What is a psychosocial hazard? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refers to psychosocial hazards as any factors in the work environment that can cause stress, strain, or interpersonal problems for workers.
Why are some employers struggling with staffing levels?
Some common macro-level reasons include:
- Economic volatility, such as inflation, which can impact hiring decisions to fill vacant roles or add new ones.
- Skills gaps, such as challenges finding talent with the required skills to fill roles.
- Workforce preferences, with employees wanting flexible work, suggesting some prioritize lifestyle over traditional employment structures (e.g., 9-to-5 in the office).
Business-level, micro-reasons employers may struggle to maintain a stable workforce include factors such as the sector, type of work, culture, work demands, and psychological health and safety. Cultures where employees are overwhelmed and stressed are more at risk of mental harm, injuries, and illness. This can increase disability claims, sick time, and turnover.
A recent study reporting post-pandemic data indicated that 91.1 percent of nurses self-reported high levels of burnout. One forecasting model suggested that by 2030, Canada will be short over 100,000 nurses based on current data, and 70 percent of nurses reported their workplaces regularly operated over capacity. Staff shortages for this population are a psychosocial hazard contributing to increased sick time.
Regardless of the sector or role, the combination of macro- and micro-factors contributes to more employees working shorthanded or with new workers who lack tacit knowledge, increasing stress and strain on experienced workers. High staff turnover increases retraining demands and contributes to remaining employees’ stress levels.
Working shorthanded can significantly increase stress among employees and lead to a range of issues, such as burnout, decreased productivity, dissatisfaction, and high turnover rates.
Employees who constantly work shorthanded to complete a shift or reduce deliverables are at increased risk of feeling overwhelmed by an increased workload. Consequences that may increase the risk of an employer having to deal with an employee crisis include mental health issues, accidents, and costly human errors.
Preparing staff to support employees struggling or feeling overwhelmed assists with early detection, lowers risk, and enables intervention in times of need. Ignoring the realities and risks of teams regularly working shorthanded does not change or help the situation. What helps is employers being aware and demonstrating care through actions and commitments to working toward resolving staff shortages.
What employers can do to support employees working shorthanded
Employers should offer hope and provide evidence of what they are doing to mitigate the employee shortage by reporting on action plans regularly and getting workforce input on what could help attract and retain employees.
The following are eight actions employers can take to support workers:
Open communication: Create a psychologically safe workplace where employees feel comfortable expressing concerns, fears, and ideas. Encourage leaders to check in regularly with staff to understand their challenges and needs. Employees should feel heard and acknowledged when under stress. It may not change their reality, but it can help them feel valued.
Prioritize tasks: Help employees focus on high-impact tasks by setting clear priorities. This can alleviate the pressure to tackle everything at once and ensure essential work is completed efficiently. Do all you can to remove low-value work and unnecessary red tape by assessing workflow and processes.
Improve workflow and processes: Seek input from the workforce and leverage AI to evaluate and streamline work processes, eliminating unnecessary steps and increasing efficiency. Implementing better tools and technologies can automate routine tasks, allowing employees to focus on more critical responsibilities.
Allocate resources: Monitor employee workloads and, if necessary, redistribute tasks to better match capacities. Consider hiring temporary staff to cover critical gaps and pulling resources from other groups as support systems if possible.
Institute professional development: Invest in training programs that enhance employees’ skills and ability to cope with stress. Train leaders to support stressed employees and look for opportunities to teach staff new tools and processes to make their workload more manageable.
Promote teamwork: Encourage collaboration and team support to share workloads and help team members through challenging moments. The goal is to create a common purpose, align values, and reduce feelings of isolation.
Provide recognition and rewards: Acknowledge hard work and reward efforts to go above and beyond. A basic thank-you is a start, but being creative—such as rewarding employees with perks like coffee or bonus vacation days for working shorthanded—can boost morale and motivation while demonstrating to employees that they are valued.
Wellness programs: Implement and educate the workforce on programs that support mental and physical health, such as resiliency training, fitness classes, or access to mental health resources, to help employees maintain balance.
