Employee stress, reduced productivity, and interest in a workplace health program: a case study from the Australian mining industry

Street, Tamara, Lacey, Sarah, and Somoray, Klaire (2018) Employee stress, reduced productivity, and interest in a workplace health program: a case study from the Australian mining industry. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16 (1). 94.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Published Version) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (310kB) | Preview
View at Publisher Website: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16010094
 
12
661


Abstract

The Australian mining sector has an elevated industry prevalence of stress and high stress related productivity impairment costs. This study surveyed 897 employees from an Australian mining company to identify characteristics associated with: (a) high stress related productivity impairment costs; and (b) likelihood of stressed employees wanting stress management assistance at work. Groups associated with average annual productivity impairment costs in excess of $50,000 per employee included: permanent day shift employees; employees who reported being stressed at work most of the time; employees who reported being stress at work all of the time; and employees who were contemplating better managing their stress in the next 6 months. Overall, 52% of employees who identified as being in the contemplation stage of change for stress management and 52% of employees who experienced stress most of the time reported wanting stress assistance with stress. However, only 33% of stressed permanent day shift employees and 36% of employees who experienced stress all the time reported wanting stress assistance. To achieve a high return on investment when implementing workplace stress management programs in the mining industry, practitioners need to strategically target health promotion to engage stressed employees with high productivity impairment costs and low desire for stress management assistance.

Item ID: 69464
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1660-4601
Keywords: work stress; productivity; impairment cost; stress management; employee characteristics; workplace health promotion; health and safety
Copyright Information: © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Date Deposited: 17 Nov 2021 02:12
FoR Codes: 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420603 Health promotion @ 100%
SEO Codes: 20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200401 Behaviour and health @ 100%
Downloads: Total: 661
Last 12 Months: 94
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page