Employees stressed out at work can often trace the cause of their worries to events outside of the workplace. We often hear that employers have a role to play in combating that stress but if it’s down to external reasons, why should they intervene? And even if they do decide to step in, how can HR departments ensure they aren’t too over-enthusiastic and prevent perfectly healthy pressure? Dan Martin reports on the department’s role and responsibilities.

How stressed are we really?

Stress is still the biggest problem facing UK workplaces, said the Trades Union Congress last October. Excessive workloads, job cuts and rapid change continue to trigger rising stress levels amongst UK employees. Other research seems to back up the TUC’s findings with mental health charity Mind saying that badly managed workplace stress is costing the UK 10% of its gross national product.

But is that really the case? Yes, says Neil Shah, of the Stress Management Society. “It’s getting worse not better,” he claims. “One in five people are affected which means 20% of the population are suffering serious stress related issues at any one time.”

Ben Willmott, employee relations adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, also believes that stress is very much a problem in UK workplaces. Stress, he says, is consistently reported as one of the main causes of both short and long term absences for manual and non-workers alike. “An increasingly competitive pressure is being placed on UK employers because of global economic competition, particularly the challenge of the rising low cost economies of Asia and Eastern Europe,” he says. “That pressure is being passed onto employees.”

Technology too is playing a part, Willmott adds, because improvements in electronic communication has stepped up work levels and what is expected of employees.

There’s no place like home

OK, so many workers may be stressed out at work but what if the root cause of the problem in the person’s home life? Why should employers intervene when it’s nothing to do with them? HR departments have enough to deal with inside a business so why on earth should they get involved in an employee’s relationship break-ups, coping with a house move or dealing with debt?

Unfortunately, the issue isn’t so clear cut.

A worker who is stressed out at home is likely to be far less productive at work than they would normally be. Pressure in their personal lives, for whatever reason, added to by pressure at work will leave that worker extremely stressed out at work. And less productivity means less profits.

“It is often very difficult to draw a clear line between work and personal life,” says Willmott. “If, for example, a worker’s relationship breaks down this can impact on work in that he or she won’t be able to deal with tasks which under normally conditions they could easily cope with.”

Paul Farmer, chief executive of mental health charity Mind, agrees. He argues that a stressed out person at home is likely to bring those stresses to work which can only impact negatively on their productivity. “We all experience stress in a variety of different environments,” he says. “Sometimes conflicting demands of managing home and work life, personal crises or money worries can drive us to unhealthy working patterns.”

By adopting a holistic approach, Farmer believes that stress will be managed effectively. He says: “A positive approach to managing the mental well being of employees in a holistic way which takes into account the home and work interface can alleviate stress at work and have a positive impact on employee commitment, absence levels, and organisational performance.”

Ultimately however it comes down to the law. Employers have legal duties under health and safety regulations to assess and take measures to control risks from work-related stress. Employers also have a duty under common law to take reasonable care to ensure the health and safety of employees. If an employee suffers from stress related ill-health and a court decides that the employer should have been able to prevent it, then he or she could be found to be negligent. There is no limit to the compensation an employee can receive.

Stress v pressure

Despite all the worries about pressure at work, it is often a healthy thing. Good old-fashioned pressure is beneficial to employees’ personal growth and career development. However, when that pressure becomes excessive is when it can be classed as stress and will likely cause problems.

For HR, the challenge is maintaining a balance between effectively managing stress whilst at the same time ensuring workers enjoy healthy levels of pressure. The Health and Safety Executive’s definition of stress goes some way to helping employers draw a line between the two. The organisation defines it as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”.

“If workers have a mounting workload and feel they have ability to fulfil it then it’s healthy”, says Shah. “But if there is bullying in the workplace, this is undue stress, is not healthy and needs to be addressed.”

A risk assessment will help HR identity the stress from the non-excessive pressure. The Health and Safety Executive recommend that firms take a five step approach to such assessments: identify the hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate the risk and take action, record the findings and monitor and review.

The identification stage will help HR to gain an understanding of the different types of workplace stresses and pressures impacting on staff. Employee surveys help to show how employees feel about their work and how well they are managed. HR should also keep an eye out for areas of the business which may, for instance, have high levels of staff turnover or absences which may be indicators of excessive pressure or poor management styles.

Managing stress

It’s clear that HR does have a key role to deal in dealing with stressed out employees. Once this has been realised – which should happen quickly – the next stage is to actually take steps to prevent it in the first place.

Once a risk assessment has been carried out, a stress policy should be formulated. Mind recommends that the policy should include the following:

1. Why the policy is important and why the business needs the policy.




2. Who is responsible for what:


a. corporate responsibilities
b. managerial responsibilities
c. all staff responsibilities.


3. A definition of stress, best taken from reputable sources.




4. An indication of what the business strategy is for dealing with stress, in particular, the general activities the business will be undertaking as a matter of course (for example, introducing counselling service, introducing resilience training or undertaking risk assessments).




5. Full consultation with staff to include signatures of staff representatives.

One of the most common triggers of stress in the workplace is change. “When change occurs, a key factor is ensuring that you have good internal communication,” says Willmott. “Always consult with employees. If not, people will feel out of control. Most will find change intimidating.”

External services can also be useful in this area. “It’s all about the level of support that is available”, advises Shah. “Bring in external change management or some kind of counselling support to ensure employees have outlet. Change is also a good opportunity to run training, drop in centres and occupational health centres to ensure stress don’t effect mental health.” The Royal Mail is an example of one business which brings in occupational health from a stressed employee’s first day of absence because, as Willmott says, they recognise that “stress can be recurrent or long term if dealt with early”.

In addition, the HSE’s management standards are useful in managing stress. The six steps of demands, control, support, role, relationships and change underpin the risk assessment and look at six key aspects of work that, if properly managed, can help to reduce work related stress.

Getting it right

It’s a no-brainer. A happy workplace is a productive workplace. And a productive workplace is profitable workplace. Recognising that stress is a problem at work, preventing it and dealing with it if it does occur is beneficial for all.

The conclusion to a 2005 stress at work report by Mind sums up employers’ responsibilities well. “While workplace stress is a huge occupational health problem, it is manageable,” it said. “What we need is for employers to take the issue seriously enough to take the necessary steps to introduce proper stress prevention and management policies. They cannot afford to ignore it any longer. It makes better economic sense for employers to support current employees than to have to recruit and train new ones, who, if the proper systems are not in place, will become stressed themselves.”