How did last week feel for you? Were you feeling a tad more stressed out than usual? If you were, don’t worry, you’re not alone – there were millions of us in the same boat.
Last week was, it seems, the most stressful 5 working days of the corporate calendar as those left in the office struggle to cover for their sun-seeking colleagues jetting off to Tenerife and Alicante – and as such a major challenge for the HR Director to address.
Research conducted by Sovereign Health Care of more than 2,000 employees revealed that just under a third of employees reckon to suffer from increased stress when their colleagues were on holiday. In fact, the only thing staff dread more than having to cover for their colleagues as they sip on a cocktail by the beach is losing their jobs completely!
Given that 51% of respondents complain that they are already feeling more stressed at work than they did a year ago, this isn’t helping reduce the burden on the HR Director – especially when another alarming statistic is taken into account. Around 60% of respondents believe their employer is providing minimal or less than the legal requirement for support around work-related stress. This way lawsuits lie…
“Stress is a complex issue which can manifest itself in different ways, making it difficult for managers to identify and manage in the workplace," argues Russ Piper, Sovereign Health Care chief executive. "However, a failure to do so could lead to employees developing further health problems and having to take time off work, which can cause remaining staff even more stress.
“This time of year is naturally more hectic with parents preparing for the schools breaking up and juggling childcare, and businesses having to manage the increasing number of people taking leave. Therefore it’s even more important that employers step up the well-being support they provide for employees to try and help ease some of the additional burden.
“It is no longer enough for organisations to expect their employees to just get on with the job regardless of the issues they are facing. Providing cost effective well-being support to your employees could well be the best investment you make this year.”
Avoiding the problem?
While HR Directors are on the front line in trying to manage such situations, it seems that all too many organisations aren’t taking the matter seriously, even though employers have an obligation under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to take appropriate steps to identify and manage stress at work.
In reality, research by Legal & General – using Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics and reports – suggests that less than a fifth of employers take adequate steps to provide support for stressed employees.
“These figures show that employers should ensure that good quality support is available in the workplace to help employees," says Diane Buckley, Managing Director of Legal & General Group Income Protection "It is concerning that 83% of employers have no provisions in place to deal with stress related illnesses."
The new DWP Survey, Health and well-being at work: a survey of employers, shows that only 17% of employers have any form of stress management advice and support in place despite the fact that short-term stress-related absences topped 42,000 in the three months to December last year.
Elsewhere the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) absence management annual survey report recently highlighted that stress is the second biggest cause of short term absences and one of the leading cause of all long-term absences for non-manual workers.
According to the CIPD study:
- Over a third of employers reported that stress-related absence has increased over the past year.
- The top causes of stress at work are workloads, external relationships, organisational change/ restructuring and management styles.
- The public sector is taking a lead with eight out of ten public service employers taking steps to identify and reduce stress in the workplace compared with about half of private sector employers.
The report notes: "Organisational change/restructuring was a particularly common top cause of stress in the public services sector as has been found in previous years. Whether this is due to more ineffective management of organisational change in the public sector, or whether it is a result of being subject to more political changes is not clear."
Not everyone’s to blame
It’s not fair to say that stress is being entirely overlooked by organisations, with three out of five respondents (61%) saying that their employer is taking steps to identify and reduce stress in the workplace. The report argues: "Larger organisations were most likely to be taking action to manage stress. Fewer than half of employers with fewer than 50 employees were taking steps to identify and reduce workplace stress, compared with about three-quarters of
those with 1,000–4,999 employees and 88% of those with more than 5,000 staff.
That said, what can employers and HR personnel do to tackle this issue. It’s apparent from the CIPD research that there are a range of standard options available, including:
- staff surveys
- training for managers and/or staff
- risk assessments
- employee assistance programmes
- flexible working options
- improved work–life balance
CPID notes: "Not only can flexible working be a very cost-effective method of reducing stress but it is likely to bring other benefits such as reducing absence levels in general and even increasing employee engagement."
Another obvious method of tackling stress problems is to use the Health and Safety Executive’s stress management standards, which provide step-by-step guidance on conducting a risk assessment for work-related stress.
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 – this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment.
- Control – how much say the person has in the way they do their work.
- Support – this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues.
- Relationships – this includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour.
- Role – whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles.
