Stress Management & Resiliency Workshops for Workplace Stress: Sydney Melbourne Perth Brisbane

Stress Management, Resiliency, Relaxation & Meditation

Stress in the workplace is one of the leading problems in today's hectic society. It creates health issues resulting in lost productivity, increased absenteeism, workers compensation claims and decreased corporate profits. Clearly no employer or OHS / HR manager can afford to ignore the implications of this. Ongoing stress leads to loss of work hours through both physical and emotional illness (including depression) and expensive health care. Staff who don't feel well cannot possibly give their best into their work.

However, stress is unavoidable at work, which is why every business and organisation needs to adopt stress management into their staff training, so that everyone at work:

Can easily identify stress symptoms and manage their own stress levels on a day to day basis
Know they have the skills and strategies for managing stress
Understand when to ask for support to assist them, and
Can work at peak efficiency for themselves and for the business

Stress Management, Resiliency and Relaxation Program
Our Stress Management Program is a combination of massage, nutrition, counselling and relaxation techniques, such as breathing and meditation, specially designed to alleviate and prevent further stress and stress-related health problems. Depending on your specific situation, it may include a combination of short courses, seminars or individual consultations.

The program can be offered as part of your regular staff training, delivered on site, and at the time to best suit you and your employees - our stress management facilitators will work with you to develop a program to suit your requirements. To discuss how our stress management program can help your business or organisation, please complete an expression of interest or contact us.

Short Courses
As part of our ongoing course series, you will learn about meditation (the art of stilling the mind), positive thinking and visual imagery for peak performance, breathing techniques, self massage and how to integrate relaxation into your daily life.

Workshops / Seminars
Stress Management - The NSW Work Cover Authority states, “the implementation of stress management in the work place is the employers responsibility under the health & safety act 1983 - Duty of Care” (Occupational Health & Safety Act).

Are your staff stressed? Suffering from burnout and looking for stress relief? Constantly faced with stressful situations?
In this seminar we discuss practical strategies for what you can do to avoid stress in the workplace.

Identify what they can control in a negative/stressful situation (reducing stress in their environment)
Become a positive contributor to the work environment and make them more valuable to the company (increasing company morale)
Resolve negative situations in a positive way with both fellow employees and external contacts (improving customer/employee relations)
Feel they have more control over their career (increasing employee initiative and stress free attitudes in the workplace)
Be aware of the tools that they need to achieve work/life balance (reducing anxiety)
Time-Management: Manage their time better-both at home and the workplace (more productive)

Individual Consultations
HSG provides counselling for employees with work related or personal problems such as emotional stress, legal and financial issues. Contact us to ask about our counselling services to help both employers and their staff. Individual sessions can be conducted either one-on-one at the workplace, or over the phone.

Empowering your staff with the importance of applying stress management skills to sustain productivity, mental clarity, vitality and morale in the workplace
Providing your staff with essential skills in identifying stress and understanding their personal limits
Developing your staff with skills in relaxation, time management, conflict resolution and relationship building
Relieve stress to reduce the risk of stress leave or stress compensation claims

HSG can also assist in implementing innovative stress management tools for your organisation, including:

Policy statement on stress
Adjustment of language in internal documents to reflect values and attitudes
Putting feedback channels in place and resolving workplace conflict
Creating wellness hours or days in-house
Being aware of the long term damage to the organisation that stress can have

Under the Occupational Health & Safety Act, the NSW Work Cover Authority states: “the implementation of stress management in the work place is the employers responsibility under the health & safety act 1983 - Duty of Care”.

Studies on Stress
As a positive influence, stress can help compel us to action; it can result in a new awareness and an exciting new perspective. As a negative influence, it can result in feelings of distrust, rejection, anger, and depression, which in turn can lead to health problems such as headaches, upset stomach, rashes, insomnia, ulcers, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Stress in the workplace is one of the leading problems in today's hectic society. It creates health issues resulting in lost productivity and increased absenteeism, decreased corporate profits and workers compensation claims.

High-conflict work environments, heavy workloads, financial pressures, skipped lunches, meeting after meeting, and fast pace of today’s workplace is putting employees under more stress than ever. The by-products of stress include insomnia, high blood pressure, headache and backache - an enormous drain on your employees, and increasingly damaging to the corporate bottom line. (See NIOSH report below)

Australian National Occupational Health and Safety Commission Report, December 2003
High stress levels lead to thousands of stress-related WorkCover claims every year. According to a December 2003 National Occupational Health and Safety Commission Report, cases of Mental Stress had by far the highest median (8.5 weeks) and average (16 weeks) time lost, and accounted for 29% of all new cases of disease. This is way above the median of 3.4 weeks lost and average of 9.3 weeks for all new cases of injury or disease.

Mental Stress also had the highest median cost at $9,700 compared to $4,100 for all new cases. The report shows that Mental Disorders (95% of which is caused by Mental Stress) were most prevalent in the occupation groups Professionals (65% of all disease cases in this group), Associate Professionals (59%), Managers and Administrators (57%), and almost 50% each of disease cases for Advanced Clerical and Service Workers and Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Services Workers. Due to the high proportion of cases for Mental Disorders, the occupation groups, Managers and Administrators, Associate Professionals and Professionals had the highest median (7.6 weeks) and average (14.8 weeks) time lost. (“Studies and Statistics” Page coming soon!)

Seated Massage and Stress Management…
Provide your staff with something simple and cost-effective, such as a 20-minute seated massage - a powerful stress relief and concentration-building measure. Just as importantly, it sends a strong message to your people that their efforts are appreciated and valued. For groups or teams, our stress management classes empower your employees with relaxation techniques such as meditation and guided visualization. For personalised, one on one attention, ask about our qualified counsellors. Also consider yoga and tai chi classes to complement your wellbeing program.

The costs of Job stress in developed countries like Australia, US, UK, and Germany have been estimated at $200 to $300 billion annually in absenteeism; diminished productivity; employee turnover; accidents; and medical, legal and insurance fees. Stress is blamed for 80% of all disease and illness, and 60% to 90% of all medical office visits in the US. Given these alarming statistics, it is no surprise that corporate Australia, America, UK and Germany are making a major commitment to stress management.

United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, recent studies show the following:

Cardiovascular Disease
Many studies suggest that psychologically demanding jobs that allow employees little control over the work process increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Musculoskeletal Disorders
On the basis of research by NIOSH and many other organizations, it is widely believed that job stress increases the risk for development of back and upper- extremity musculoskeletal disorders.
Psychological Disorders
Several studies suggest that differences in rates of mental health problems (such as depression and burnout) for various occupations are due partly to differences in job stress levels.
Workplace Injury
Although more study is needed, there is a growing concern that stressful working conditions interfere with safe work practices and set the stage for injuries at work.
Suicide, Cancer, Ulcers, and Impaired Immune Function
Some studies suggest a relationship between stressful working conditions and these health problems. However, more research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.