Saturday, December 10, 2022

6)How to reduce the Stress level ?


Stress can decrease employee engagement, may disrupt productivity, and could lead to various health complications. Chronic stress can weaken the immune system, which may increase susceptibility to colds, flu, and coronavirus infection. This, in turn, can increase the number of sick days that your workforce takes and lower employee output. Over time, even small stressors can lead to health problems, as employees feel rising pressure and anxiety. To combat these issues and help your employees thrive, it’s important to create a company culture that helps decrease work-related stress.

Create a Strong Work-Life Balance

Some ways to achieve a healthy work-life balance include ensuring employees adhere to traditional working hours, avoiding emails or calls after they have left the office, and providing adequate amounts of time for tasks to be completed. These boundaries reduce the pressure on employees to work an extended workday and diminish the rate of burnout. While this is only one piece of the puzzle, it’s an essential one to adhere to. Unless there is a time-sensitive emergency, be sure to only send emails, and texts and make work-related phone calls to employees within core business hours.

Provide Employees with Strong Benefits

One of the most impactful ways to reduce an employee’s workplace stress is to take care of them. Caring for employees may include providing your workforce access to strong mental and physical health benefits alongside other, non-traditional, options. Providing coverage helps combat the negative consequences of stress and reassures employees that, if anything happened, they would be covered. The safety net of strong benefits can help decrease active stress within a workplace while improving the overall employee experience and satisfaction. Access to premium benefits extends beyond medical, dental, vision, life, disability, retirement, transit, and a wide range of voluntary benefits. When you provide your workforce access to strong plans and options, stress levels decrease, and productivity is strengthened.

Encourage Open Communication

Unfortunately, a lot of workplace stress may come from top-down positions. When employees don’t feel comfortable communicating with upper-level management, they have a higher risk of health problems and tend to feel more pressure while in the office. As an employer, you have the power to shape the employee experience and reduce stress caused by leadership issues. There are training classes and workshops that can help managers develop more effective communication methods and stronger delivery when providing constructive criticism. Making it clear to your workforce that the line of communication between bosses and employees is open can help combat interpersonal stressors and challenges.

Offer Adequate Paid Vacation

Many employees could attribute this to having too much to do at work and may not feel comfortable leaving the office or unplugging for more than a few days. While productivity is important, taking vacation time off can help eliminate workplace stress and may actually improve output throughout the year. As an employer, try to encourage your workforce to use their vacation leave and make sure that you’re offering enough time off for them to enjoy it.

Consider Scheduling Team Outings

Scheduling team Outings can help improve office morale and facilitate stronger cooperation. Schedule events offsite and consider the interests of your employees. However, these outings should be during normal business hours to avoid cutting into your employees’ personal time or generating potential additional wage obligations. Some options could be happy hour at a nearby restaurant a group volunteer project or even a traditional company picnic. This can help improve interpersonal relationships at work while destressing together as a team.

Encourage Breaks Throughout the Day

While in the office, many exempt employees may adopt a non-stop work mentality. Depending on deadlines or their schedules, they may not even take a break to eat lunch. Instead, grab-and-go options become the norm, and lunches are eaten over their keyboards. While this may be the norm in many workplaces, taking breaks can help employees avoid burnout while reducing overall stress levels. It’s important to unplug, stand up and move around. Try to encourage your exempt employees to take breaks throughout the day by offering on-site facilities, exercise classes, meditation spaces, or even nap pods. If your employees are non-exempt, you will need to comply with applicable state and local requirements on providing meal and rest breaks throughout the day.





References

Thursday, December 8, 2022

5) Why Human Resource Management Important for Banks?

The Human Resource department is responsible for finding such talented manpower and placing them in the right position in the banks. Any organization dealing with people requires good human resource management and efficient working organization. Banking has been and will always be a "People Business". Efficient and effective management of the human resource in the organization turns it into a successful one.

The management of people in the organization along with handling the financial and economic risks at the wider level is the most potent challenge in front of the banking industry in any given time frame. Because Banking Industry is a service-based company. Apart from the risks in the banking sector, the people handling the day-to-day affairs in the banks need to keep customer satisfaction in mind. The people working at the front office become the face of the bank and thus it is the responsibility of HR to make sure there are eligible people working up front. They need to make sure that the candidates selected in the banks go through necessary training before they begin their work so that they are aware of the nuances of the core banking industry and customer relationships, better. The HR management needs to think both about the quantity and quality requirements in the banking sector and deal with the shortage in the skilled manpower supply in the sector efficiently.


