ROI INFORMATION FOR YOUR CFO

"Workplace trauma has its roots in the culture of the organization. Recent court decisions have supported this notion by affirming that the creation of an environment that may be perceived as offensive, threatening or hostile is sufficient basis for liability on the part of the employer, regardless of the direct experience of an individual member."

Tyler, T. R. (1989) Do employees really care about due process? Proceedings of the 1989 Employee Responsibilities and Rights, American Bar. Northwestern University.

Stress Statistics

• 75% of the general population experiences at least “some stress” every two weeks (National Health Interview Survey).
• Half of those experience moderate or high levels of stress during the same two-week period.
• Millions of Americans suffer from unhealthy levels.
• Current estimates show that between 70% and 80% of all visits to physicians are for stress-related disorders (Scofield, 1990).
• More than 50% of adult Americans suffer various health effects due to stress.
• Medical researchers estimate that up to 90% of illness and disease is stress-related.
• Stress is linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.
• Tranquilizers, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety medications account for one fourth of all prescriptions written in the U.S. each year.

Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the U.S. studied stress and found:

• Job burnout experienced by 25% to 40% of U.S. workers is blamed for stress.
• Depression, only one type of stress reaction, is predicted to be the leading occupational disease of the 21st century, responsible for more days lost than any other single factor.
• $300 billion, or 7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the U.S. on stress-related compensation claims, reduced productivity, absenteeism, health insurance costs, direct medical expenses and employee turnover.
• A recent Roper Starch Worldwide survey of 30,000 people between the ages of 13 and 65 in 30 countries showed:
• Women who work full-time and have children under the age of 13 report the greatest stress worldwide.
• Nearly 1 in 4 mothers who work full-time and have children under 13 feel stress almost every day.
• Globally, 23% of women executives and professionals, and 19% of their male peers, say they feel “super-stressed.”

Results of the study by Kohler, S. and Kamp, J. (1992). American Workers Under Pressure Technical Report. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. St. Paul, MN

• Stress at work is strongly correlated to employee burnout, and health and performance problems.
• Among personal life problems, those caused by one's job are the most potent. 
• Balance enhances employee morale, health, and performance. 
• Male and female perceptions of the workplace are nearly identical.      

Decreased Productivity

A Gallup Poll of 201 U.S. corporations revealed that 60% of all managers felt that stress related illness was pervasive among their workers and decreased productivity at an estimated cost of 16 days of sick leave and $8,000 per person per year.
The Gallup Organization

Workplace stress continues to grow. In the U.S., experts at the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are dedicated to studying stress. They’ve found:

• Stress is linked to physical and mental health, as well as decreased willingness to take on new and creative endeavors.
• Job burnout experienced by 25% to 40% of U.S. workers is blamed on stress.
• More than ever before, employee stress is being recognized as a major drain on corporate productivity and competitiveness.
• Depression, only one type of stress reaction, is predicted to be the leading occupational disease of the 21st century, responsible for more days lost than any other single factor.
• $300 billion, or $7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the U.S. on stress-related compensation claims, reduced productivity, absenteeism, health insurance costs, direct medical expenses (nearly 50% higher for workers who report stress), and employee turnover.

General Effects and Mitigating Factors

A survey by St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company of 28,000 workers representing 215 diverse organizations produced the following results:

Teamwork and supervision problems were the most consistently and strongly related to burnout, health problems, and performance problems. Teamwork was at the top of the list for all of these.

Results of the study showed:

• Stress at work is strongly correlated to employee burnout, and health and performance problems.
• Among personal life problems, those caused by one's job are the most potent.          
• Balance enhances employee morale, health, and performance.          
• Male and female perceptions of the workplace are nearly identical.

Kohler, S. and Kamp, J. (1992). American Workers Under Pressure Technical Report. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. St. Paul, MN

The Stress/Control Connection

American women with heavy work loads and little job control are three times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than women with the same work load, but who had more control.
Rosen, The Healthy Company

Cognitive Impairment

Our ability to learn is directly affected by our emotional state. When we are feeling stressed and insecure, our ability to learn is seriously compromised.
Rose, C. (1985). Accelerated Learning. NY: Dell Books.

Aggressive, Territorial Behavior

As stress levels increase, people revert to more primitive hard wired@ survival patterns. Once consequence of this is that when stressed, they are more likely to respond in an aggressive, territorial, paranoid manner.
Bernstein, A. and Rozen, S. (1989). Dinosaur Brain. NY: Ballentine Books.

Addressing Stress in the Workplace: ROI

Technical Report. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. St. Paul, MN. A Minnesota plastics manufacturer surveyed employees using St. Paul's Human Factors Inventory. Results portrayed a workforce that was bored, frustrated over the lack of communication and involvement in decision-making. They also showed a lack of commitment to company quality, safety and productivity.

They implemented a task force in each department to address these issues, improved benefits, created a safety incentive program, and a newsletter.

Result: a 56% drop in workers' compensation claims
Kohler, S. and Kamp, J. (1992). American Workers Under Pressure
Technical Report. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. St. Paul, MN.
The management of Waste Management, Inc. from Oakbrook, Illinois; believed that worker stress was contributing to absenteeism and medical claims. They instituted a stress management program, which has resulted in a cost savings of $3,750 to $15,000 savings per participant, (amount of savings depended on their annual income).  Naas, R. (1992) Health promotion programs yield long-term savings. Business and Health. 10(13):41-47 
Data from the Human Factors Inventory administered to approximately 1000 employees of a Midwestern hospital resulted in the following organizational changes:

• A comprehensive in-house EAP           
• The addition of a stress management program to the hospitals back program     
• An intensive problem-focused consultation to leaders of problem departments.  

This translated into the following Workers Compensation claim savings:

• Workers Compensation claims dropped from 3.1 claims per month to 0.6 per month.   
• Average monthly cost of claims dropped from $7,329 to $324.
• Average total expected claims cost dropped from $24,199 to $2,577.  

Increased Rigidity and Inflexibility in the Face of Change

Downshifting is the process in which, as stress level increases, our intellectual, emotional, and interpersonal functioning becomes more primitive and therefore, less effective.
Hart, Leslie.(1983). Human Brain,  Human Learning. New York: Longman.
When we downshift, we revert to the tried and true... Our responses become more automatic and limited. We are less able to access all that we know or see what is really there. Our ability to consider subtle environmental and internal cues is reduced. We also seem less able to engage in complex intellectual tasks, those requiring creativity and the ability to engage in open-ended thinking and questioning. (pg. 72)
Caine, R. and Caine, G. (1994). Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain. NY: Addison Wesley.

A recent Roper Starch Worldwide survey of 30,000 people between the ages of 13 and 65 in 30 countries showed:

• Women who work full-time and have children under the age of 13 report the greatest stress worldwide.
• Nearly 1 in 4 mothers who work full-time and have children under 13 feel stress almost every day.
• Globally, 23% of women executives and professionals, and 19% of their male peers, say they feel “super-stressed.”