5 November is National Stress Awareness Day, so we’ve provided you with a round-up of HR Zone’s recent stress related features, news items and community questions.
Any Answers postings
Stress – how does your company manage it?
I would really appreciate it if any members out there could come back to me with any success stories, or policies/procedures they have created within their companies to deal with stress. My objective is to design a procedure/policy for our company and I could really do with a kick start! I hope someone can help, says Martina Petanjek.
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Stress policy
I am keen to persuade our HR dept to produce and undertake stress management policy and procedural good practice. If anyone has any ideas on where I could obtain a comprehensive sample policy document this would be a great help, says Angie Furnell.
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Policy on stress
I have been asked to investigate how we might put together a policy on stress, and I would be very grateful if you could forward me a copy of your policy, if your organisation has one. We are a healthcare organisation, but anything from either public or private sector would be much appreciated, says Alison Bayne.
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Peer support and stress levels
I work in a call centre environment and have become concerned about the increased amount of sickness and low morale throughout the office. I am investigating ways to improve this with particular interest in Peer Support Networks and Employee Assistance Programs. Has anyone had any experience of setting up this type of service for staff and if so what are the pitfalls and benefits? Also, have you experienced any other useful ways to relieve stress and boost morale that I could consider? asks Kerry Bellamy.
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You can add your responses to the comments above, or post your own questions in the Any Answers area of HR Zone.
News and research
Firms urged to reduce stress
An NHS hospital is required to assess and reduce stress levels among its staff, after being issued with an “enforcement notice” by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). If it fails to do this by December, it faces court action and unlimited fines under the Health and Safety at Work Act. This story also reports on TUC research which suggests that workers exposed to stress for at least half their working lives are 25% more likely to die from a heart attack and are twice as likely to suffer a fatal stroke.
National Stress Awareness Day
To help businesses deal with stress, the International Stress Management Association is organising free local workshops around the UK during the week following National Stress Awareness Day.
“We can all do something about stress”
The International Stress Management Association says it has seen a steady upward trend in the reporting of stress and recommends 10 tips for reducing your own personal stress.
Stress is leading cause of long-term absence
Stress is still the most common cause of long-term sickness absence among non-manual workers, according to a CIPD survey which found that almost 60% of public sector organisations cite stress as the leading cause of long-term sickness absence.
“Emotional audits” help managers deal with “toxic emotions”
The need for emotional audits is greater now than ever given the increasing reports of stress in the workplace, argues Dr Rob Briner of the University of London.
Are you stress hardy?
Psychologists, Kobasa and Maddi, did a study of 200 business executives at Illinois Bell. The organisation was going through a turbulent time, such that half the executives got ill. They looked for differentiating characteristics in the group that stayed well. They found strong differences, which they termed ‘hardiness’ and that hardiness came with three characteristics – Commitment, Control and Challenge…
Middle managers identified as organisational fault line
Middle managers are under such severe strain that the future success of many organisations is in serious jeopardy, claims a new report.
Britain – a nation of workaholics
Bosses on the one hand offer benefits, but are maintaining a culture where employees are too afraid to take them.
Britain – a nation of workaholics – part 2
The proportion of those who work more than 48 hours a week has increased from one in 10 to one in four during the past five years.
Articles
Sabbaticals to combat workplace stress
Karen Charlesworth from the Chartered Management Institute argues that sabbaticals can reduce job stress, rejuvenate employees, and protect an organisation’s long-term investment in its people.
Disciplinary procedures and stress
Annabel Mackay of Charles Russell solicitors outlines the steps employers can take to reduce the likelihood of unfair dismissal claims.
Stress audit
HR Zone member Paul Flavin shares his opinions about some of the causes of stress within an organisation and the HR practices which can help to resolve them.
Tackling stress-related absence
Paul Roberts looks at the actions that should be taken to support employees who are absent with stress to aid an early return to work.
How to conduct a stress audit
Anna Shuttleworth outlines the key steps organisations should take when implementing a stress audit.
Useful information and guides
The International Stress Management Association UK is a registered charity which promotes knowledge and best practice in the prevention and reduction of stress.
The Health and Safety Executive has published draft Management Standards for stress and a draft process for piloting these in your organisation. It also has a number of publications on workplace stress
The Royal & SunAlliance has produced a guide to avoiding stress in the workplace. View the PDF document Taking the Stress Out of Work
You can also download a PDF copy of the Engineering Employers Federation’s “Managing Stress at Work” Guide which covers the business and legal cases for stress management; a manager’s guide on how to recognise stress; a checklist of the key stress factors at work and five steps to stress risk assessment.
3 Responses
combatting stress
The recommendations announced recently by the Accounting for People Taskforce should put well-being in the workplace on the agenda for every business. By advising that details of human capital management activity are included in annual reports, the recommendations force employers to recognise the link between the well-being of their staff and business performance, and shareholders to take a view on how the people management of a company affects its sustainability – a dramatic shift in business culture.
Research in the UK and the US has shown that when employees are reasonably fit and healthy, they can boost their productivity by up to seven hours a week: healthy employees can complete up to one more day’s work than stressed employees.
Despite this concrete evidence that stress matters, a survey we carried out indicates that employers are yet to respond to this call to action – 67% of employees take office traumas home with them and the main reasons given are unrealistic workloads, job insecurity, long working hours and colleagues’ incompetence.
Managers simply can’t afford to take a laissez-faire approach to tackling stress. One way for companies to alleviate supposedly unrealistic workloads is to adopt a human capital management policy where skills are maximised and resources are used more effectively.
By pursuing this tactic to address long hours, and regularly communicating with staff on HR and management issues, bosses can go a long way to helping reduce employee stress levels. The end result should be increased productivity, fewer cases of absenteeism and improved morale. Aside from this, employers should encourage staff to take holiday regularly and offer flexible working hours, if appropriate, to make for a more effective working environment.
Stress seminars covering topics such as effective time management, setting realistic goals and even breathing exercises are becoming more common. Companies that have introduced stress management into their training programme clearly believe that the time spent in educating employees and providing advice is a valuable long term investment for their business.
The flexible working legislation passed earlier this year should help to address stress and improve overall health by forcing employers to take a responsible approach to the work/life balance of their employees. But whilst this legislation is a positive step, it is important that it is put into practice so staff can actually feel the benefits.
It will be a while before many companies can brag in their annual reports about their efforts to reduce stress levels and improve employee well-being.
Stewart Coia, Head of HCM Practice, Parity.
Productivity enhancements though understanding of stress and car
We have found that it is prudent when running any employee attitude type surveys to include a section on the needs of carer responsibilities – broadly speaking the stresses and strains faced by particularly first time parents with young children often babies which often (under work life balance ) spill over from home life to work life and vice versa.
Simply put – if you don’t know about the carer responsibilities of your employees and needs then how can you offer support to combat stress that is brought about by this accepted fact?
Good corporate policy (most CEO’s make big statements on Corporate Social Responsibility) demonstrates consideration and embraces work life balance so serious reviews, at least annually, of the employees requirements and help needed with childcare issues is good for all – new changes to ICTA – allow for substantial employer and employee tax breaks on childcare – and for those corporations that embrace this they find they benefit to the tune of £3-£10 M if a plc with 2000+ staff and pro rata in smaller organisations.
If you need any more data on our research and findings let us know – its all about sharing to improve workplace productivity!