Workplace stress costs Great Britain in excess of £530 million

C021:07 7 November 2007

Statistics released last week by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) show a dramatic increase in the number of workers suffering from work related stress in Great Britain and the Chair of HSC had a stark reminder for employers on National Stress Awareness Day, "We need to make a conscious effort to tackle workplace stress as we have lost nearly 14 million working days due to stress last year. Workplace stress cannot be eliminated but must be managed with our workforces' wellbeing in mind.

There are a number of tools available to employers and employees such as the 'Stress Management Standards' produced by the Health and Safety Executive. These standards provide practical guidance to identify stress in the workplace at an early stage and tackle it effectively."

In 2005/6 work related stress, depression and anxiety cost Great Britain in excess of £530 million. The number of workers who had sought medical advice for what they believed to be work related stress increased by 110,000 to an estimated 530,000.

But there are organisations such as Bradford and Bingley who are working with the HSE to embed good working practices to tackle stress. Bradford and Bingley have adopted and embedded the 'Stress Management Standards' in their management culture and have seen a significant reduction in stress-related absence.

Bradford and Bingley Head of Group for Health and Safety, John Hamilton, commented: "Good management practice is the key to the successful management of stress. Many managers prior to us implementing the standards didn't realise the benefits it has on helping their staff cope with workplace pressure."

The Management Standards cover six key areas of work design that, if not properly managed, are associated with poor health and well-being, lower productivity and increased sickness absence. The six areas are:

• Demands - such as workload, work patterns and the work environment
• Control - such as how much say the person has in the way they do their work
• Support - such as encouragement sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues
• Role - such as whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles
• Change - such as how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation

Notes to editors

1. The Standards and advice on how to use them are available at www.hse.gov.uk/stress. The Standards, informed by the expert research linking job design to ill health, consist of six main factors that contribute to work-related stress: demands, control, support, relationships, role, change.
2. The Health and Safety Statistics were released on 1 November 2007; see http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2007/c07019.htm for the press releases and http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/index.htm for the full statistics.

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