The week of Nov. 12 through 15 is dedicated to work stress. Work Stress Week 2018 focuses on preventing work stress and increasing enjoyment in the workplace. Work stress is a much-discussed topic for good reason. According to TNO (2014), work stress is occupational disease number 1 and more than a million Dutch people suffer from burnout symptoms. If work stress is not discussed in time, complaints can manifest themselves physically, psychologically or in behavior and even lead to chronic complaints such as fatigue, depression and burnout.

This makes it all the more important to look at the buffers against work stress: what gives you job satisfaction and what ensures that you can deal with work pressure in a healthy way? The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment's 'Towards Sustainable Employability' initiative has developed a number of tools that can be used within organizations to promote job satisfaction and make work stress negotiable. For example, the course map facilitates teams to engage in conversation. With this card, you go through a number of questions and look at your sources of stress and energy. When do you or others notice that you experience stress? What can cause you to experience too much stress and how can you address it? In addition, the focus is placed on strengthening energy sources such as competence, autonomy and connection: to what extent does your work fit with what you can do, do you experience independence in your work and do you receive support and appreciation from others? How can you increase these energy sources to reduce or prevent stress? This tool ties in with our previously posted article on job crafting. Modifying your work so that your work fits who you are and what you want (or job crafting) involves seeking out exciting challenges in your work and increasing your energy sources in your work. This can lead to more job engagement and less burnout!

With job crafting you can get the best out of yourself: work that fits your personality, talents and skills. In order to do this, you need self-knowledge. Puls guides people in this from the idea of Human Being Management (HBM). HBM focuses on the whole person, with his or her natural strength and potential. Competencies that naturally fit a person are his or her true qualities and give energy. This is in contrast to competencies that are learned and developed, but do not fit a person well. Here someone can be very good at this, but becomes a pitfall the moment there is pressure. These adjusted competencies leak energy and can increase the chance of absenteeism and burn-out. During development programs of Puls an employee can discover where natural competencies lie and how he or she responds to pressure or changing circumstances, ultimately promoting sustainable employability. The ACT ® measurement that we use during these processes provides insight into this. This measurement provides insight into existing talents and development potential in twelve minutes. Thus gives a piece of self-reflection on yourself and understanding certain learned behaviors you the ability to consciously choose to deploy your own natural qualities in the organization. Which in turn leads to more fun and energy at work! Want to know more about the ACT measurement? Click here for more information or contact us.

According to TNO (2014), employees need measures against work stress. As an employer, what are you doing to combat work stress? Do you give your employees feedback and attention or more space and freedom in how they approach work? As part of Work Stress Week, a job satisfaction top 10 has been developed: tips from employers and employees aimed at increasing job satisfaction. Curious about the Week of Work Stress? Go to the OVAL website here and put job satisfaction and the prevention of work-related stress on the agenda within your organization.