Stress: manager’s training www.ohtoolkit.co.uk

Contents What is the issue? What is the issue in our organisation? Why should we deal with it? What are our responsibilities? How do we deal with stress in our workplace? What can I do if a member of staff is stressed? What next?

What is the issue? Stress has been defined by the HSE as: ‘The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them.’ Source: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/index.htm

What is the issue? In Great Britain: 16.7 % workers say they find their work either very or extremely stressful (2009 survey) work-related stress accounts for approximately a third of all new incidences of ill health continued…

What is the issue? each case of stress-related ill health leads to an average of 26.8 working days lost an estimated 11.4 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2008/9 Source: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/why.htm

What is the issue in our organisation? Insert your own data

Why should we deal with it? Legal – our responsibility under health and safety law Moral – our obligation as a good employer Financial – dealing with stress at work not only reduces sickness absence levels but can improve things such as… Source: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/why.htm

Why should we deal with it? Employee commitment to work Staff performance and productivity Staff turnover or intention to leave Staff recruitment and retention Customer satisfaction Organisational image and reputation Source: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/why.htm

What are our responsibilities? The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to secure the health (including mental health), safety and welfare of employees at work This includes providing a safe place of work, safe systems of work, and information and training

What are an employer’s responsibilities? The Management Regulations 1999 require suitable and sufficient assessments of health and safety risks at work to be carried out – this includes assessing the risk of stress-related ill health

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? The HSE has developed Management Standards These act as a yardstick against which you can measure your performance and provide indicators of good practice The Management Standards approach helps employers work with their employees and representatives to carry out risk assessments for stress Source: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg406.pdf

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? The target is for all organisations to match the performance of the top 20% of employers that are successfully minimising work-related stress. This means we will need to…

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? Assess the risk and potential causes of stress, eg by looking at sickness absence records or attitude surveys, or conducting specific stress-related surveys or getting feedback from focus groups continued…

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? Use these to assess how the organisation is performing in relation to the six risk factors. This includes managers talking to their teams to identify stress ‘hot spots’ Consult with staff to decide on improvement targets and action plans Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg424.pdf

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? To help employers understand how to do a risk assessment for work-related stress, the HSE has identified six key areas (or ‘risk factors’) that can be causes of work-related stress

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? The six Management Standards cover 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 work continued…

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? 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 continued…

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? role – such as whether people understand their role in the organisation and whether the organisation makes sure that they don’t have conflicting roles change – such as how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? The HSE has produced a survey tool and an analysis tool in order to gather relevant information about these six areas They also recommend looking at existing data and carrying out discussions with employees

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? If we find we have a problem, there is good advice about dealing with the issues on the HSE’s ‘best practice’ pages, including the need for staff consultation Source: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/experience.htm

How could we deal with stress in our workplace? We also need to manage anyone who is already absent because of stress-related ill health The HSE also has detailed guidance about sickness absence management See: www.hse.gov.uk/sicknessabsence/guidancehome.htm

What can I do if a member of staff is stressed? If you’re concerned about any of your staff: check there are adequate organisational arrangements in place and that a risk assessment has been done arrange to speak with them to find out how you can help them both immediately and in the longer term

What can I do if a member of staff is stressed? If your member of staff has visited their GP about stress, it would also be helpful to contact them in writing (get your member of staff’s consent first) See: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/individuals.htm

What next? Generate a plan for your organisation, eg: produce a policy See: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/pdfs/examplepolicy.pdf get feedback from focus groups and analyse the data use the HSE’s survey and analysis tools More information is available from the HSE and IOSH See: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/before.htm and www.ohtoolkit.co.uk