Richard Byrne offers his thoughts on how employers should deal with stress within their workforce, and argues that a key feature of a successful management and intervention strategy is its integration in an organisation’s overall employee welfare programme.
The cynics among us might argue that stress is one of those conditions that is really easy to ‘fake’. After all, in the main, you only need to convince your GP that you suffer from stress to get a sick note. There are, of course, those who will use it as an excuse, but in most cases when people say they are suffering, it is usually true.
However, measures also need to be put in place so that if someone does end up suffering from the condition, they can be implemented as part of a support programme. A mixture of both proactive measures and reactive support is therefore needed. To achieve this effectively requires a team effort, involving the safety professional, human resources, and workforce representatives.
Stressors
The HSE4 has identified six key characteristics of work and how it is set up, which could lead to stressors. These are:
* Demand;
* Control;
* Support;
* Relationships;
* Role; and
* Change.
Demand
As the name suggests, stressors in this area include workload, work patterns, and the working environment. It is also important to remember that stressors can present themselves in both manual and more office-based roles.
Control
Control is really about how much say people have in influencing the way they work. Overcoming this issue can be challenging — especially, for example, if the work is on a continuous production line.
Support
It is acknowledged that good managers, supportive co-workers and suitable training are all really important to help the individual perform effectively at work — but they can be stressors too! If you have little, or no, support from your manager, and you have only received part of the training required to carry out your job, it becomes obvious how these conditions might end up becoming stressors.
Relationships
We have relationships with everyone we meet and see — whether they are someone you ask directions from, a co-worker, or a family member. The difference is the intimacy level associated with each. On average, people spend about 40 hours a week at work — that is a long time, particularly if you do not get on with your colleagues or manager. These conflicts could just be personality clashes, or worse, bullying and harassment. Some ‘banter’ the individual might be able to laugh off, but more serious incidents may be harder to ignore.
Role
If you have ever got the feeling that you are a very small cog in a huge wheel, you are not alone. Lots of people really struggle to see where they fit into their organisation, and how they contribute to its overall performance.
Change
Change is like Marmite — you either love it or hate it. But unlike Marmite, you might be one of those individuals who just goes with the flow. The obvious issue with this stressor is to ensure that those who hate change are properly looked after and supported during the change process.
Implement a policy
The first step in putting in place a strategy to manage stress is to define and implement a policy on the subject. Handily, the HSE has devised an example of one,4 which follows the principles of HSG6, but, it doesn’t matter which management standard you subscribe to, so long as it covers the necessary points.
When reading the literature surrounding the management of stress a recurring theme is the need for senior management commitment and worker involvement. This is nothing new for safety professionals. Indeed, according to the CBI, these are two of the five elements needed to develop a positive safety culture.5
One option to engage with workers is to set up a multi-function working group to help devise the plan, monitor its implementation, report progress to colleagues, and collate their feedback for the working group to consider. Alternatively, this role could be performed by the safety committee — depending on how effective it is, and the size of the organisation.
Risk assessment
Once armed with adequate knowledge about the various stressors at play, a risk assessment will need to be carried out. Realistically, your approach should be split into two: those risks that are related specifically to the ‘individual’, and those that are influenced by the organisation’s ‘set-up’.
Individuals
While it is important to remember that everyone is different, it is also worth noting that we conform to group norms, or standards. So, a sensible way to start the risk assessment process is to identify who is at risk from which stressors.
Most of the information necessary to complete this task is probably already available to you. Such data would include: sickness absence records, employee turnover, declining quality, and production performance. Data being data though, it is open to different interpretations. So, to support the information already gained, a staff survey will help identify potential areas for improvement, as well as who is at risk. Again, the HSE has already developed a simple and short questionnaire to help with this task.4
Interestingly, the estimated prevalence of self-reported stress caused, or made worse, by individuals’ current or most recent job is highest among corporate managers, teaching, administration, health and social care.6 So, if you have these groups in your organisation, it makes sense to consider them first.
Organisational set-up
The issues that follow under this banner are related to how the organisation does business. For example:
* Is it a great communicator?
* Are people offered training and development to improve performance, or are they removed from the business, or out of their role without consideration for development?
* Is change management something that the organisation does without adequate planning and method?
* Does the organisation have effective processes in place to listen to individuals’ concerns?
* What is the appraisal process like? Do all managers follow it?
The answers to these and other considered questions will help decide if the organisation is doing all it can to help control the stressors. Some of the information might be gained from the staff survey mentioned above, or, otherwise, from an unbiased audit of the organisational ‘set-up’.
Control measures
The tools needed to control the hazards associated with stress fall under four broad headings: work organisation, communication, training, and infrastructure and processes — but there are obvious overlaps between each group.
Work organisation
The assessment may uncover a real problem with the way part, or all, of the work is organised. If this is the case, work processes and workloads will need to be re-evaluated and redesigned.
This will require senior management’s commitment, but securing and retaining it on such an issue can be difficult. For example, they may be happy to have a policy, training sessions, and the like, but should individuals’ workloads be found to be a major contributory factor to stress, how ready will they be to ‘stump up’ the extra resources to resolve the problem?
Getting the right work-team mix is also really important — for example, you would not necessarily want a team that is largely inexperienced, with just one person who knows what they are doing, as the problems this individual will encounter are fairly obvious. However, in the same way, providing development for both the inexperienced and more proficient is essential in striking a healthy balance.
