Managing stress in the workplace

 

What is stress, and how can I spot the signs?

A widely accepted definition of stress is “a feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilise”.

Stress is primarily a physical response; the body thinks it is under attack and can react in different ways. Common reactions include the 'fight' response, where one becomes agitated or aggressive in response to a threat; 'flight', where one tries to flee or avoid the cause of stress; or 'freeze', where energy mobilised by the perceived threat becomes locked into the nervous system causing us to physically freeze or pause, such as by holding our breath.

People experience stress in many different ways, so spotting the signs can be very difficult. They might be physical, such as flare-ups in headaches, eczema or other physical complaints, or they might be emotional, such as feeling that you have a lower level of patience with others, or behavioural.

Stress isn't avoidable, but it is manageable. Identifying stress-related problems as early a possible is essential so that action can be taken before serious stress-related illness occurs.

What does the law say?

Employers have a duty to identify potential causes of stress and reduce these before they impact on their employees. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires employers to undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment to assess risks to employees in the workplace. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to take measures to combat these risks.

Practical steps to take

As a starting point, an employer should conduct a stress audit to help identify sources of stress for employees in the workplace. This can be based around the following six areas:

• Resource and communication: Do employees have the adequate training and equipment to do their jobs?
• Control and autonomy: Are employees set targets and then given the autonomy to do their jobs or are they being micromanaged?
• Balanced workload: Do employees' have a good work/life balance?
• Job security and change: Are employees' skills kept up to date and are they supported to manage change?
• Working relationships: Are there good working relationships across the teams in the business?
• Job conditions: Consider things such as the salary and benefits offered to employees.
  
  The information gathered from this audit can then support you to make a plan to reduce
  workplace stress. This might include introducing well-being champions as a point of contact
  for employees who are struggling to manage stress. You might also implement stress
  awareness training for line managers, and open discussions around stress and well-being
  should be encouraged.

Managing absences

The costs of not effectively managing stress in the workplace can include high employee turnover, impacted productivity, and additional wage costs resulting from sick leave cover.

It is important that employers look out for patterns in workplace absences to try and determine if any might be attributed to stress. Having meaningful return to work interviews can help you understand the reasons for your employee's absences and, if required, agree adjustments that can be put in place to prevent a short absence turning into a long-term one.

Many employees who are off work due to work-related stress will not be as open to having regular contact with the workplace. The best way to approach this is to agree regular contact times with your employee where you can carry out a welfare check and also keep them up to date with any business changes.

In some cases of work-related stress absences, your employee may request not to be contacted at all. In a recent employment law case, an employer made contact during a period of sick leave relating to an issue that was not serious or urgent, which gave rise to a successful constructive dismissal claim.

Stress and the Equality Act 2010

While mental health issues are more than capable of amounting to a disability, in order to qualify for protection the illness or impairment must: have substantial adverse effects; those substantial effects must be long term; and they must have an adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities.

If these criteria are met and the employer is made aware of the issue then there is an obligation on employers to make reasonable adjustments to support their employee. What is reasonable will depend on the size and resources available to the employer but could include revising working hours, amending responsibilities or allowing time off to attend appointments in relation to the disability. Failure to make reasonable adjustments may lead to claims of disability discrimination.

How Mentor could support you

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