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Is Your Employee Benefits Program Adequately Addressing Stress?

Posted on: Thursday, 2 March 2006, 21:00 CST

By Anonymous

In Perspective

Employers that take the time to provide benefits programs that deal with employee stress may find they pay off, if the results of a recent ComPsych's StressPulse Survey are any indication. According to the survey, 67% of employees polled report having high levels of stress, combined with extreme fatigue and feelings of being out of control.

It is clear that stress interferes with daily productivity and the other priorities employees have at work and negatively impacts their everyday lives in many ways.

The survey reveals:

* 50% of employees said they miss one to two days per year due to stress (see table);

* 38% report that they lose one hour or more per day in productivity due to stress;

* Another 38% report that they lost 15 to 30 minutes per day in productivity due to stress; and

* 32% said they miss three to six days of work per year due to stress.

ComPsych's Stress Pulse Results, second Half of 2005

Work was cited (45%) as the leading cause of stress, followed by people issues (28%), juggling work and personal life (19%), and lack of job security (8%).

Stress may indeed be having a curbing effect on performance improvement as only 16% cite it as their most important work priority. In contrast, 61% cited accomplishing basic responsibilities as most important (a 7% increase from the first half of 2005) and 23% cited simply being present as their key work priority.

ComPsych (Chicago; www.compsych.com), a behavioral health/EAP provider, polled employees from more than 1,000 of its client companies nationwide for the survey. The survey was conducted from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1, 2005.

Copyright Institute of Management & Administration Mar 2006

Source: IOMA's Report on Managing Benefits Plans

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