Briefing: Stress at work - employers need to do more than just talk!

28 Mar 2023

This year’s Stress Awareness Month kicks off on 1 April and in 2023 looks at how employers can go beyond just talking about mental health in the workplace. This briefing considers what action employers can begin to take.

Organisers The Stress Management Society have been holding Stress Awareness Month every April since 1992 to raise awareness of the causes and cures for our modern-day stress epidemic.

The Society says:

“It is the time when we have an opportunity for an open conversation on the impact of stress. Dedicated time to removing the guilt, shame, and stigma around mental health. To talk about stress, and its effects and open up about our mental and emotional state with friends, families, colleagues, and professionals.”

This year though, the organisation says, it’s time to take action:

“Through our campaign #choosehope we have learned that having hope is imperative to find a way through and beyond our challenges. However, hope isn’t just a feeling, it inspires us to take action. Towards a conscious decision to perceive things differently and create a plan to achieve the desired goal. This has inspired this year’s Stress Awareness Month theme, an invitation to go beyond talk and campaign for taking action and personal responsibility in creating a positive change. We aim to create an opportunity for all of us to consider how we are going to do something to make things better.”

Taking action means being able to recognise that stress is a problem. The HSE defines stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”. Workers feel stress when they cannot cope with pressures and other issues.

International Workplace’s Stress in the Workplace: A manager’s guide highlights the following signs of stress in a worker:

A change in the way someone acts can be a sign of stress, for example they may:

Take more time off.
Arrive for work late.
Be more twitchy or nervous.

A change in the way someone thinks or feels can also be a sign of stress, for example:

Mood swings.
Being withdrawn.
Loss of motivation, commitment and confidence.
Increased emotional reactions – being more tearful, sensitive or aggressive.

Positive steps employers can take to make a change
Employers should try to match demands to workers’ skills and knowledge. For example, workers can get stressed if they feel they don’t have the skills or time to meet tight deadlines. Providing planning, training and support can reduce pressure and bring stress levels down.

The main causes of employee stress include:

Workloads/volume of work.
Management style.
New work-related demands or challenges as a result of COVID-19.
Non-work factors – relationship or family issues.
Non-work factors – personal illness or health issues.
Relationships at work.

Rob Vondy, Head of Stress and Mental Health Policy at HSE, says:

“Good communication is vital as stress affects people differently – what stresses one person may not affect another. If you don’t understand the problem or its extent, tackling it will be more difficult. Factors like skills and experience, age or disability may all affect whether an employee can cope. People feel stress when they can’t cope with the pressures or demands put on them, either in work or other outside issues. Start talking to your colleagues about any issues now – the earlier a problem is tackled the less impact it will have.”

The HSE has produced guidance on talking to employees about managing stress. It advises:

Have regular keep-in-touch meetings or calls with your workers.
Talk openly with workers about the possibility of them becoming stressed or mentally unwell. HSE’s talking toolkit on preventing work-related stress will help you have conversations about raising worries or who people can go to for help.
Involve workers in completing stress risk assessments so they can help identify potential problems and solutions.
Keep workers updated on what is happening so they feel involved and reassured.
Talk to people about fatigue. Make sure they take regular breaks and encourage them to take leave – set working times to make sure people aren’t working too long.
Share information and advice about mental health and wellbeing with your workers.
Consider an occupational health referral if someone starts to show signs of stress or anxiety so they can talk through ways you can support them.
If you have an employee assistance programme, encourage your workers to use it to talk through their issues in complete confidence.

Looking after home and hybrid workers
Homeworking can cause work-related stress and affect people’s mental health. Being away from managers and colleagues can make it difficult to get proper support. The HSE advises that managers should put procedures in place so they can keep in direct contact with homeworkers and recognise signs of stress as early as possible. It is also important to have an emergency point of contact and to share this so people know how to get help if they need it.

Fundamentally, the principles of an employer’s duty of care to be met are the same, regardless of the working location of the employee. Employers have the same responsibilities for employees working at home as they do for staff in the workplace. Boundaries between work and home life have become increasingly blurred for many people working from home, making it difficult to switch off. For those attending workplaces, presenteeism and leaveism are also very real issues of concern.

Organisations must address any issues that could be creating a culture where staff feel they are expected to work when ill or feel it’s the only way they can stay on top of their workload. Employers need to ensure that line managers are aware of the risks of presenteeism and being ‘always on’. Managers should assess individual and team workloads to make sure they are reasonable, set clear expectations about taking breaks, and act as good role models for healthy working practices, such as taking time off when sick.

International Workplace’s Stress in the Workplace: A manager’s guide provides further guidance and is available to download here.