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According to a survey conducted by The Stroke Association, recruitment consultants are the most stressed employees in the UK. Yikes!

Personally, at times I have felt like recruitment could be one of the most stressful industries to work in and I often joked about this with friends and family whilst using this notion as a viable excuse for often having a glass or two of vino. Turns out, it’s true!

The Stroke Association Charity recently surveyed over 1,000 employees in all different professions across the UK. Their findings identified the recruitment sector as the most stressful working environment with around 82% of consultants claiming to be stressed whilst at work. 

Unfortunately, some consultants’ vices have also been aired within the survey! The report showed that in order to deal with increasing stress levels, we tend to turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drinking, smoking, comfort eating and a small percentage even turning to recreational drugs. 

Chief Executive at recruitment agency, Major Players said “It’s not surprising that people in our industry experience stress on a regular basis. We work in a highly competitive environment, sometimes working long hours to deliver results for our clients and candidates. When the economy isn’t as buoyant as normal, it can make the job even more demanding, so it’s vital that companies take steps to encourage their people to deal with stress in a healthy way.”

The report was encouraging employers to do more to combat stress in the workplace for staff, regular exercise was a key suggestion. The benefits of exercise has been proven time and time again. However, I found that some of the work-related benefits include improved concentration, sharper memory, faster learning, prolonged mental stamina, enhanced creativity and most importantly, lower stress! I think we would all agree that some of these would certainly not go a miss. 

This led me to start thinking about how it would be possible to incorporate exercise into our days rather than reaching for the smokes or hitting the bottle at 6:00 pm, and I was surprised to find so many moves that can be done at your desk without you looking too silly!

I will definitely be giving some of these a try and encouraging the team to do the same. After all, while stress itself is certainly not pleasant, it can lead to high blood pressure which is the single biggest risk factor for strokes according to The Stroke Association who conducted this survey. There goes my Pinot this evening! At least we have the right to moan about stress levels of recruitment, and we have evidence!