Line Manager Competency Indicator Tool

Research sponsored by the HSE, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and Investors in People has identified the management behaviours that are important for preventing and reducing stress in staff; it shows that effective stress management requires a complementary set of management behaviours, which may differ in importance depending on the context and individuals involved.

The Management competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work framework is designed to enable you to support managers to prevent and reduce stress in their teams - without actually increasing the workload, and therefore the stress, upon the line managers themselves. The Line Manager Competency Indicator Tool enables managers to assess whether these stress management behaviours are part of their repertoire or not, and identify any gaps in skills or behaviours. You can use this information to seek targeted help and guidance.

You could consider using the 'Management competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work' framework and particularly the ‘Line Manager Competency Indicator Tool ' in a number of ways, for example:

• To enable the integration of stress management behaviours into existing people management processes, for instance within induction or leadership programmes, or as part of a management development programme, enabling managers to identify their key development areas; and/or
• To complement stress management activities, for instance as an individual diagnostic to focus on stress management at the local level or as a mechanism for tackling stress in specific areas of the organisation where problems have been identified.