Importance of Human Resource Management in the Banking Sector

  • Plan ahead for recruitment: The ever-changing banking industry, with steady growth in the past decade, has resulted in many vacancies and overall growth in the sector. The number of branches of the Public sector has risen significantly and accordingly, the requirement for skilled manpower has grown as well. The HR management team is responsible in any particular bank to analyze the future requirements of their organization and steadily calibrate the recruitment process.
  • Maintaining a balance of experience and youth in the workforce: The changing scenario of the banking sector with the emergence of online banking and core banking services, there is a need to incorporate youth energy and exuberance in work. But, there should be a fine balance between the youth energy and experienced professionals, to make it a successful and fruitful combination, just like in any other sector. Hence, the HR manager is responsible for maintaining this balance and undergoing some cultural and management adjustments to fit the people working.
  • Training of the manpower: The technology along with the method of working in the banking sector is changing rapidly. Not only the machines, but approaches to various schemes, policies, and banking facilities are changing with time. The new recruit and the older ones as well, need to undergo the necessary training to grasp the same from time to time. Human resource management makes sure that the people working in the banking organization are not suffering from any such discrepancy. Empowering the employees with training and measuring their performance afterward, is what the human resource department needs to look after. 
  • Performance management and talent spotting: The HR management remains responsible for measuring the overall performances of the employees working in different departments. They focus more on the people who are lacking the spirit of working in the organization and try to help them improve their performance for the betterment of the bank. To give importance to the hard work and dedication of employees, the HR department provides adequate praise and promotion to them.
  • Keeping a tab on the personal requirements of the employee: The employee in any organization seeks his/her value in the company. They tend to work even harder once they feel they are an important source for the company and the company thinks of them in return. Providing pay perks for good works, keeping some personal information and wishing them on the occasion, allowing leave, and keeping a tab on the promotional and transfer requirements are some of the things that the HR department needs to look into.
  • Keeping a tab on retirements and resignations: Talent retention is also the responsibility of the HR department. The HR team is also responsible to make arrangements to stop the resignations that the employees are giving to a particular organization. They need to assess and analyze the reasons behind the decision of leaving the organization by the employees and work on it to better the situation. The HR team also needs to have a record of the retirements planned in a few years and make sure that they have recruitment notifications ready to fill the vacant shoes.
References

Why Stress Management important to the Banking Sector.

 How does stress affect the Banker's life?

  1.  Stress has harmful psychological and physiological effects on employees.
  2.  Stress has harmful psychological and physiological effects on employees.
  3. Stress experienced by one employee can affect the safety of other employees.
  4. Controlling dysfunctional stress.

Effect of Stress
 
Excessive stress proves to be harmful to an individual. It ultimately leads to compromised health and loss of productivity. Absenteeism, shirking work responsibilities, arriving late, leaving early, etc., loss of productivity, increase in employee turnover, more error-prone work, memory loss, etc., cribbing, various psychological and psychometric problems, over-reacting, arguing, getting irritated, frustration, suicides, deteriorating health, more of accidents, etc., eating disorders, excessive smoking and drinking, insomnias, depression, improper work, delay in completion of job, etc. are the outcomes of stress. Stress experienced by one employee can affect the security of other employees also. Productivity is directly related to the health of an employee. Healthy employees, higher productivity, and vice-versa. Workplace stress has a significant impact on team performance, employees well being, and the overall performance of an organization. 

Stress Management Programms

Banks are amongst the top ten stressed workplaces in India. To increase the productivity and efficiency of the banks, banks have come forward with a number of solutions. Banks are employing Human Resource practitioners to solve these issues. Human Resource Department has become an integral part of the Bank. Human Resource Practitioners are involved in planning decisions. Banks are implementing various strategies at all levels so that workplace stress can be eliminated. 

  • Employee health is being given priority over other things.
  • An effective communication strategy is a tool through which the effect of most stressors like uncertainty, insecurity, and fear of job loss can be eliminated.
  • Employees are reassessed after the accomplishment of every task.
  • It has been proposed that Employee Development Programmes should be conducted from the initial stage so that employees can easily understand the working environment. 
  • Stress Control Workshops are being conducted by Banks according to the level of employees. 
  • Stress in the banking sector is mostly due to excess work pressure and work life
Suggestions to Reduce Stress
  • Job roles need to be identified to eliminate role ambiguity.
  • Employees' grievances must be handled carefully so that they can mingle in the working culture of the organization. It is important from the point of view of organizational objectives as we all know that only a satisfied employee is capable of satisfying the customer and customer‟s satisfaction is the priority of any organization.
  • Psychiatrists should be employed so that stress audits can be conducted at all levels in the organization and stress-prone areas can be identified. Thus, improving the conditions of the job and alleviating job stress.
  • Organizations should manage people at work differently, treating them with respect and valuing their contribution Thus, effective stress management and professional help can improve the performance of employees,                                                                                                                               



