The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Sciences (NIMHANS) has developed TAWS-16, a tool to measure the work stress of employees of companies of different sectors.
Stress has become a major cause of disruption in companies. There is a lot of stress from the higher management in almost all companies. The average stress measured by the tool is around 10-20%. In the cement and automobile industries, for example, only 10-11% were found to have work stress. But the stress prevalence is higher in the IT and apparel industries – 17.7% and 22.2% respectively. Higher stress can lead to NCDs (Non-communicable diseases) such as hypertension, diabetes, and mental disorders. Once the score is obtained suitable stress management program is chosen.
TAWS-16 has a more accurate measurement than other scales that are being used by companies. The scale measures different categories of work stressors related to the employee’s role in the organization, career development, organizational environment and support, and work-life balance. Apart from this the scale also measures the employee’s ability to cope with stress and also psychosomatic disabilities such as (headaches, disturbed sleep, etc). The scale is available in questionnaire form in a mobile app. It includes questions on the work environment also such as deadlines, multi-tasking required, and supervision support to understand the fallacies from the management side as well.
If the stress is mild, then employees have to take counseling sessions, if it is moderate then they have to undergo a stress management program. For severe work stress clinical consultation is recommended by the tool.
Right now, 10 companies have used the scale for their employees and NIMHANS is planning to make it available to many companies for free. Companies lose a lot of time when employees leave their job due to stress, it is also detrimental to the productivity of the company. From this tool, it can be assessed beforehand about such incidences and preventive steps can take place so that such mishaps do not happen and companies are better managed.
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