The demands placed on people in the workplace have changed significantly over the last ten years: deadlines are becoming tighter, the pace of work is increasing and quality standards are rising. Almost constant availability is considered normal and market pressures are increasingly being passed on to individuals. This is happening at the same time as staff numbers are being reduced, which means that the amount of work for each individual is constantly increasing. What was intended to increase efficiency has often led to the opposite result.

The stresses affecting people at work are less and less related to physical strain and more and more to mental overload. Not everyone is equally successful in finding a personal balance to cope with this. This is often reflected in a rising number of sick days and a significant increase in long-term illnesses, sometimes with serious consequences.

There are many reasons for increased psychological stress. In addition to the factors already mentioned, a poor internal climate within the company can also contribute to exacerbating the situation: unresolved conflicts and tensions in the workplace, as well as insufficient information and communication about the purpose and necessity of upcoming changes, play a significant role here. Qualified leadership is required in this area. It is therefore worthwhile not only to review the established management principles within the company, but above all to examine their implementation in the individual areas.

If we examine the diamond of organisational intelligence, we see that three key factors play a decisive role in improving the working situation in terms of reducing psychological stress in the workplace: communication, cooperation and leadership.

Mental stress will continue to increase in the future with digitalisation and new forms of work. And taking preventive action to address these challenges can avert major personal damage as well as enormous damage to businesses and the economy.

For this reason, since the end of 2013, the Occupational Safety and Health Act has explicitly required that psychological stress be taken into account in risk assessments. This means that all companies and organisations must also identify those risks to their employees that arise from psychological stress at work.

If you are about to carry out such a psychological stress risk assessment or would like to process the results of employee surveys in a structured manner, and are wondering how you can do this in a meaningful and effective way, you will find empirical values from our consulting work on this topic in our product sheet.