National Stress Awareness Day - November

National Stress Awareness Day aims to highlight the ways that stress can affect you and what you can do to manage stress before it becomes a bigger problem for your mental health. According to the Mental Health Foundation, 74% of us in the UK have felt so stressed that we have felt unable to cope.

Space2BHeard has identified that having a positive focus on mental health and wellness in the workplace can help to protect your workforce and support stress levels that may be apparent at work.

The first step in tackling your stress is to understand why it exists. Generally speaking, it’s the feeling of being under too much mental or emotional pressure whereby your body releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Stress is simply your body’s reaction to dealing with this pressure and you may have heard it referred to as “fight or flight.” A high level of stress can have negative effects on your mood, your body and with your relationships, which is why it’s important to provide support for mental health and wellness in the workplace.

There is strong evidence that supporting a change in mental health and wellness in the workplace will increase productivity as well as ensuring your teams are well cared for. Here are some of the ways in which you can support your employees to look after their mental health at work and ultimately manage their stress levels:

1. Stay active – encourage lunchtime outings or cycle to work schemes
2. Eating well – providing a fruit bowl for your teams to snack on throughout the day
3. Drink sensibly – team socials don’t have to be about going to the pub!
4. Stay in touch – offer networking groups or the opportunity to talk to HR or someone in the business when they need to
5. Encourage breaks – if you can offer a break out space for a cup of tea or something similar, this will help