Employers urged to do more on tackling the stress epidemic

Workplace stress is the biggest occupational cause of working days lost through injury or ill health, and is responsible for up to 40% of all absences from work.

“One in 5 people say that they find their work either very or extremely stressful”.

“Over half a million people report experiencing work related stress at a level they believe has actually made them ill”.

“Each case of stress related ill health leads to an average of 29 working days lost per annum”

“Work related stress costs society between £3.7 billion and £3.8 billion a year”

In light of these alarming statistics, published recently by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), it is now essential that employers acknowledge that stress is a key health and safety issue that needs managing to protect employees and to avoid exposure to increasing litigation and expensive compensation claims.

Litigation cases have grown significantly in the past few years with an increasing number of successful claims. Consequently, employers need to be more proactive in understanding their responsibility and protecting the organisation and employees by tackling work related stress by identifying the causes and developing solutions.

To assist, in 2004 the HSE launched a set of management standards to make the employer’s responsibilities in relation to stress management and prevention more explicit. More and more employers are turning to the new guidance as a way of tackling stress in the workplace.

The standards and supporting processes are designed to:

• Help simplify risk assessment for stress;
• Encourage employers, employees and their representatives to work in partnership to address work related stress throughout the organisation; and
• Provide a yardstick by which organisations can gauge their performance in tackling the key causes of stress.

The Management Standards define the characteristics, or culture of an organisation where stress is being managed effectively. They cover six key areas of work design that, if not properly managed are associated with poor health and well-being, lower productivity and increased sickness absence.

In other words the six Management Standards identify and provide guidance on how to tackle the primary sources of stress at work. These are:

• Demands – such as workload, work patterns and the work environment
• Control – such as how much say the person has in the way they do their job
• Support – such as the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues
• Relationships – such as promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour
• Role – such as whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles
• Change – such as how organisational change is managed and communicated in the organisation

Employers have a duty to ensure that risks arising from their work activities are properly controlled.

The Management Standards approach helps employers work with their employees and representatives to undertake risk assessments for stress.

In most organisations the responsibility for stress recognition and initial is being devolved to managers and therefore it is essential that those managers receive proper training in what is expected of them. Safety Nett UK’s training addresses the problems of stress from both the employee and employer perspective, and ensures that both parties understand their responsibilities in relation to stress management while providing managers with the necessary skills to recognise stress in their team members and respond correctly to stress related incidents. With this training there is a stronger likelihood that work-related stress will be acted upon in a timely manner thus reducing and in many cases eliminating it.

What all employers need to know

1. Click here for further details of stress training available from Safety Nett (UK) Limited.
   
2. Click here for further assistance on drafting your stress policy, deriving stress risk assessments, stress audits or cultural surveys.
   
3. HSE have published a guidance book “tackling work related stress (HSG218) which is available in the Real Solutions, Real People pack available from HSE Books, www.hsebooks.co.uk and on the HSE stress website pages www.hse.gov.uk/stress
   
4. Stress has recently been defined by the HSE as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”. There is a clear distinction between pressure, which can create a “buzz” and be a motivating factor, and stress, which can occur when this pressure becomes excessive.

Article by Paul Simpson, Managing Director, Safety Nett (UK) Limited

Any views given in this article represent the opinion of the author and should not be considered as a statutory interpretation of the law

The author welcomes any comments or observations in relation to this article.

Date of article: 03 Feb 2008