Association between perceived stress, self-rated health, work productivity and stress management interventions – a study of employees in the Slovenian processing industry

Abstract

Introduction: Employees' high levels of perceived workplace stress has been associated with impaired health and lost productivity due to sickness absenteeism and sickness presenteeism. As a result, there's been a growing interest in programs and interventions to reduce stress at work among organizations. Methods: The study was conducted as a part of the project Healthy on a square II -workplace health promotion for employees in the chemical and other processing industries, in March 2016 in the sample of N=796 employees in processing industries. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between employees' frequency of perceived stress, self-rated health, sickness presenteeism, sickness absenteeism and implemented stress management interventions. Results: The results indicated that higher frequency of perceived stress is associated with poorer self-rated health, higher number of health problems in the past month and more days of sickness absenteeism and sickness presenteeism in the past year. Regarding the implemented activities for managing work-related stress in included organisations, most commonly reported activities were informing employees about work-related stress and its consequences and stress management training provision, while organisational-level interventions were rare. Discussion: The study highlights the need for systematic implementation of stress management interventions and research on their effect on employees' well-being and work productivity.