References

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

3) Reason for Work Stress

 Source of Stress

  1. The Environment: It includes weather, noise, crowding, pollution, traffic, unsafe environment, substandard housing, and crime.
  2.  Physiological: adolescence, menopause, illness, aging, giving birth, accidents, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, and sleep disturbances.
  3. Thoughts: The brain interprets and perceives situations as stressful, difficult, painful, or pleasant. Some situations in life are stress-provoking, but it is our thought that determines whether they are a problem.
These are the situations employees face.
 
Factors that contribute to the work stress

  • 1 Work Overload
High levels of stressors like heavy workload and uncertainty about the supervisor’s expectations are associated with physical symptoms. Stress also gets caused when an employee does not fulfill the demand of the job and supervisor. Excessive workload and conflicting expectations are good examples of working conditions. There are several factors that cause stress in employees' jobs and these factors are job timings, pay, bonus, workload, and peer attitude. Workload, technological problems, higher targets, compensation and salary, outcomes of decisions, management, peer support behavior, and longer time frame are the main factors of causing stress in employees. Increase in designation, stress increases, and factors creating stress in employees are feeling undervalued, work-home interface, fear of joblessness, traumatic incidents at work, and economic instability.

  • Role Conflict:
That role conflict refers to incompatible requirements and expectations that the employees receive from their supervisor or coworker. The individual must interact and hold conflicting expectations about that individual's behavior. There are differentiates three major types of role conflict. One type is the conflict between the person and the role. For example, a production worker and a member of a union are appointed to head up a new production team. This new team leader may not really believe in keeping close control over the workers and it would go against this individual’s personality to be hardnosed but that is what the head of the production would expect. The second type of intra-role conflict creates contradictory expectations about how a given role should be played. Finally, inter-role conflict results from differing requirements of two or more roles that must be played at the same time. For example, work roles and non-work roles are often in conflict. The role arises when more demands have been taken place upon the individual by peers, supervisors, and subordinates. Such type of stress is more dominant in jobs that have a lack of descriptions or unclear descriptions and these require conceptual thinking and decision-making.

  • Role Ambiguity

Role ambiguity is another factor that leads to job stress, thus it occurs when the expectations, objectives, and responsibilities have not been clearly designed for employees. The employees become ambivalent to predict their supervisor’s reactions to their tasks as” success” or as” failure. Finally, long hours, work overload, time pressure, difficult or complex tasks, lack of breaks, lack of variety, and poor work conditions (for example, space, temperature, and light) are causes of occupational stress. 

  • Performance 

Performance is the employee’s ability to produce work or goods and services according to the expected standards set by the employers, or beyond the expected standards. It defined performance as a measure of the quantity and quality of work done considering the cost of the resource it took to do the work. It is useful from a managerial standpoint to consider several forms of counterproductive behavior that are known to result from prolonged stress. It believes that specifically, regarding stress in the workplace, the stress ‘process’ often follows the notion of stress xxix as resulting from a misfit between an individual and their environment, where internal or external factors push the individual adaptive capacities beyond his or her limit. However, no two people react to the same job in the very same way, because personal factors also influence stress. For example, type personalities; people who are workaholics and who feel driven to be always on time and meet deadlines, normally place themselves under greater stress than others.


References

Monday, December 5, 2022

2)Stress types of the bank employees.

 Source of stress

There are categories of stressors in the Banking sector.

  • Extra organizational stressors

Extra organizational stressors include things such as societal and technological change, the family, and relocation, economic and financial conditions, race and class, and residential or community conditions. Although medical science has increased the life spans of people and has eradicated or reduced the threat of many diseases, the pace of modern living has increased stress and decreased personal wellness. It is generally recognized that a person’s family has a big impact on personality development. A family situation-either a brief crisis, such as a squabble or the illness of a family member, or long term strained relations with the spouse or children-can act as a significant stressor for employees. 

