Workplace Stress for Manager’s Training by IOSH

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

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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…

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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…

13. 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…

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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…

17. 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…

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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