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	5.	Snoring &/or sleep apnoea. (On gas mask score 10)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	6.	Crook back, sore shoulders, RSI ...	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	7.	Frequent colds, flu, sinus	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	8.	Unsettled stomach, reflux ...	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	9.	Overweight - 1 point for every 2Kg	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	10.	Irritable bowel, constipation, diarrhoea	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	11.	Shortness of breath, asthma	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	12.	Low level of aerobic fitness	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	13.	Chest pain, palpitations	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	14.	Rashes, itchiness, psoriasis, zits	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	15.	Mouth ulcers, cold sores	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	16.	Elevated blood pressure. (On medication score 10)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	17.	Elevated blood cholesterol (On medication score 10)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	18.	Elevated blood glucose (On medication score 10)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	19.	Shakes, nervous ticks, mannerisms	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	20.	Grinding teeth	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	21.	Alcoholic drinks per day (2 pts/drink)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	22.	Smoking. (1 pt/cigarette/day)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	23.	Caffeine (1 pt/cup per day)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	24.	Anxious about life and/or feel insecure or apprehensive	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	25.	Sad or depressed (On medication, score 10)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	26.	Are you in the wrong job. (Score high if yes.)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	27.	Under-appreciated at work	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	28.	What's your work/life balance like? (Score high it's it poor)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	29.	Unhappy with your family life? (If yes, score high)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	30.	Unhappy with your financial status. (If yes score high)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

 

Score

 

Here's a real profile based on 171 people. Whilst on the surface they looked like a fairly normal bunch of people, looks were, indeed deceptive.

 

 Average score 88

 

A good score is less than 40, a really good score is less than 20. You wouldn't bet on people who got over 80, let alone those who got over 120. The risk is enormous.

 

Now, if I run this survey in your organisation I can't tell you who these people are, but just looking at the graph you know the risk of absenteeism, presenteeism, workers compensation and staff turnover is very high. You can treat the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile as your measurement of presenteeism.

 

To dredge down and get an idea of what's really stressing people, here's the Health Climate Survey for the same group of people. If people gave themselves a score of 5 or more for any item I register that as a symptom, and issue or a concern.

 

	Symptoms/ issues / concerns	% of people scoring over 5
	Crook back, sore shoulders …	71
	Lack of Energy	63
	Poor sleep	60
	Under appreciated at work	51
	Low level of fitness	51
	Wrong job	50
	Anxious	46
	Overweight	43
	Headaches	40
	Poor work-life balance	38
	Depressed	33
	Financial status	33
	Reflux, unsettled stomach	32
	Snoring, sleep apnoea	30
	Frequent colds, flu, sinus	28
	Irritable bowel, constipation etc	27
	Unhappy family life	24
	Grinding teeth	23
	Elevated cholesterol	19
	Itchy, rashes, psoriasis	18
	Elevated blood pressure	18
	Caffeine	13
	Candida	13
	Alcohol	12
	Chest pain, palpitations	12
	Shortness of breath from asthma	11
	Mouth ulcers	11
	Shakes, nervous mannerisms	11
	Smoking	8
	Elevated glucose	7

 

A couple of observations.

 

1.	There is usually a high and positive correlation between being in the wrong job and being under-appreciated at work. It suggests the need for career development programs and career counselling in the workplace.   Just ask each staff member, 'What is it that you would really like to do?' Help them get what they want and while they're working for you they'll be as happy a Larry.   (Click here if you want to know more about Larry!)
2.	Basing a corporate health program on measuring blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, apart from being a side show it's an opportunity missed to find out the real health, fitness and wellbeing issues affecting your staff. In particular measuring blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose without also measuring aerobic fitness is a big side show. It's measuring the symptom, not the cause.

 

TO CUT A LONG STORY SHORT

This information was willingly and painlessly extracted from participants painlessly during a one hour Seven Habits of Fit and Healthy People seminar.

 

In a day's worth of seminars I can see a lot of people and gather a lot of information.

 

THE HARD PART

The hard part, and it seems to be too hard for most organisations, is getting managers to find out who are the people at risk of the metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological dysfunctions and then managing that risk so that three months later the average score of the group has been halved.

 

If individual managers are not called to account for this stuff then expect high levels of

 

▪  absenteeism

▪  presenteeism

▪  workers compensation and

▪  staff turnover.

 

How do I know. Well I've seen the scores that have come from staff managed by good managers. Here's one of them.

 

	Symptoms/issues/concerns	% of people scoring over 5
	Overweight	44
	Low level of fitness	31
	Crook back, sore shoulders	25
	Headaches	19
	Poor sleep	19
	Snoring, sleep apnoea	19
	Shortness of breath from asthma	19
	Lack of energy	13
	Elevated blood pressure	13
	Elevated cholesterol	13
	Candida	6
	Reflux, unsettled stomach	6
	Irritable bowel, constipation etc	6
	Itchy, rashes, psoriasis	6
	Elevated glucose	6
	Alcohol	6
	Smoking	6
	Caffeine	6
	Anxious	6
	Depressed	6	0
	Work-life balance	6
	Unhappy family life	6
	Financial status	6
	Frequent colds, flu, sinus	0
	Chest pain, palpitations	0
	Mouth ulcers	0
	Shakes, nervous mannerisms	0
	Grinding teeth	0
	Wrong job	0
	Under appreciated at work	0

 

YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN

It's managers within an organisation that are responsible for managing the risk of stress - from the top management to the line management. Think of it this way, low level of stress = good management. 

 

HR or OH&S managers can't manage the risk. Management is not an activity that can be outsourced. Managers have to manage.

 

Your workers compensation insurer won't manage the risk- it's not their money. They'll just charge you more next year if there are a lot of claims this year.

 

(Ironically, workers compensation insurance, along with medical insurance is not rated against risk. They don't come and measure how fit and healthy your staff are before they strike your rate. It's all based on claims history.

 

Think of your workers compensation insurer as the manager of an escrow account, not an insurer laying a bet.)

 

You're on your own.

 

SO, for organisations where

 

▪  workers compensation premiums are more than $1,000 per person

 

▪  people take more than 10 days off a year,

 

▪  the average score on the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile is over 70

 

▪  staff turnover is 12% or more

 

the great challenge is to

 

▪  halve your workers compensation premiums

 

▪  halve he number of days people take off a year in unplanned absences

 

▪  halve the scores on the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile

 

▪  halve your staff turnover.

 

Do that and you'll save your organisation a fortune.

 

A FINAL WORD

Taking section groups through the Health, Fitness and Wellbeing profile not only gives you a picture of how well your staff are performing, but how well your managers are performing.

 

Under-performing staff often (but certainly not always) have under-performing managers.

 

Once you've identified the problem you'll be on the way to managing the risk.

 

POST SCRIPT

You've got to put in a firewall between the personally-generated body system dysfunctions and the genuine work-related injuries. You can't leave it to chance.