Stress Awareness in the Workplace

April is Stress Awareness Month, a wellbeing campaign that aims to raise public awareness of the causes and impacts of stress. It is an important reminder for employers to take time to reflect on their responsibilities and take action to prevent stress in the workplace and promote the wellbeing of their employees.  

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines work-related stress as: ‘The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them’. According to the CIPD (2022), stress continues to be one of the leading causes of both short term and long term absence. Stress can place significant demands on employees’ mental and physical wellbeing and impact upon productivity, absence and retention rates. As such, there is a clear business case for employers to recognise the impact of potential stress on their employees and ensure appropriate steps are in place to create a supportive working environment.   

Employers have a duty of care to approach stress management proactively, focusing on prevention and early intervention, and not just reacting when a problem becomes significant or when an employee goes on sick leave. To meet this duty of care, there are a range of practical measures which employers can implement: 

• Implement stress risk assessments to identify sources of stress in the organisation and the impact on employees, taking affirmative action where stressors or potential stressors are identified.  
• Introduce a stress management policy to set out the organisation’s approach and commitment to stress prevention and management and signpost to available sources of support.
• Develop the people management skills and confidence of line managers so they are equipped to spot the early signs of stress in their teams and manage people and workloads effectively. 
• Run stress management/ wellbeing events to help to raise awareness about the organisation’s stress-management initiatives and activities. 
• Help employees to take care of their own health and safety by providing them with access to training workshops. Stress-management training can educate employees on how to avoid stress and, if it does occur, to recognise it and access help. Resilience training is an important part of stress management training, as it equips employees to cope with difficult situations when they do happen. 
• Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) can provide confidential support for employees on a variety of issues (both personal and work-related). They offer trained professionals who can support employees who are experiencing stress and equip them to respond more effectively to potentially stressful situations in future.  
• Monitor the effectiveness of any interventions put in place to prevent and manage stress. Review existing metrics to determine what they tell the Organisation and introduce new measurements where necessary and practical. 

Our consultants can help you refine your current workplace strategy for addressing workplace stress and assist with implementing any of the measures recommended above. For more information, please contact us at enquiries@thinkpeople.co.uk or by calling 02890 310450 (ROI – 00353 1969 7865).