Stress Awareness Week: 4 to 8 November 2024
Health and Safety Bulletin (November/2024)
Stress Awareness Week: 4 to 8 November 2024
This week the HSE has launched ‘Stress Awareness Week’ to help raise awareness that all employers are required by law to prevent work-related stress and support good mental health by doing a risk assessment and acting on it.
There are six main areas of work which can affect stress levels. These need to be managed. They are:
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Demands – Too much or too little work, ability to do the work, time allowed to complete the work, deadlines, impossible or unrealistic performance criteria, lack of training, equipment or communication.
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Control – Staff not having any control or say over their work, too much or too little control or supervision and lack of support.
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Support – Lack of encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues.
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Relationships – Includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour.
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Role – Lack of understanding of staff’s role within the organisation. Conflicting roles within the organisation.
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Change – Lack of management for how organisational change (large and small) managed and communicated.
To gain valuable feedback and support employees on the above points you could:
• talk about it at your next one-to-one with staff members
• bring it up at a team meeting
Recognise the signs
Stress affects people differently, what impacts one person may not impact another, but signs of stress in a team can include arguments, higher staff turnover, more sickness absence or decreased performance.
The HSE have develop talking toolkits to help managers talk with workers prevent and manage work-related stress, these are available on Stress at work – Stress Talking Toolkits
If you would like help in implementing or further advice on this, please get in touch.
Human Resources Advice & Outsourcing | Greens Consultancy
Stress Awareness Week: 4 to 8 November 2024