At Third Octet, we believe the digital employee experience can greatly impact the overall health and well-being of your employees. That’s why we focus on technology design and solutions that alleviate technology stress and support individual’s wellness at work.

The Cost of Stress in the Workplace 

• The annual cost to Canadian companies due to stress-related disorders is
  $12 billion
• Absenteeism due to stress has increased by over 300% since 1995

Source: Health Canada

Impact of Stress on Productivity

According to research from professional services firm Wills Towers Watson, employees suffering from high stress levels have lower engagement, are less productive and have higher absenteeism levels than those not working under excessive pressure.

“Willis Towers Watson’s Global Benefits Attitudes found levels of workplace disengagement significantly increase when employees experience high levels of stress. The research shows that:

• Of those employees who claimed to be experiencing high stress levels, over half (57%) also reported that they were disengaged
• In contrast, only one in ten (10%) employees claiming low stress levels said they were disengaged, and half of this group claimed to be highly engaged
• A third of respondents said they are often bothered by excessive pressure in their job, and this can lead to higher instances of disengagement and absenteeism – clear indicators of low productivity in the workplace+”

The Digital Employee Experience

“Only 44 percent of respondents say that their company uses the latest technology to enable them to effectively perform in their role.”
Source: Oracle’s Global Engagement Study++

A poor working environment and a lack of tools and resources to do work can contribute significantly to workplace stress. There is now more technology to learn and train on and more information to process and share.

With many employees now working anywhere, anytime, they expect the same levels of connectivity and productivity enablement across multiple devices.

Feedback Tools

Towers Watson’s Rebekah Haymes says: “If business leaders want to promote a lower stress environment in their workplace it’s vital that they understand the real causes of stress in their organization. These can be specific areas that are not immediately visible to management if good communication and feedback structures are not in place throughout the organization. Without this, even the most well-meaning management team can find itself focusing energy and resource on the wrong areas+.”

We couldn’t agree more. To find out more about your employees’ digital experience and how it impacts their role at work, contact Colleen Cronin at ccronin@thirdoctet.com for our complimentary Workplace Wellness Survey.

Sources:
+https://www.towerswatson.com/en/Press/2014/09/Workplace-stress-leads-to-less-productive-employees
++https://www.oracle.com/news/