Stress

This page gives advice on the causes of stress in the workplace and good practices for avoiding and dealing with its effects.

You will also find details of legal duties and obligations relating to work-related stress and links to further information.

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What is stress?

The Health and Safety Executive defines stress as "the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them".

There is a difference between stress and pressure. We can all experience pressure on a daily basis, and in fact we need it to motivate us and enable us to perform at our best. It is when we experience too much pressure, without the opportunity to recover, that we start to experience stress.

Everyone can feel stressed, when we feel as if everything becomes too much to handle, or when things get on top of us and we feel we are unable to cope with the demands placed on us, both at home and at work.

Stress can affect different people in different ways and is often a result of a combination of factors both in our work life and our personal life.

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Why is stress a workplace issue?

All employees within an organisation can be vulnerable to stress depending on the pressure they are under at any given time.

Stress can be caused by work as well as by personal issues and problems outside the workplace (e.g. financial or domestic worries). Whatever the cause, stress can leave employees feeling unable to cope with the pressures of work with the result that performance at work suffers.

A recent study commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive has indicated that:

  • approximately half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress at a level they believe is making them ill
  • up to 5 million people in the UK feel 'very' or 'extremely' stressed by their work
  • a total of 12.8 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2003/4.

The government aims to work with employers, employees, trade unions and others in achieving a 20% reduction in the incidence of work-related stress by 2010.

Research has also shown that work-related stress can have adverse effects for organisations in terms of:

  • employee commitment to work
  • staff performance and productivity
  • staff turnover and intention to leave
  • attendance levels
  • staff recruitment and retention
  • customer satisfaction
  • organisational image and reputation
  • potential litigation.

More than half of the Scottish workforce is employed by a small or medium sized enterprises. The impact that work-related stress has on small units or teams can be more marked than in larger organisations. For example, losing just one colleague for an extended period with a stress-related illness can have a dramatic impact on the workload and morale of the rest of the team.

There is now convincing evidence that prolonged periods of stress, including work-related stress, have an adverse effect on physical and mental health and well-being.

Research indicates strong links between stress and physical effects such as heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances or various minor illnesses. The psychological effects of stress include anxiety and depression.

Stress can also lead to behaviours that are harmful to health, such as skipping meals, drinking too much caffeine or alcohol, or smoking.

Mental and physical ill health represent personal losses to individuals and costs to organisations, whether through sick pay for those who are absent from work or by poor performance from those who attend work.

By taking action to tackle the causes of stress in your workplace, you can prevent or reduce the impact of these problems on your organisation.

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The benefits of tackling workplace stress

Successful programmes of workplace stress management have seen a marked reduction in sickness absence and staff turnover – good news for employer and employee alike.

Staff morale improves, people feel valued and the overall result is a healthier and safer working environment.

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Legal duties and obligations around stress

HSE Management Standards for Work-Related Stress
These standards from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are intended to meet the existing legal obligations under health and safety legislation.

HSE expects organisations to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for stress, and to take action to tackle any problems identified by that risk assessment.

Although the Standards contain no new laws, Enforcing Authorities have the power to act against employers who do not take steps to reach the management standards.

→ Read more on Management Standards for Tackling Work-Related Stress

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
This Act places a duty on employers to take reasonable care of the safety of employees, including their mental welfare, and to provide and maintain a safe place and system of work.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
These regulations place a duty on employers to assess the risk of ill health arising from work activities, including stress related ill health, and where necessary take action to eliminate or control the risks by implementing any protective or preventative measures.

To view the full text of the above legislation online, please follow the links under Legislation.

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Management Standards for Tackling Work-related Stress

These Standards have been developed by the Health and Safety Executive over a period of several years of consultation with employers, trade unions, HR and occupational health practitioners and experts in the field of occupational psychology.

? Visit the HSE's Management Standards for Tackling Work-related Stress website (external site)

Aims of the Standards
The standards and supporting processes are designed to:

  • help simplify the risk assessment for stress
  • encourage employers, employees and their representatives to work in partnership to address work work-related stress throughout the organisation
  • provide the yardstick by which organisations can gauge their performance in tackling the key causes of stress.

Approach
The Management Standards represent a set of conditions that reflect high levels of health, well being and organisational performance.

This approach depends very much on both senior management commitment and worker involvement. Staff are only likely to take part in such an initiative if the commitment of senior management to tackling work-related stress has been clearly demonstrated to them.

The six key areas of work design
The Management Standards cover six key areas of work design that, if not properly managed, are associated with poor health and well-being, lower productivity and increased sickness absence. In other words, the six Management Standards cover the primary sources of stress at work.

These are:

  • demands – such as workload, work patterns, work environment and training
  • control – such as how much say the individual has in the way they do their work
  • support – such as the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues. This can also include work life balance.
  • relationships – such as promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour
  • role – such as whether people understand their role within the organisation, and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles
  • change – such as how organisational change, large or small, is managed and communicated within the organisation.

