April is stress awareness month
Ideas to make managing stress in your workplace part of your routine
Make it part of your routine and follow these 5 steps to help manage stress in your workplace:
1. Reach out and talk with your staff
2. Recognise the signs and causes of stress within your workplace
3. Respond by agreeing action points to any risks that are identified
4. Reflect on actions taken – have things improved?
5. Make it Routine to check back in with your staff on how things are going
Getting started
The most important step is getting started – taking the first step to start the conversation or get prepared to have that conversation.
You can have conversations individually or in groups or teams, the key thing is to recognise any common stressors or issues being raised. You might also gather information such as sickness absence records and staff survey results if you have them.
There are 6 main areas that can lead to work-related stress if they are not managed properly:
• demands
• control
• support
• relationships
• role
• change
If you’re finding it difficult to know where to start, see the Talking Toolkit for a step-by-step approach of what to ask and some ideas of what to do next.
The signs of stress
More reports of stress would indicate that issues may be bubbling where you work, but there are other less obvious things to consider that can mean that workers are showing signs of stress.
A change in the way someone acts can also be a sign, for example taking more time off, arriving for work later, loss of motivation or confidence, or seeming more nervous or emotional. Across the team, this can also look like:
• arguments
• higher staff turnover
• more sickness absence
• decreased performance
• more complaints and grievances
Although employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work, diagnosing and treating stress isn’t your responsibility. Your responsibility is to identify the risks of stress and act on them.
You can use HSE’s risk assessment template to record what you’ve found and agreed to do to prevent, reduce or tackle issues.
As always, if you have any questions on this subject or would like assistance with dealing with it in your workplace, please contact us.
