Beat stress, boost productivity
hen one thinks of health and safety at work, hard hats, hi-vis jackets and steel toe capped boots spring to mind. However, the issue is more complex than that.
The total cost of workplace injuries (slips, trips and falls) has dropped by 35 per cent since 2004-5, so the neon paraphernalia must be working. Yet, the cost of work-related ill health has not changed since 2011. Some 1.3 million people are affected, with 40 per cent suffering from stress, depression or anxiety; 39 per cent from back, shoulder or neck pain and the remaining 21 per cent from other illnesses. According to the Health and Safety Executive, this costs the UK economy £15 billion a year. Isn’t it time to do something about it?
Stress is a common complaint but it is misunderstood. Stress is essentially sensors in our body transmitting data to and from our brain and nervous system to keep us running healthily and safely.
A lot of factors can cause stress. Apart from the five senses we all know (hearing, touch, taste, smell and sight) there are a host of others which sense the state of our internal organs, how you understand the mental state of yourself and others, and how we connect to the world.
Each of these senses transmits masses of data every second to our body and minds. Humans can handle a huge amount of stress, but problems arise when we get data overload and we stop functioning properly. It’s like having too many apps open on your phone: the battery drains very quickly.
If you are sitting uncomfortably on a chair, your body sends out stress signals to make you move and improve the situation. Likewise, if you are experiencing grief, anxiety or worry, the unpleasant stress signal is intended to make you act.
Much of health and safety focuses on the working environment, but what if the stress comes from an emotional or mental trigger? This is incredibly common and can lead to muscle tension, poor posture, fatigue, strains and sprains.
How many times have you tripped or broken something because your mind was elsewhere?
Your mental state can have a huge impact on your propensity to have mishaps and accidents. Therefore, we need to understand the whole person, not just the environment to discover where the stress triggers are coming from. Is it grief, loss, anxiety, heartache? This has a knock-on effect on your physical health.
Fortunately, there are techniques and technologies now available, such as our Reach programme, which promote wellbeing by making sure your brain and body are working in harmony, rather than against each other. We have deployed the programme with a number of employers and seen dramatic benefits, with employees feeling better and being more productive.
● Victoria Anderson is a director at Better Humans Technology