The construction industry is both mentally and physically demanding. The stress that an individual can feel on the job can quickly take a toll on their work, lowering the quality of the final product and hurting your bottom line. It’s important to find positive ways that you can help lower the amount of stress that your team members feel. The below tips can make a big difference when it comes to both your employees and your business.  

Maintain Open Communication 

If your team doesn’t feel like they can talk to you, then any problems that they have are more likely to grow than they are to be solved. This can cause a tremendous amount of stress on the job. Have an open-door policy, where your employees know that they can come to you (or a designated individual) with any questions or concerns. 

Chances are that there are some problems that you won’t be able to solve—that’s to be expected. But it’s important to listen, and to do what you can, when you can. 

Keep Your Projects Organized 

If your employees are constantly having to re-do work and play catch up against unreasonable deadlines, they are going to be under a huge amount of stress. Obviously, you won’t be able to eliminate all of this, and some amount of stress is important in order to keep your team motivated. It’s all about finding that perfect balance. 

The best thing that you can do is to have an experienced foreman or project manager that can keep jobs as organized as possible. This will help eliminate any unforeseen and otherwise avoidable issues, and maintain a calm and orderly working environment. 

Build a Positive Team 

There are generally two types of employees. On one hand, there are those who make proactive contributions to help others and improve workplace morale. On the other hand, there are those who are an emotional drain and who bring undue stress and negativity to the job. Which type of team do you want to have? 

It doesn’t matter how efficient or proficient an employee is, if they are a consistent source of stress and negative energy, they need to go. Keep this in mind when it comes to your hiring practices, and pay attention to overall team dynamics to determine if you have a bad seed. Reward the employees that make positive contributions. 

Focus on Individual Health 

There are some things that you can do to reduce the amount of stress that your team feels—but there are many things that you really don’t have any control over. Getting enough sleep and maintaining a healthy diet and exercise program are some of the best ways to reduce the amount of stress in a person’s life. Take the steps listed above to help reduce your team’s stress levels—beyond that, the best you can do is talk to them about what they can do for themselves.

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