- Change – how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation.Nearly one-third (32%) of respondents report they are already using the HSE stress management standards, just a slight increase on previous years, while a further 16% said they are planning to implement the standards.
Sound advice on offer then – but alarmingly one in seven reported they were not using the HSE stress management standards and have no plans to do so, while one-quarter didn’t know what their intentions were. Meanwhile a shocking 13% had not heard of the HSE’s management standards on stress.
There’s clearly still a long way to go. As the CIPD concludes: "Ensuring the well-being of employees in difficult times is paramount to avoid further erosion of efficiency as staff are placed under considerable stress. There is a limit to how long people can work under excessive pressure before their health suffers. Clear signals need to be sent to discourage absenteeism and pre-emptive action taken to address employees’ concerns. Line managers need to ensure they are aware of changes in employees’ performance and behaviour, and not just their attendance, for timely identification of potential issues."
5 Responses
Pressure vs stress
Interesting point about pressure being different to stress – doesn’t one tend to lead to the other though? Or is that a fallacy?
Planning ahead
Two things managers CAN do in relation to holidays is plan ahead to minimise the workload left for staff to handle when colleagues are on holiday and be realistic about the demands likely to arise during the holiday month, based on what happened last year. If demand doesn’t decrease substantially during August, but staffing does due to holidays then, providing it’s affordable, there’s a case for temporary staff.
Communication is key to any relationship so ensuring everyone knows who is on holiday, when, what needs doing in their absence etc will help avoid staff feeling dumped upon. Staff with children do need to be able to take holidays during the school holidays and consequently organisations tend to have a higher percentage of staff on holiday than at any other time. Staff without children can feel put upon as they can find they are having to pick up the pieces, not just during school holidays but also when colleagues rush off a X o’clock to pick their child. You’ll never please everyone all the time, but being aware of the potential upsets caused by staff holidays helps.
In short – plan ahead – see http://www.sfmconsulting.co.uk/blog/entry/holiday_planning
— Sarah Matthews SFM Consulting http://www.sfmconsulting.co.uk
Stressed out! Making the business case for change.
Quoting the DWP report ‘Health and wellbeing at work: a survey of employers’ (the companion to the survey of employees referred to in my earlier post), the author makes the point that ‘only 17% of employers have any form of stress management advice and support in place despite the fact that short-term stress-related absences topped 42,000 in the three months to December last year.’
The DWP report also found that although nine in ten employers agreed there was a link between work and employees’ health and wellbeing, there was less certainty over the business case for investing, particularly in smaller companies and the private sector.
Making the business case seems to be the best way of getting through to those at the top of organisations, without which the necessary changes in organisational culture will not happen.
The new Investors in People ‘Health and Wellbeing’ award lists a number of business advantages for taking an active interest in heath at work:
It also makes the point that:
‘Adopting effective health and wellbeing practices doesn’t need to cost money. Some of the healthiest organisations – those that are performing well, with excellent employee engagement and motivation – don’t operate expensive wellbeing schemes. They succeed by concentrating on the fundamentals: good communication, flexible working practices, effective and fair line management, and the team support people need to meet the challenges they face at work.’
Stress
Fear and uncertainty about jobs and the economy is making people feel pressured, insecure and ultimately stressed. Add to this heavier workloads as companies seek to achieve more for less and it is no wonder surveys report higher levels of stress.
Training budgets have been hit as companies tighten their belts but this is no reason why organisations cannot take a responsible attitude and offer short seminars/presentations to educate staff on how to take personal control of stress and manage it better.
Of course there is a need for employers to undertake routine risk assessments for stress but there is also a need to educate and have robust policies and procedures in place to manage stress effectively.
Stress
One of the problems with asking staff whether they feel "stressed" is that most people do not understand the difference between being "under pressure" and being "stressed". Some people thrive on pressure and rarely get stressed: others will become stressed at the slightest change in routine. Another problem is asking staff to compare how they feel this year with how they felt last year. Unless there has been a huge change then most people will not be able to accurately remember how they felt twelve months ago. Other events over the intervening period can make a situation seem either better or worse than it really was.
The HSE Management Standards Indicator Tool avoids asking people whether they feel stressed but instead scores participants on their answers to a number of questions that are thought to be key to reducing stress. We’ve used the Indicator Tool and the feedback from staff is that it seems to be quite a good guide to stress levels within the organisation.