Assessing stress risks
Employers have a duty to ensure that risks arising from work activity are properly controlled. The Management Standards approach helps employers work with their employees and representatives to undertake a risk assessment for stress. Unlike the risk assessment for physical hazards, it is likely that the risk assessment on stress will be carried out at a departmental or organisational level.

Identifying contributory factors
The factors that contribute to occupational stress can be identified by using existing information to see how your organisation measures up. This data includes looking at your sickness absence rates, lateness, disciplinary problems or staff turnover. Information can also be obtained from any staff surveys that have been carried out.

Stress audits
Carrying out a stress audit is one of the best ways to find out if stress is a problem within your workplace. A stress audit involves talking to staff – either individually or in groups – to find out where there may be problems.

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Work Positive

Work Positive is a step-by-step process that assists managers and employers to identify and reduce the potential causes of stress.

Work Positive supports continuous improvement against HSE’s Management Standards for Work-related Stress. Work Positive has been redeveloped and updated to allow organisations to continue to conduct this comprehensive assessment of the known causes of stress, as well as easily assess their performance against the HSE Standards.

Work Positive was originally developed by Health Scotland and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA, Ireland) to help organisations identify the potential causes of stress at work in line with requirements under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Work Positive is a comprehensive risk management process that incorporates a risk assessment covering the known causes of workplace stress.

To find out more about Work Positive and to download resources, visit the Work Positive website (external site).

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Good practices around occupational stress

Employers can manage stress in the workplace by taking steps to reduce the risk of their employees experiencing stress in the first place and by supporting those who do encounter stress.

Meanwhile, individuals can act on a personal level within their sphere of influence in the home and work environments to reduce sources of stress and to combat its effects.

Not all employers will have the time or resources to introduce all the examples listed below, especially in small organisations.

However, the principles of how to control and manage stress still apply and all employers have a legal obligation to take work-related stress seriously.

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Self-help for stress

Individuals can do a great deal to manage stress for themselves. Effective measures include regular exercise, sensible eating, adequate sleep and avoiding the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Individuals should also learn to recognise signs of stress, how to practice relaxation techniques and when to seek professional help.

Individuals are more willing to admit that they are suffering from stress – a vital first step to tackling it – if they can expect to be dealt with sympathetically.

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Assisting self-help for stress

Employers can provide regular in-house training events or encourage staff to attend stress management training events that are available locally.

Other assistances can include access to leisure facilities for exercise at a reduced cost or free or reduced cost relaxation therapies such as head or neck massage sessions.

A calendar of events for complimentary treatments and regular social events at lunch times can also help combat stress and keep up awareness of the benefits of such activities.

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Training in stress awareness and management

Managers and supervisors should be trained to help individuals cope with stress and to recognise when expert help is needed.

Individuals can benefit from training in stress management techniques.

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Workplace stress policies

Employers may want to think about introducing a stress policy for the workplace.

The policy should provide clear guidelines for managing stress in the work environment and should:

  • recognise stress at work as a health and safety problem
  • detail arrangements for accessing counselling
  • formalise arrangements for assessing the causes of stress in the workplace
  • introduce measures to reduce and prevent stress
  • detail arrangements for employees suffering as the results of stress.

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Employee Assistance Programmes

Some organisations operate Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs). These are confidential personal counselling services sponsored, and usually paid for, by employers.

Typically, EAPs provide professional counsellors to discuss with individuals their work or non-work related problems. Such problems may be emotional, financial or legal, and may be linked to alcohol or drug misuse, etc.

EAPs can be run in-house, wholly contracted out to counselling organisations, or managed from within the organisation using external counsellors.

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Healthy Working Lives Award Programme

The Healthy Working Lives Award Programme is a national award scheme that rewards employers who demonstrate commitment to improving the health (and ultimately the performance) of their workforce, including around issues of stress and mental health and well-being.

Employers who work towards an Award (Bronze, Silver, Gold or the Commendation Award for Mental Health) benefit from expert guidance from Healthy Working Lives Advisers and a structured pathway to improved safety and health for all employees.

→ Find out more about the Healthy Working Lives Award Programme

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Further information on stress in the workplace

HSE Work-related Stress pages (external site)
These pages from the Health and Safety Executive provide advice on stress at work for individuals and employers, full details of the Management Standards for Tackling Work-Related Stress and download links for many useful tools, including sample policies and stress risk assessments.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) (external site)
ACAS provides confidential help on all employment matters. Telephone the Acas Helpline on 08457 47 47 47 or visit the ACAS website (external site).

Work Positive – Prioritising Organisational Stress (external site)
A comprehensive site from Health Scotland that guides managers through the stress risk assessment process and methods of managing and controlling stress in the workplace. Includes downloadable action planning templates, risk assessment questionnaires and more.

Free guidance from the Health and Safety Executive
Note – all links are to external pages on the HSE website giving options to download or order these resources:

Priced guidance from the Health and Safety Executive
Note – all links are to external pages on the HSE website giving options to order these resources:

Legislation

→ View The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

→ View The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

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