Four out of five Irish employees say their stress levels are on the rise. Concerns over health and personal finances are the two biggest contributors according to a survey, conducted by Mercer Consultants.
It finds more than half of respondents feel their levels of motivation are suffering because of stress and a similar proportion of workers say the stress they are under is impacting on their health. Employers could do more to alleviate this according to the Mercer study as many of their staff say they would be under less stress if they were offered better advice on issues such as retirement and financial planning.
Niall O'Callaghan, Partner at Mercer, says the survey reveals that the main drivers of stress are related to health, finances and the absence of time and the need for people to do more in less time. Mr O'Callaghan says the data points to the fact that Irish employees are more stressed than their UK counterparts. He says this may be down to the fact that the recession here was deeper and lasted longer than the UK downturn and as a result Irish people are continuing to struggle that little bit more. While there are signs of green shoots in the economy, people's pockets have not yet fully benefited from this improvement and there is some quite a lot of pressure on costs, he adds.
Stress has a huge negative impact on workers in terms of self esteem and energy, Mr O'Callaghan states. From an employer's perspective, it also has a significant impact on a worker's productivity in the workplace. Mercer has been looking hard at ways of helping employees to manage down the "noise" or distraction caused by issues related to stress and Mr O'Callaghan says that the company has come up with a number of solutions to help address the issue. These include companies encouraging their employees to take greater control of their health and to take greater control of their financial well-being, which should help them manage their time management issues as well.
***
MORNING BRIEFS - Plans have been announced for a €20m investment in a new distillery and visitors' centre in Drogheda. It is expected the Boann Distillery and the associated visitor centre will employ up to 80 people when it opens next year. It will include a whiskey distillery, Boyne Brewhouse craft brewery and a taproom. Drinks industry veteran Pat Cooney, formerly of the Gleeson Group, is the chief executive of the family-owned business behind the distillery. The investment is supported by Enterprise Ireland.
*** Dunnes Stores is the fastest growing Irish supermarket according to new figures compiled by Kantar Worldpanel. The latest grocery market share figures show the value of sales at Dunnes over the three month period to August 16 rose by 8% and Dunnes' market share stood at 22.4%. It appears to have made those gains in part at the expense of Tesco and Supervalu which retained the number one and number two spots, respectively, but which both saw falls in the value of sales over the period. Kantar also tracks grocery price inflation. It says the average supermarket shop costs 1.3% more than it did this time a year ago.
*** Ryanair carried 10.4 million passengers in August, a record figure for the airline. It also filled 95% of its seats during the month according to traffic figures published this morning. Over the 12 months to August the airline has carried 96.3 million passengers up 15% on the previous year.
