Difficult family situations, financial obligations, social and professional pressures, hyperconnectivity are all factors that contribute to maintaining a climate of chronic stress among workers. In addition, labor shortages and staff turnover rates ensure that workloads are constantly increasing.

Despite this hectic pace, managers must remain attentive to their staff in order to act proactively. They have everything to gain from sitting down with each of their employees to take the "pulse" on a regular basis. To do this, it is important to create moments of exchange, to encourage "human" contacts and to develop mutual assistance.

Here are 5 proactive approaches to prevent psychological distress:

1. Establish an employee assistance program

This tool, generally offered by group insurance programs, allows employees to contact a person 24 hours a day if needed, regardless of the reason. The service acts as a first-line responder to offer support and then redirect the person to health professionals or others (notaries, lawyers) in complete confidentiality. When a worker is no longer seeing clearly, needs to calm down or defuse a difficult situation, access to a listening ear, without judgment, can make all the difference.

2. Above all, talk about it!

Organizing conferences and workshops on stress management and time management helps to maintain discussion on a subject that should not be taboo in business.

3. Educate managers to watch for signs of distress

Managers must demonstrate listening and empathy. How? First, by taking the time to talk with their employees, to observe their behaviors and their non-verbal language. Then, by evaluating their workloads to ensure a better balance or help in managing priorities. Heavy workloads, the pressure of deliverables in short deadlines, performance requirements, are all factors that can cause increased stress in the workplace. I also invite managers to keep up to date on the issues of psychological distress through training offered by mental health organizations or by the Ordre des CRHA .

4. Have the right people in the right positions

Very often, a person who is not happy in their job will develop stress. It is therefore important to ensure that you have the right people in the "right" positions. The annual performance review is a good opportunity to ask questions about the employee's progress in their position. A mid-year meeting then allows you to validate whether the person is still happy in their role and whether they have mastered the skills for the position. However, you should not wait for this evaluation to make these validations. If in doubt, you should intervene quickly and talk to them. Perhaps they simply lack a little training or support to feel more "in control", more solid and less stressed?

5. Offer the right tools First, you need to make sure that each of your employees has a good work or telework environment (adequate and ergonomic workstation) and tools adapted to their work. Then, it may be interesting to offer workshops that can improve the quality of life at work for employees, such as fitness, meditation or yoga sessions, nutrition workshops. In short, anything that will allow the employee to feel good, relieve stress, eat and sleep better will have a positive effect on their well-being.