Dealing with stress at workplace

Dealing with stress at workplace workshop
Workshop for agency staff
Date
Topic
Content
Hour1
Causes of stress at the workplace
Stress is triggered by individual and organizational factors. The organizational factors include poor job coordination, poor communication, ineffective job design and descriptions, and unhealthy working environment such as authoritarian leadership
Hour 2
Negative effects of stress
The employees exhibit low job morale
The employees feel insecure and uncertain about the future of their jobs
The employees are overloaded with work and experience poor relationships with their peers or supervisors.
There is a decline in overall organizational performance
Hour3
Signs of stress at the workplace
Fatigue, sickness, high absenteesm, poor job morale, high employee turnover, decline in organizational productivity
Hour 4
Fatigue management, bullying and harassment
Relaxation techniques, legal framework for dealing with bullying and harassment, organizational policies and procedures that prohibit harassment, the harassment risk assessment and stress management policies
Hour 5
Support services to cope with stress
Healthy lifestyles, relaxation and physical exercises, effective communication channels, shared decision-making, proper job design, time management, interpersonal skills, and good leadership practices
Hour 6
Benefits of stress-free workplace
Improve staff retention, reduction in absence, enhanced organizational reputation, improved staff morale and high organizational productivity
Workshop topic, goals and objectives
The topic is dealing with stress at the workplace and aims at enabling the employees understand the sources of stress at the workplace, recognize the stressful situations and acquire skills in coping with stress (Fried, 2008). The training will use experimental learning workshop since it is highly engaging and participative and will ensure learning is enjoyable.
The objective of the workshop is to enable the staff to understand the effects of workplace stress, the signs of stress and support activities that may minimize stress (Munson, 2012). The objective is to enable the organization attain higher employee satisfaction, high retention and higher employee productivity (Croome, 1999). The workshop will involve group discussions since it is more effective for the adult learners.
Needs assessment
The needs assessment was carried out through observation of the workplace behaviors and attitudes of the staff. The observation indicated an increase in lateness and absenteesm, decline in job morale and poor coordination of jobs between departments (Hiriyappa, 2013).
Philosophy of learning and teaching
Every workshop presents a unique opportunity for adult learners to acquire new knowledge and skills that are essential in problem-solving inn their workplace (Munson, 2012). The adults are aware of the learning needs and are motivated to learn skills that improve their social and occupational role competences (Fried, 2008). The workshop is geared at enabling the employees to develop problem-solving strategies in order to avoid work-related stress and foster critical thinking skills.
Adult learners have a problem-centered time perspective since formal curriculum is balanced with opportunities to apply learning through case studies and role –plays. Adults are capable of self-direction and trustful relationships helps in identification of the learners’ needs (Munson, 2012). The adults enjoy planning and evaluating their progress while supervisors recognize the adult learners’ need and treat them as adults. The adults are ready to learn their developmental tasks move towards social and occupational role competence. The adult learners bring their prior experience in every learning situation and discovery how to learn from these experiences in attaining self-actualization (Fried, 2008).
Principles of adult learning
Adults have a desire to learn and will learn when they feel the need to learn. The need for adults to learn can be developed and usually learn by doing (Munson, 2012). The immediate and repeated opportunities to use newly learned skills and knowledge reinforce learning in adults and thus learning should be centered on realistic problems. The experience affects adult learning and adults must be provided with opportunities to interrupt, ask questions and argue their ideas during the learning process (Munson, 2012). Adults learn best in informal environment that encourages interactions and various methods such as role play, cases studies and workshops should be used in teaching adults.
Sequencing curriculum/ transfer of learning
The acquisition of new knowledge and skills occurs in a predictable sequence and the curricula should follow this sequence to develop, present and support adult learning. The first level is the awareness where the learner must be aware of the invitation to the workshop, the objectives of learning, and expected outcomes of learning (Munson, 2012). The clarification of learning methods and rationale motivates the learner. The trainees should be capable of identifying issues, understanding their importance and have reasons for the training (Munson, 2012).
The second level is the knowledge and understanding whereby knowledge includes the concepts, principles and acquisition of factual information (Munson, 2012). The understanding deals with the knowing of the relationships between the concepts such as the adverse effect of stress in the workplace and its relationships with overall organizational productivity. The learner should be able to interpret and generalize the information in the workplace setting or use the information to solve workplace stress-related problems (Hiriyappa, 2013). The learner should draw personal experiences to deepen the understanding of the problem and training methods such as group discussions and exercises promote more exploration of the problem.
The transfer of learning means that the adult learners must be capable of using the newly acquired skills in their work setting in performance of their roles and some mechanisms that promote the transfer include homework, case assignments, post-tests and worker reviews of the handouts one week after training (Munson, 2012). The organizational barriers and lack of follow-up after training may hinder the transfer of learning in the work setting (Munson, 2012).
References:
Croome, D. (1999). Creating the Productive Workplace. New York: CRC Press.
Fried, R. M. (2008). Stress Management for Success in the Workplace. New York: Lulu Press.
Hicks, T & Caroline, M. (2007). A Guide to Managing Workplace Stress. London: Universal Publishers.
Hiriyappa, B. (2013). Stress Management: Leading to Success. New Jersey: Booktango.
Munson, C. (2012). Handbook of Clinical Social Work Supervision, 3rd Ed. New York: Routledge.