This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and this is a timely to reminder that employers have a legal duty to protect employees from workplace stress.
Stress is a feeling of being under abnormal pressure. This pressure can come from a different sources; an increased workload, a change in the way things are done, a conflict with a colleague or manager, financial worries or a new role or responsibility. Or it could be the cumulative effect of several stressors building up to an uncomfortable level of pressure.
While stress is not a clinically recognised mental disorder (and therefore cannot be classed as a disability) excessive or prolonged stress can contribute to illness such as heart disease and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
Within an organisation where stress exists you may see symptoms such as higher staff turnover, increased lateness and sickness absence, lower performance, increasingly emotional responses and more complaints. The cost of these symptoms, in addition to the employer’s legal duties to protect employees from workplace stress, serve as a great incentive to tackle the issue at hand.
So what can we do to tackle workplace stress?
Monitoring the factors set out above can certainly identify where stress could be a factor.
Conducting a stress risk assessment is essential, and can give useful insight into the areas of work design which can effect stress levels; job demands, level of control, support available, working relationships, job role, type and levels of change.
Management training is another vital aspect of tackling the problem. We’re not just talking about stress management training, but think holistically about people management skills and team building. Keeping in mind the work design areas mentioned above.
Some organisation have introduced employee assistance or counselling programmes, or trained ‘stress champions‘ in the same way as they have trained first aiders, with great effect.
Employees also play a role in managing their own stress although many are unwilling to talk about stress at work, because of the stigma stress has. Providing open information on who they can contact for help and support can be a positive step.
If you would like to know how Redway HR can help your organisation to work proactively to prevent stress, or tackle it where you have identified a problem, please get in touch.