Stress is the second biggest reason people are absent from work here in the UK, just behind minor illnesses such as coughs and colds. It is however becoming more and more common and more of the long-term sickness occurrences are taken due to stress related factors. It is important that you have in place all the relevant policies that you need in terms of employees absence as well as a robust recording system as it is worth looking at an Occupational Health Cardiff company like https://www.insightoccupationalhealth.co.uk/ who can help provide you with services to offer your staff to help with preventing absences through stress related issues.

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Mental health includes anything that relates to a person’s psychological, emotional and social wellbeing and issues with mental health can range from stress and anxiety through to diagnosable conditions such as depression and personality disorders. Many mental health issues can be made worse through long periods of stress and some can even occur solely as a result of prolonged exposure to high levels of stress such as anxiety. It is estimated that in today’s society at least one in four people will experience an issue with their mental health in any given year. That is a lot of people and there will be at least one if not more people in your workplace who are either currently struggling with their mental health or will at some point in the future need support.

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The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) conducts research into the absence behaviours of employees in the UK and also on the mental health issues that occur in businesses. They use the findings of this research to help inform future best practices that they may suggest to employers as well providing important information to the government on such issues. When looking at the impact of mental health on a business and employees they noted that:

• 62 percent of people find it harder to deal with their daily tasks and will take longer over these
• 57 percent find it harder and harder to multi-task
• 37 percent are more likely to find themselves in some sort of conflict with their work colleagues
• 80 percent find it difficult to concentrate for long periods of time which affects their productivity
• 50 percent of people have less patience than before both with their colleagues and customers

This shows how important it is to help employees with stress levels and provide them with mechanisms to be able to identify if they are struggling.