Many individuals can do a great job when they have enough time and no stress. Others really need some pressure and stress to get a project done. Your aim is to assist all of your employees perform when under work pressure. Here is what you require thinking about to help them deal with pressure.

Hire Workers Who Are Resilient

Individuals are different. Instinctively you know that, but you need to hire the person with those great skills regardless of how they do under work pressure. In fact, you didn’t even inquire about pressure, did you? This is really a hard question to inquire because no one is going to say, in a job interview, “I sure fall apart when I experience pressure on the job.”

Rather, you require coming up with ways to find out how people deal with work pressure, without giving them the chance to speak positively about something that isn’t positive. Try the following questions:

• Describe the work atmosphere in which you thrive.
• Tell me about your favorite boss. What did he or she do that made your experience a good one.
• We get a lot of last-minute demands from the powers that be in our department. How have you dealt with such demands in previous jobs?

In addition to inquiring pertinent queries, share an honest description of your workplace. Do not sell the job as all sunshine and roses when it is a tremendously stressful workplace or work pressure. Candidates can self-select out of the running if their style of work does not match with your style of operation.

Appreciate Above and Beyond Performance by Workers

Many workers are willing to work their tails off for the great of the business, but just as long as it is recognized. If you simply expect everyone to put in 60 hours a week, or to do last minute jobs because senior management cannot make up their minds in a timely fashion, you’ll find morale dropping.

You require giving praise and appropriate promotions and bonuses when individuals perform under work pressure. It makes them more willing to do the same level of work again later.

If your pay scale is at industry midpoint, but you claim more of your employees than your competitors do, keeping people on staff will challenge you. You have to acknowledge that more work and more stress deserve a higher paycheck.

If you are not willing to pay more, you will find your best performers taking off to find a more relaxed work atmosphere. After all, if they can make the same amount of money for doing less stressful work, why not take it?

Give Time Off Similar to Comp Time—But Not

If you work at an accounting firm, every single individual in the firm is going to work long hours under tremendous pressure during tax season. But once those returns are all filed? Let individuals take a couple of days off that doesn’t count against their PTO. Throw a party. Let people work a couple of 30 hour weeks at full pay since for the past 6 weeks they’ve been working 80 hour weeks.

Make it obvious, when your employees are pulling all-nighters or working on the weekend to keep a particularly fussy client happy, that you know what they are doing and that you will let them take next Friday off.

While you do not legally have to give time off to exempt workers, who work extra hours, it is a nice thing to do. (Keep in mind that you never need to give time off by tracking the exact number of hours worked against time off.)

For non-exempt employees, you’ve to pay appropriate overtime no matter if you do give comp time in the next week. You can’t get out of overtime pay unless the comp time is in the same week. So, for example, if you live in a state where overtime begins after 40 hours, and your employee works 40 hours by the end of Thursday, she can take Friday off, and you won’t have to pay overtime.

But, if she puts in 60 hours, you cannot let her work only 20 hours the next week and not pay overtime for the 20 hours of overtime she worked. Overtime is mandatory in private business.

Offer an Outlet for Workers That Will Assist Them Deal With Stress

Wellness programs are highly famous — and for good reason. They lower insurance rates and several employees enjoy them. If you do the correct type of wellness program, it can also decrease stress in your office.

For example, an onsite yoga class during lunch can permit employees to refresh during their day. A lunchtime walking group can do the same. A company subsidized gym program can also encourage people to get moving and lower their stress level.

Similarly, healthy food in the break room can provide not only food for the stomach but food for the brain. Cheese and nuts are going to give better, sustainable energy than a candy bar from the vending machine.

Granted, it is much simpler to keep a vending machine stocked with candy than it is to keep the kitchen stocked with mixed nuts (and if someone has a nut allergy, you might not want to do that), but it can actually help reduce stress.

Remember the Employer Has certain Control Over the Work Pressure

If you are the boss and your department is always stressed out, you can probably change that. Sure, if you are running a medical residency program, you’re not going to be able to remove all of the stress because stress is one of the goals. (You want your doctors to perform well no matter the conditions are like.)

Examine your own methods. Are you setting ​the proper goals? Are you pushing back against senior management when you should? Do you have the ability to say no?

It is your job, as the manager, to develop an environment where your employees thrive. If that’s not happening, you require changing your approach. That’s part of your job.