employee wellbeing trends
A stress risk assessment is an essential part of any plan to reduce workplace stress. In this blog we cover:
- What is a stress risk assessment?
- Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards
- Stress risk assessment template
What is a stress risk assessment?
A stress risk assessment is a proactive way of assessing and identifying factors that can cause work-related stress for employees. Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by carrying out risk assessments and taking action where necessary.
As well as carrying our risk assessments on a routine basis to identify issues earlier, other scenarios where you may wish to carry one out include:
- Where you believe an individual or team are likely to be suffering from work-related stress.
- During key touch-points, such as staff appraisals.
- When a member of staff has been off sick with work-related stress.
- To plan for a major change in the business.
The information captured should:
- Identify stressors that may be contributing to employee stress.
- Determine who may be at harm.
- Outline what can be put in place to tackle causes of work-related stress.
It can be distributed to staff as a survey or used in meetings on a one-to-one basis or within a team. The aim of stress risk assessments is to manage and prevent work-related stress, fostering a healthy and supportive work environment.
What are the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards?
The HSE Management Standards provide a framework which helps employers to:
- Demonstrate good practice through a step-by-step risk assessment approach.
- Allow assessment of the current situation using pre-existing data, surveys and other techniques.
- Promote active discussion and working in partnership with employees and their representatives, to help decide on practical improvements that can be made.
- Help simplify risk assessment for work-related stress by identifying the main risk factors, helping employers focus on the underlying causes and their prevention, and by providing a yardstick by which organisations can gauge their performance in tackling the key causes of stress.
It covers six key areas that if not properly managed, are associated with poorer health, lower productivity and an increase in accident and sickness absence rates. These six key areas include:
- Demands: Workload, work patterns and the work environment.
- Control: How much say the person has in the way they do their work.
- Support: Encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues.
- Relationships: 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.
Where can I access a stress risk assessment template?
A template from HSE is available to download. It’s important that you configure your own assessment questions to take into account specific risks relating to your place of work and employees.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states that employers with fewer than five workers do not have to write anything down, but that doing do can make it easier to review feedback later in case something changes.
If employers have five or more workers, they are required by law to write the risk assessment down. Any paperwork produced should help communicate and manage the risks in the business. For most people, this does not need to be a big exercise – just note the main points about the significant risks and what action-plan you decided.
How can occupational health and an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) support?
If after completing a stress risk assessment you have concerns about the effects of work-related stress on an employee’s health, a referral to occupational health (if you have this service in place) can provide clear, impartial and professional advice. Refer to your internal company policies for guidance on how to make a referral.
If you have an EAP in place, signposting staff here is another intervention that can be used so that the employee can access confidential and professional support from trained counsellors.
Five steps to setting up a stress risk assessment
- Take a look at the HSE guidance and familiarise yourself with the process of carrying out a stress risk assessment.
- Download a template to use for your stress risk assessment or create your own.
- Define a process, which includes for who, when, and how the stress risk assessment will be rolled out and results collected. Also decide the frequency or situations it will be repeated in future.
- Carry out the stress risk assessment.
- Review results and develop an action plan with timings attached. Arrange a date in future to review progress.
Summary
Conducting a stress risk assessment is a great strategy for assessing levels of stress in your business and part of taking a preventative and proactive approach to workplace stress and employee wellbeing. These assessments can provide valuable information to pass onto your occupational health provider if you are having challenges with work-related stress and need professional guidance.
Further support
HSE – Mental health and stress and work.
Acas – Managing and spotting signs of work-related stress.
NHS – Tips for managing work-related stress.
Sources:
www.hse.gov.uk/stress/risk-assessment.htm
www.stress.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Conducting-an-Individual-Stress-Risk-Assessment.pdf
https://safetyculture.com/checklists/hse-stress-risk-assessment
https://iosh.com/health-and-safety-professionals/improve-your-knowledge/branches-and-groups/groups/health-and-social-care-group/industry-resources/stress-risk-assessment-template
Interested in manager training or running workshops for your employees? Contact us today to find out how Optima Health can support your health and wellbeing initiatives.