Relocating the family because of a transfer or a promotion can also lead to stress. For most people in recent years, their financial situation has proved to be a stressor. Some stress researchers define these personal life stressors as unresolved environmental demands (for example, family or financial problem) requiring adaptive behaviours in the form of social readjustments. Life’s changes may be slow or sudden. These sudden changes have been portrayed in novels and movies as having a dramatic effect on people. These life changes can also directly influence job performance.
  • Organizational stressors
Organizational stressors affect large number of employees. Stress in an organization can be due to an insensitive bass, unpleasant co – workers, work over load and the need to complete a task in a limited time. For instance a high pressure environment that places chronic work demands on employees fuels the stress response. In contrast, research provides preliminary support for the idea that participative management can reduce organizational stress. The office design and general office environment are important organizational level stressors. Research demonstrators are the poor lighting, loud noise, improper placement of furniture and dirty or smelly environment also create stress. Managers are advised to monitor and eliminate these stressors. Besides the potential stressors that occur outside the organization, there are also those associated with the organization itself. Although the organization is made up of groups and individuals, there is also more macro – level dimensions, unique to the organization that contains potential stressors. 

  • Group Stressors
The group can also be a potential source of stress. These group stressors can be categorized into three areas such as lack of group cohesiveness, lack of social support and intra-individual, interpersonal, and inter group conflict. 

  •  Individual Stressors

Individual level stressors are those directly associated with a person’s job duties and his family relationships. Marital difficulties Breaking off a relationship and discipline troubles with children are example of relationship problems that creates stress for employees and that are not left at the front door when they arrive at door. Managers create stress for employees by exhibiting inconsistent behaviours, failing to provide support, showing lack of concern, providing inadequate direction creating a high productivity environment and focusing on negatives while ignoring good performance. In a sense, the categories of stressors discussed so far (extra organizational, organizational, and group) eventually get down to the individual level. 

















References



Sunday, December 4, 2022

1) How Job satisfaction and stress categories impact to the Banking Sector.

Background of the Banking Industry

What is Bank?

The bank is a business of accepting deposits and lending money. It is carried out by financial intermediaries, Which perform the function of safeguarding deposits and providing loans to the public.

The banking system is a principal mechanism through which the money supply of the country is created and controlled. The banking system enables us to understand Commercial Banks, Secondary Banks, Central Bank, Merchant Bank or Accepting houses, and Discount houses but to exclude Saving Banks and other Intermediaries.



Banking structure build-up with departments and branches. Most of the time branch employees deal with the customers. Branches have 3 departments.
  1. Operation Department
  2. Cash Department
  3. Credit Department

Customers are the King of the Bank. All the employees target to satisfy the customers but employees should be satisfied with their job roles before satisfying the customers.

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction can define as the extent of positive feelings or attitudes that individuals have towards their jobs. Job satisfaction is the most important condition to motivate employees. If a person has high job satisfaction, he really feels good about his job dignity. Personal, job and organizational climate factors influenced the ego investment or job involvement of people in their jobs, which in turn influenced the intrapsychic reward of a sense of competence that they experienced, which then directly influenced employees' job satisfaction.

How job satisfaction converts to Dissatisfaction.

  • Work overload
  • Workplace Pressure to work longer hours
  • Job characteristics Conflicting job demands
  • Unclear job expectations Pressures of responsibility
  • Time pressures Lack of resources to perform job Lack of information Lack of collaboration
  • Relations with subordinates, co-workers, and superiors
  • Working conditions Physical danger
  • Over or underpromotion Insufficient training
  • Lack of recognition for work done
Job Satisfaction depends on Occupational stress and Organizational Stress.

Occupational Stress

Occupational stress involving their work. Employees work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope. Occupational stress results from the complex interactions between large systems of interrelated variables. Workload, working hours, technological problems at work, inadequate salary, time for family, and job worries at home are the significant sources of stress in the banking sector. Bank employees cannot afford the time to relax and" wind down" when they are faced with work variety, discrimination, favoritism, delegation, and conflicting tasks. employees tend to bring work-related problems home (and take family problems to work) depending on their educational background, the strength of the employees' family support, and the amount of time available for them to relax. Finally, the drinking habits (alcohol) of the employees were found to play a significant role in determining the levels of occupational stress.

Organization Stress

Organizational stress can have a profound effect on production and motivation in the workplace.
Employees of banks are supposed to be proactive, and proficient enough to bear responsibility and to perform in a very stiff competitive environment. The existing banking industry is going through very critical situations, for example, the global market is facing a recession, the growth rate of emerging economies is going down; the pressure of competition is very high apart from this dynamic environment of the banking industry; various banks are restructuring their path of growth.


Job satisfaction must be involved to release occupational stress from the employees. If Occupational stress goes down, Automatically organizational stress goes down. After that Organization can be running smoothly.

References

6)How to reduce the Stress level ?

Stress can decrease employee engagement, may disrupt productivity, and could lead to various health complications. Chronic stress can weaken...