A report recently published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development confirms that stress has become the most common reason for long term absence. This highlights the need for businesses to adopt a greater understanding about the causes of work related stress and how being proactive when managing stress will benefit your workforce and your business.
Under current health and safety legislation, employers have responsibility for the health and safety of employees at work and should undertake stress risk assessments
It is normal to expect that employees will be able to cope with the normal pressures of work which can actually energise and motivate staff. It is when the pressure turns extreme and employees are no longer able to cope with the situation that stress can occur.
The Health and Safety Executive identifies and recommends that in order to manage and prevent work-related stress from happening, you can look at the following six areas:
• Demands
• Control
• Support
• Relationships
• Role
• Change
These six areas will help address issues such as workloads and the work environment along with having systems and support in place to help individuals. Positive working relationships should be promoted along with ensuring individuals understand their role and how it fits within the wider organisation. Finally, individuals should be communicated with regularly to ensure they are fully aware of any organisational changes.
Whilst it is inevitable that every organisation is different, these six areas of management standards represent a set of conditions which will reflect a high level of well being and organisational performance.
Work related stress resulting in long term absence will ultimately be costly for a business so investing time in looking at prevention will ultimately be beneficial to both the health of your business and the health of your employees.
