We Need To Talk About Stress...

According to the NHS, Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses is consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence, accounting for over 593,200 full time equivalent days lost and 23.7% of all sickness absence in December 2021.

So this really is an issue that affects both employees and businesses alike... we've recently been looking at ways we can find some balance, one such idea was to give all our staff a day off to do whatever helps them unwind.

Sam Druiff runs our Building Services desk and spent his stress awareness day on the golf course. "I love working in a close-knit team where everyone is so supportive"

Recruitment

Us recruiters know as well as any that our role can be a roller-coaster ride full of highs and lows, an industry where certainties are rare as hen’s teeth and you’d have to be more mystic than Meg to know what’s around the next corner. One minute you could be prematurely planning your next holiday, the next you could be pulling out the remains of your hair

Let’s not forget the obvious advantages though! Running your own business within a business, enjoying meaningful relationships with clients and candidates and having the opportunity to use skills which cannot be taught in a class room; intuition, rapport, initiative and resilience.

Our own Laura Stephenson runs our Civils Contracting desk and spent her stress awareness day relaxing at a beach spa. She had this to say about her role... "I love being able to speak with people and everyday is different"

Recruitment’s easy right?

Nope… well sometimes yes… but for the large part, nope. Unlike most sales based roles, you often find yourself dealing with a whole range of factors outside your control. Both the candidates you are working with and the roles you are trying to fill are often subject to unexpected changes of direction. A recruiter’s job can be an unrelenting ride of emotions from the minute a role or candidate is qualified, to well after the position has been filled. Candidates could have a last minute change of circumstance, projects might fall through or you might simply be beaten to the punch despite your best laid plans. Sometimes the Recruitment Gods smile on you and things can go just swimmingly, however leaving things to chance should never be considered a professional vocation and so full commitment to the cause and remaining on one’s toes are essential requirements. Recruitment aside, modern life is far from easy. 

We love spending time together, more often than not it involves eating...

The Stress Bucket

In all walks of life there’s this thing mental health professionals like to call “the stress bucket”, each of us has one and although some are leakier than others, there’s only so much stress they can hold. Once one’s “bucket” has reached it’s maximum capacity it can overflow and start to affect our health and how we behave in everyday situations. So from time to time these need to be emptied. Chuck the unprecedented pressures of modern life in with a high stress job makes for one mean gumbo!

In 2022, RGB moved to Winslade Park. Based in stunning surroundings, this was exactly what we had been waiting for!

The importance of balance

The effects of stress and the awareness of them are arguably some of the key challenges of modern working life. In an ideal world, work should exist to enrich our lives, it certainly shouldn’t exist to make them harder. If we don’t remain vigilant we risk becoming complacent, blindingly stumbling towards a whole mountain of overflowing buckets that no amount of metaphorical sandbags and mops can contain. Our view of work can turn to resentment and stress can start to creep into our personal lives and relationships.

We’ve recently conducted a well-received poll across our 22,000 LinkedIn followers. This was focused around work stress, what causes it and how, as employers, we can keep it at bay; the results were overwhelmingly in favour of “more flexible working hours” with 62% of the votes. 

Patrick manages the Engineering Team and specialises in Structural Engineering, he spent his stress awareness day working on his car restoration project and enjoying time with his daughter, Daisy.

What can we do?

We’ve thought long and hard about this one and have decided to focus on the things that we feel will really make a difference. So what have we done? For a start we gave our consultants the freedom to work from home and pick their start and finish times…. Consider commuting stress and balancing personal commitments a thing of the past! We then decided to move offices to a new contemporary location, our working environment should be one we look forward to coming to. Have focussed on stunning surroundings which provides plenty of opportunity for lunchtime walks, an oxygenated office full of greenery and natural light and who doesn’t want a pizza van and bar on site?....

Recently, for Stress Awareness Month we gave each of our staff a paid day of to switch off and go and do whatever makes them happy. Whether it be play some golf, lift some weights, go for a hike, get your nails done… It really didn’t matter to us. On top of all this we have recently decided to give all our staff a pay rise to recognise the sharp rise in the cost of living.

There are of course plenty of other things we’ve decided to incorporate:

• Qualified mental health first aiders
• Regular incentives and rewards design to recognise performance and effort
• Team building events built around fundraising for charity
• Unique training and “stepping stones” progression programme, we love promoting people!
• Perkbox benefits and mental health support through our parent company, Pertemps Network Group

All of these things help with provide a “feel good factor” and promote a healthy work-life balance.

Above all else we have made a concerted effort to be mindful of the state of mind of all our employees, offering a supportive and nurturing environment where no concern is taboo.