Work planning is crucial, and often something that can be done with little or no cost to the business, other than a little thought. Work should be planned in such a way as to mitigate the effects of peaks and troughs in its flow — for example, by avoiding taking on lots of work if the timescales involved clash with existing annual-leave arrangements. If this is not possible, there is always the option of talking to colleagues in other teams to see if they can ‘loan’ you someone to help out over the pressure period.4
Communication
It is widely acknowledged that there is a stigma linked to stress, insofar as it only affects ‘wimps’. Whatever you do will be a waste of time if you do not get the message across that it is ok to say ‘I’m struggling’.
The entire stress-management strategy therefore needs to be formally communicated to everyone in the organisation in an open and honest way, so that it not only allows them to know what is going on but also to raise concerns they might have, or get involved with the strategy’s development and deployment. This can be delivered through team briefs, handbooks and appraisals.
While organisations generally carry out annual appraisals, the more forward-thinking also have monthly one-to-one meetings between the individual and their line manager. This allows for a whole host of issues to be discussed, and for feedback to be given and received in a confidential fashion. It is also a great opportunity for people to talk to their boss about issues related to stress, allowing the line manager to review what work they have on, with a view to changing priorities, timescales, or simply helping the stressed individual distinguish the wood from the trees.
Training
Individuals also need to be given the tools and techniques in order to manage stress in their working lives. Arguably, one of the first ways to achieve this is through stress-awareness sessions.
Such sessions are generally focused on outlining the tell-tale signs of the condition, and discussing the misconceptions about the subject. The sessions can help promote the idea that it is acceptable to talk about mental health, and introduce people to some common coping methods to enable them to find ways to mitigate the effects of the stressor. This is personal and often unique to the individual, but can include things like exercise, deep breathing and relaxation techniques, to more practical ‘work-related’ methods, such as improving time management and developing their assertiveness skills.
Training should not stop with employees. Just as much effort, if not more, needs to go into educating managers to recognise the signs and symptoms of stress in others, and start to look at how they manage their teams, what demands they place on them, and how they ask people to work. This can be more than a little tricky, as people do not like to admit that what they are doing could be improved. The idea behind this training, however, is to help them become more effective managers.
Given the importance of training and personal development, the need to engage with colleagues from human resources is paramount, as the stress-management strategy should also be viewed as a way to advance an organisation’s overall people agenda.
Infrastructure and processes
This final piece in the jigsaw focuses on ensuring that mechanisms and systems are in place to help deal with individuals who suffer from the condition.
Often the hardest step for the individual is actually flagging up that they might have a problem. The best way to do so is through their manager, but what if their manager is part of the problem? To alleviate this, larger organisations set down ‘whistle-blowing’ policies — an anonymous way of highlighting that an issue exists.
Irrespective of what method is employed, what is important is that a quick process is in place for individuals to highlight to the right people that they have a problem, without fear of reprisal. Of course, defined processes also need to be in place to resolve the issue.
There is a number of employee relation-type issues that need considering here, too — for example, making sure that the organisation has a workable grievance policy and disciplinary procedures. Linked to this, the organisation needs to outline what standards of behaviour are acceptable and which are not, along with the consequences of acting inappropriately. This is another topic to include on the aforementioned training programmes, and the expertise of the human resources department should also be embraced.
Stress resulting from external sources can also adversely impact on individuals’ work performance. Less astute organisations tend to think that if the problem is not work-related then they should not try to intervene. However, many organisations will often go that extra step and offer support to deal with the issue via such mechanisms as employee assistance programmes.
Once someone highlights a problem it would be remiss of the organisation to ignore it. Indeed, it would be opening itself up to a host of problems. So, how should a person who presents a problem be handled?
First of all, their manager (or human resources, if their manager is potentially the problem) should treat them sympathetically and in an unbiased fashion. It is important to try to get to the bottom of what is causing the problem, as without this information little can be done to help improve the situation.
It is also critical that people know their limits, and when to hand over to those more skilled in such matters, e.g. human resources, occupational health, etc. Should an individual go off sick, for instance, the issue stops being a health and safety matter and instead becomes one of absence management. Plus, by having in place a considered stress-management strategy, it will be easier to identify those who are using stress as an excuse, and those who really do need support.
All the way through the process, the aim is to make the job fit the person, but what happens if this cannot be done? At times, people have to be redeployed to an alternative position — but the management of this is down to the human resources department and the individual’s line manager. The fear is that the company could be taken to an industrial tribunal, but if robust management systems are in place and due process is followed, what more can an organisation do?
Summary
When dealing with stress within a workforce, it is clear that there are likely to be many overlaps between other functions in the workplace, and benefits can be gained by engaging with them.
The key to success is to integrate the stress-management strategy in the overall employee welfare programme. It doesn’t matter who owns the policy, so long as the right people are involved in setting it up, monitoring its implementation, and reviewing progress.
Health and safety is invariably just one of many balls managers need to keep in the air. As safety professionals, we need to help them do so by providing sensible solutions to real problems.
References and further reading
1 HSE (2008): Self-reported work-related illness and workplace injuries in 2006/07 — Results from the Labour Force Survey’
2 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (2007): Absence management: Survey report
3 http://www.helpguide.org/mental
/stress_signs.htm
4 HSE (2007): Managing the causes of work-related stress: A step-by-step approach to using the Management Standards, HS(G)218, HMSO, Norwich
5 Confederation of British Industry (CBI) (1990): Developing a Safety Culture: Business for Safety
6 http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics
/lfs/0607/strocc2.htm
7 CIPD (rev. 2007): Stress factsheet, http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/health
/stress/stress.htm?IsSrchRes=1
Richard Byrne is a chartered member of IOSH and an associate member of IEMA.
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