Stress Management

Work-related stress accounts for over a third of all new incidences of ill health. Each case of work-related stress, depression or anxiety related ill health leads to an average of 30.2 working days lost. HSE introduced the Management Standards for Work-related stress in 2004, to help reduce stress related ill-health. Many employers already have a stress policy in place and some form of risk assessment. However, they often come to us with the following questions:

• Is our stress risk assessment suitable and sufficient?
• Are we meeting the HSE Management Standards for work-related stress?
• How does our approach compare with other organisations in our business sector?
• Are we leading the way as an exemplar employer of good practice in stress risk management?
• We have a programme in place, but our approach does not seem to be having an impact on the levels of absence, can you help?

Whilst many of our clients are initially motivated to develop stress risk management programmes in order to meet the HSE Standards and reduce sickness absence, once they have embarked on the process they find it extremely valuable as a management tool to identify what works well and where improvements can be made in work organisation, work design and employee engagement.

As well as reducing sickness absence, taking action to reduce stress can improve business performance by:

• Retaining valuable employees
• Improving employee engagement
• Improving performance and productivity
• Improving employee and customer relations
• Being recognised as an employer of choice
• Improving company image

Whether you already have systems in place or whether you are developing a policy for the first time we can help you improve staff health and realise these business benefits, read on to hear more about the services we offer.