As a business owner, you may at times feel like a circus performer trying to juggle several plates in the air at once while on a unicycle. While you’re doing everything in your power to not fall off the unicycle — or break any plates in the process — it’s almost inevitable that at least one plate will come crashing to the ground.
If this image seems all-too-familiar, it may be time to identify ways to reduce the nerves and pressure you’re feeling at the office. Fortunately, there are a number of business-savvy ways to make work feel less daunting, which, in turn, will reduce your stress levels — and that of your employees. Here are three ideas to help create a less stressful work environment.
1. Move Your Phone Service to the Cloud
Taking phone calls from customers is a bit of a catch-22. On the one hand, you know it’s imperative you and your staff answer all customer phone calls and help them in any way possible. However, dealing with constantly ringing phone lines will likely force you to constantly pull away from the many tasks you need to accomplish.
To help take the phone off your shoulders (no pun intended), look into adopting some form of cloud call center software. Using this type of technology can also assist with customer engagement. For instance, instead of feeling like you have to hurry through calls with customers, this software will give them the help they need and deserve, whenever and however they need it.
Customers can choose from phone support, live chat, email, social media and more, all of which use your customers’ profiles and preferences to make these interactions more personalized.
2. Offer Telecommuting and/or Flexible Work Hours
According to Entrepreneur, one effective way to reduce your employees’ stress levels is to offer telecommuting options and/or flexible work hours. For example, if a number of your employees have kids, be open to letting them start early so they can leave early enough to pick them up from school or daycare. Likewise, if an employee is caring for an elderly parent in the morning, allow them to come into work a bit late.
Depending on the type of work your employees do, you could also explore the option of telecommuting, at least for portions of the week. This way, if you have a night owl employee who’s most productive at 2 a.m., allow them to remotely from their home office. Of course, as long as deadlines are being met and everyone is producing high-quality work, sticking with a traditional 9-5 workday isn’t always necessary.
3. Delegate Wisely and Often
To reduce your own stress levels, consider handing over some of those “spinning plates” to your employees. In fact, learning how to delegate work can be beneficial to you and your employees, if done correctly. Start by looking at your long to-do list and determine which tasks can be delegated to eager employees wanting to develop a new skill set or which can be reassigned with the least amount of training.
Then, look at your employees’ current workloads and strengths to see who would be best-suited for each job you want to delegate. For example, the highly organized part-time employee could get extra hours at work and more responsibility by taking over some of your invoicing- and billing-related tasks.
In No Time, Those Plates will Stop Falling
While owning a company inherently means dealing with bouts of stress, it doesn’t — and shouldn’t — be all-consuming and take over your life in a negative way. By shifting some responsibilities to fellow employees or online platforms, being open to flexible work schedules and learning how to delegate, you should soon feel a definite improvement in your and fellow employees’ overall mood.
