Stress Can Be Measured

By Mike Smith, President/CEO

Stress is getting more attention all the time, especially in today’s world, as a leading cause of workplace dissatisfaction, poor performance, and turnover. There are numerous articles outlining novel ideas for stress reducing activities including yoga, relaxing techniques, and some companies even endorsing a nap or siesta time.

Six Major Environments for Stress

Do you have stress? Would you know it if you did? We all have pressures that lead to stress, but it isn’t all about work. There are six major environments that pressures come from which lead to stress:

  • Work
  • Social
  • Family
  • Economic
  • Health
  • Beliefs

This stress can be measured. We use the PDP (Professional Dynametrics Program) ProScan™ to survey individual behavioral attributes. The ProScan™ analyzes an individual’s natural behaviors which helps us identify if the person is a good fit for the needs of a job but, this isn’t all that the ProScan™ measures. An additional aspect of the survey is a measure of the person’s Priority Environment which measures stress, satisfaction, and energy drain. A high amount of energy drain (indicated by the long red “tail” on the graphic) is a strong indication that one or more of those six major environments may be causing significant stress.

It is important to note that stress can certainly, and often-times does, come from more than one environment. All jobs have some stress, but then if additional environments are acting on the individual at the same time, stress will be compounded.  Good examples are some simple health issues that add to the normal workplace stress such as migraine headaches, or a constant backache. Add in some additional stress from the six major environments such as problems with a person’s spouse or family, trouble paying the bills (economic), or social pressures from peers, and the drain can become too much. The result is a person that needs to get away from some part of the stress, often meaning that they believe they need to change jobs.

The Solution

There are ways you can act to reduce negative stress in your employee’s work environment and prevent this turnover. Some stress is even positive, called Eustress. This “positive stress” is why some companies are endorsing certain activities that relax their employees, such as an exercise workout. The effort may cause a little physical discomfort, but the positive mental effect of satisfaction that something good was accomplished can be quite beneficial to employee attitudes and well-being.

If you are concerned that your employees may be experiencing significant stress, either at work or from one of the other 5 environments, it is important to first identify and acknowledge that stress. The consultants at Career 1 Source can help you identify this stress and determine if there is a mismatch between your employees’ natural behavioral attributes and the needs of their role. This can help you pinpoint areas to improve upon. To learn more about behavioral assessments, and even take your own sample assessment, click here.