Stress at work

You need to consider:

• Do you have a high staff turnover, low productivity or low morale? Have you noticed bullying, changes in behaviour, staff working late or increased sickness absence?
• Do your employees seem happy to come into work?
• Some individuals may be more vulnerable to stress. Situations outside work can also affect the ability to cope with excessive pressure at work.

You will need to:

• identify the hazards causing stress, eg lack of control over the way your employees do their work, overload (or underload), lack of support from managers;
• assess who is at risk and the level of risk;
• work with employees to decide how to manage the risk and put the plans into action.

HSE Management Standards for managing work-related stress

The Management Standards provide a practical risk assessment-based approach to identifying and managing workplace stress.

Further information:

• Stress website
• Stress free leaflets
• Research report - The suitability of HSE risk assessment process and management standards for use in SMEs [1.39MB]