This article is a good starting place to discuss five (5) reasons why anxiety in the workplace is costing business a pretty penny:
Poor Performance
If staff are mentally and/or physically exhausted, this can negatively impact the quality and volume of their work. They may be physically present, but lost productivity is a factor. Routine processes and procedures require consistent performance and re-work can be extremely time-consuming and costly.
Excessive time off
Aside from vacation and sick-time (which can be planned and managed around), when staff are now out on long-term disability, nobody wins. Who does the work? Existing staff or temporary staff?
Increased healthcare costs
The article mentions that anxiety disorders cost the US more than $42B annually. That’s a lot of money leaving the bottom-line. I have no state-license to diagnose, treat or cure, therefore you will see that I prefer non-medical terms like “discomfort” over “pain”.
Increased turnover
Because of the association with the workplace being the root cause of stress and anxiety, it’s a double-edged sword – you have stressed out workers that need to be replaced with new (soon-to-be) stressed out workers. Who trains the new workers, and what is the ramp-up time?
Low employee morale
If individual staff are representing the entire company, then all it takes is one negative client interaction, based on a projection of an in-house issue being externalized. Whether based on a real or perceived internal issue, a customer experiences an employee as “the company”.
Research from NIMH, focusing just on a year’s worth of data, find:
- An estimated 19.1% of U.S. adults had any anxiety disorder in the past year.
- Past year prevalence of any anxiety disorder was higher for females (23.4%) than for males (14.3%).
Corporate Wellness Programs
Corporate Wellness Programs are great for conscious work (going to gym; mindfulness, etc).
When the staff are experiencing challenges outside their control – subconscious known negative associations — there is a need for a trusted 3rd party (Certified Hypnotherapist) to be of help. My job is to communicate my client’s message back to them, while in a hypnotic suggestible state.
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