Stress is now accepted by the medical profession as a serious condition that can be a major factor in a variety of illnesses from migraine to eczema and even stroke. Stress is believed to weaken the immune system, leaving the sufferer vulnerable to all kinds of infection.

Employers have a legal duty toward their employees to ensure they do not face serious risks to their health in the course of their work, and that includes stress.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, prevention is better than cure and they encourage employers to assess the risks and discuss how to address them with their workforce.

If, after reading this month’s article, you are still unsure what you need to do, then call us in to help you sort things out.

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The Issue

Stress in the workplace appears to be a growing issue. Statistics indicate that stress has overtaken the well established “bad back” as the reason for sick days off work.

In our business we find a range of attitudes amongst our customers. Some organisations take the issue very seriously. They have policies in place and procedures designed to avoid stress situations arising in the first place and, if a case of stress does occur, to handle it effectively. That means dealing with the causes as well as caring for the person suffering from stress.

At the other extreme, we encounter the occasional employer who is reluctant to acknowledge that stress is a problem at all. Some people discount it as “all in the mind” and think that people who claim to be suffering from stress need to “pull themselves together”. The majority of employers tend to fall somewhere between these two extremes.

Whatever our personal opinion about stress, the government, the medical establishment and the courts all recognise it as a real issue that needs to be addressed by every employer.

In spite of its increasing prominence, there is still widespread uncertainty about the causes of stress and the options available for managing it, yet tackling stress has to be good for everyone – for the wellbeing of employees and the profitability of the companies that employ them.

If you feel wary about stress and how to handle it, call in one of our advisors to explain what it is and how to address it in your organisation.

HSE’s Approach

Rather than treating the issue as a Pandora’s box, the HSE recommend bringing it into the open and dealing with it head on.

First, however, they are at pains to draw a clear distinction between “pressure” and “stress”. The former can be motivational and many people find that they perform at their best under pressure. Stress, on the other hand, is an adverse reaction that people sometimes experience when subjected to excessive pressure, usually for an extended period. Pressure can actually enhance productivity, whereas stress can be debilitating in the extreme and may result in a variety of illnesses.

Stress Factors

The HSE’s approach starts by recognizing the primary factors that can result in workplace stress. In no particular order they are:

• Work Demands – arising from the combination of patterns of work and the environment in which they take place
  
  
• Personal Control – which refers to an individual’s influence over the way in which they are allowed to do their work
  
  
• Support Structures – including such factors as resources and encouragement available from their employer, management and colleagues
  
  
• Working Relationships – positive relationships at all levels that are free from unacceptable conduct
  
  
• Defined Roles – whereby each employee understands their role in the business without having to reconcile conflicts between different roles they are required to fulfil.
  
  
• Managed Change – such that when change is necessary, it is introduced in a controlled manner and properly communicated to those who are affected.

Stress Management Standards

The HSE has compiled a set of Management Standards that address stress factors. For each one, they briefly state what would be typical of an organisation where stress is well managed, along with suggestions of what each standard means in terms of actions or conditions that should exist in the workplace.

The HSE’s ‘Management Standards for Work-related Stress’ provide a clear blueprint that can be applied in any organisation that is seeking to tackle stress.

They also suggest how the standards can be maintained in practice through dialogue, risk assessments, surveys, etc. in order to identify and address problem areas.

HSE Resources for Managing Stress

You can read more about the HSE approach in their free leaflet ‘Tackling Stress: The Management Standards approach’, available from their website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg406.pdf

The HSE also publishes a comprehensive strategy for managing stress, which is available on their website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards. It includes references to a variety of tools to help implement the strategy, and the full toolkit is available from http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/downloads.htm

If you know you have a problem with stress but don’t know what to do about it, we can help. Call us on 08456 44 53 52

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Organisations that choose to ignore stress could face significant penalties.

The following case didn’t get to court but it resulted in an out-of-court settlement of £138,000 made to a senior manager at the Droitwich VAT Office.

The manager needed to take sick leave for a number of months due to work related stress that he experienced when he was put in charge of three additional VAT offices.

When he returned to work, his responsibilities were increased yet again, even though he was still on anti-depressant medication.

Feeling unable to cope, he requested compulsory early retirement but his request was refused and he was eventually retired on medical grounds.

The case was due to come to court at the end of 2005 but on the day before the case was to be heard, the employer offered the out-of-court settlement.

The lesson from this case is that defending a compensation claim for stress can be difficult, particularly when the employer has prior knowledge.

A fuller account of this case is available on the Birmingham Post website

Failing to address a stress culture can prove much more costly than calling in timely help.

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The start of October saw a number of new items of legislation. If you haven’t been preparing for them beforehand, time has now run out and you need to ensure your policies and arrangements are up to date.

The change that affects every organisation is the new ‘Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order’ that simplifies the plethora of fire legislation that applied before. Fire Certificates no longer have any legal standing and the emphasis now is firmly on Fire Risk Assessment.

If you are unclear how to address the risks the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has published a booklet entitled “A Short Guide to Making Your Premises Safe from Fire”, which is available for download at http://195.80.32.155/docimages/1402.pdf

If you need help with conducting risk assessments or further guidance on addressing risks, then you need to contact us on the number listed below.

You can find details of other legislative changes, which came into force in October, on our website at http://www.edp-uk.com/law_changes.htm

View more anticipated legal changes. Then decide if they affect you and what changes you need to make by way of preparation.

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