Foundation for Human Resources Development
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Continuous Professional Development Programme 2010

 

Managing stress and preventing burnout at the place of work

 

Course Title	Managing Stress & Preventing Burnout at the place of work.
Dates:	4, 5, 6, 7 October 2010
Time:	13:00 – 17:00
Profile of the Trainer:	Elaine Dutton M.Sc Health Psychology (Lond.), B.Psy (Hons.)   Having completed her Bachelors degree in Psychology at the University of Malta, Elaine specialised in the field of Health Psychology by reading for an MSc at UCL, London in 2005. For three years she worked in the field of Health Promotion in Malta where she delivered training on health-related topics to various audiences, including organisations, professional bodies and NGOs. Elaine is also a skilled researcher and has contributed to national health committees and policies.   Her current work involves training, research, developing health education material and individual consultations with clients needing assistance with health-related issues.  Part of Elaine’s portfolio also includes lecturing at the University of Malta and managing EU projects.
Rationale of the Course	Stress became the buzz-word of 20th century organisations. Everyone is stressed! While most of us have a general understanding of what ‘stress’ is, few may be aware of the hazards it can pose to occupational health and safety and how detrimental chronic stress and burnout can be to organisational efficiency and performance.   Studies show that chronic stress is linked to poor concentration at work and decreased job motivation and performance. Furthermore, stress is related to increased health problems including deficient immune system, heart disease and depression. In situations where stress is not managed, burn-out can occur which can have even more devastating consequences on the physical and mental health of individuals. This often leads to serious repercussions on the organisation. These may include absenteeism, poor team dynamics, near-misses, accidents, human-errors, loss of trained personnel and eventually lost productivity and efficiency. Stress, therefore, eats away not only at one’s personal resources but also at an organisation’s human resources.    In a world that has become increasingly competitive, an organisation can not afford to lose its human resources to stress and burn out. This course aims to help decision makers within organisations and those responsible for employee welfare to recognise the effects of stress and burnout and to reflect on ways how it can be successfully managed in order to improve the health of their personnel and the efficiency and productivity of their organisation.
For Whom	This course is for: ·         Persons responsible for the welfare of employees within organisations such as HR executives and Health & Safety Officers ·         Key decision makers within an organisation or a specific department and who are responsible for the overall performance of personnel; such as team leaders, supervisors, persons in middle and senior management. ·         Students/ Persons specialising in Occupational/ Health psychology, Management, Health & Safety and other related areas.   It is assumed that participants will have the necessary thinking and linguistic skills to be able to discuss and critically evaluate the system in which they work.   It is likely that participants in this course will go on to implement this training within their organisation and be a support for other employees to manage stress and prevent burnout.
Course Aims and Objectives	The course is split into 4 parts and takes place over 2 Full days or 4 Half days.  Parts 1 & 2: The aim is to introduce the concept of stress, its symptoms and consequences including burnout and to help participants reflect on their own perceptions of stress. The second session also aims to draw the links between stress, its effects on the individual employees and the costs for the organization as a whole.    After these sessions participants should be able to: ·         Distinguish between stress and stressors ·         Recognize symptoms and consequences of stress in themselves and others ·         Identify factors within one’s organization that may be leading to stress and burnout ·         Recognize stress as a health and safety hazard within organizations ·         Recognize ways by which stress may be hindering motivation and performance at the workplace.   Parts 3 & 4: The aim is to draw participants’ attention to adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies and the effects these may have on one’s health and on performance at work. It shall also introduce the concept of work life balance and will conclude with a practical session focusing on implementing procedures for effective stress management and prevention of burnout within the organisation.   After this session participants should be able to: ·         Identify adaptive and maladaptive coping mechanisms that persons may adopt in the face of various stressors and how these strategies can be improved. ·         Recognize the effect of unmanaged stress within the organization. ·         Reflect upon the issue of work-life balance ·         Identify ways to address barriers to effective stress management within the organization such that employees/ subordinates can manage stress successfully resulting in improved well-being as well as improved job performance.
Course Content	Part 1: Defining stress and burnout ·         Discussion of various definitions and examples ·         Distinguishing between stress and stressors Understanding the sources of stress: Distinguishing between occupational and personal life stress ·         Sources of stress e.g. environmental, social, occupational, personal. ·         The relationship between various sources of stress and the role of personal perceptions. Symptoms and consequences of stress ·         How do I recognize symptoms of stress in myself and others? ·        Physiological, Psychological, Behavioural and Social implications of stress. ·        Stress as a health and safety hazard within organizations ·       Awareness of burnout in oneself and others ·         How does stress lead to burnout? ·         What sources of help should one seek?   Part 2: Stress and burnout within my organization ·         What type of stressors exist in my organization? ·        What symptoms of stress/ burnout have I noticed in my employees/ subordinates?  ·        Are these symptoms related to a specific department or group of employees? What are the costs of stress and burnout to my organization? ·        The relationship of stress to motivation, job performance, job satisfaction, team dynamics, employee loyalty. ·        Translating stress to costs on an organizational level ·        An introduction to the measurement of stress         Part 3: ·       Awareness of various coping mechanisms ·        How do we cope with stress (Reflective exercise) ·        A look at adaptive and maladaptive coping in reference to various coping mechanisms, such as: ·       Problem Focused coping e.g. re-structuring of stressful situation ·       Emotional Focused coping e.g. projection, comfort eating or alcohol dependence ·       Avoidant coping e.g. procrastination or ignoring warning signs. ·        The link between unmanaged stress and poor coping skills with conflict within the organization. ·        Personal barriers to selecting effective coping strategies ·        The role of the organization in facilitating effective coping strategies Awareness of work-life balance ·         What is work-life balance? ·         Which aspects of one’s work/ personal life could spill over into one’s work/ personal life? ·         Is this an issue that is worth addressing in my department/ organization? If yes, How?                Part 4: Implementing procedures for effective stress management and prevention of burnout. ·         Identifying policies and employee health and safety regulations that are related to stress ·         How does stress feature in the Human resources/ Health & Safety agenda of my organization? ·         Who are the decision makers in my organization/ department and what role do they play in preventing and managing stress and its repercussions? ·         Identifying cost-effective strategies to address barriers to effective stress management within the organization/ department ·        What would be the possible barriers for such strategies being implemented? ·       Conclusion and summary ·       Evaluation & feedback ·        Time for evaluation and feedback and personal questions.
Learning Facilitation	Learning facilitation is varied and will involve: ·      Interactive discussions ·      Individual reflective exercises ·      Analysis of case scenarios in groups ·      Presentation of examples of good practice ·      Tutor feedback to individuals ·      Participants’ critical evaluation of their own systems
Venue:	Casa Leone, Pjazza Robert Samut, Floriana, FRN 1200
Course fee:	FHRD Members - Non-Members -   With the second person, the company will get the third participant free.
Certificate	Those who attend for 80% of the course will be awarded a certificate
Bookings:	To register on line please go to: http://www.fhrd.org/regform.html or   Please click below for a Registration Form http://www.fhrd.org/RegistrationForm.pdf Bookings to be made by Tuesday 28th September 2010