Stress – Q&A for employers

Here Sarah explains what stress is, what employers can do to help protect their people, and how to prevent stress becoming an issue.

Get management commitment

• Ensure that your managers understand that the physical and physiological effects that people suffering from stress experience do have an adverse effect on health, and that it’s everyone’s responsibility to help tackle it

Introduce a Stress Policy and / or Wellbeing Policy

• It can be a simple one pager that tells people that you recognise that stress is a workplace issue and that as a business, you are committed to identifying and reducing stressors
• Make responsibilities clear — managers, H&S, HR, Wellbeing reps, Occupational Health reps and employees

Assess the risks that your business faces

• Anything that you feel is a factor should be identified — long hours, unsociable hours, business travel requirements, personal development, training, workload, bullying and harassment, working hours etc

Make up a Stress Action Plan

• Prioritise actions and make people aware of their specific responsibilities

If you need any support around stress management strategies, training etc, drop us a line or give us a call: sarah@safeandwelltogether.com / +44 7791 97 82 44.

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