John Lewis - Work related stress case study

Who are they?

John Lewis is a major high street retailer with branches all over the UK.

No of employees:

Approx 35,000

Business Sector:

Retail

Why we first became interested in work related stress

Please note - All John Lewis employees are Partners in the business and are referred to as Partners in this case study.

Over the past ten years there has been a growing awareness of the issue of work related stress and our own absence figures reflected the national trend of an increasing number of people being signed off with stress by their GP.

Although we already had a number of measures in place to prevent stress at work, the HSE Management Standards provided a useful tool to identify the main causes of work related stress and prompted us to put in place a stress risk assessment process.

The introduction of Stress Risk Management coincided with the introduction of a new Safety Risk Management system and this helped managers to understand the risk assessment process.

Our main targets were:

• To raise awareness of Stress and to reduce any associated stigma,
• To prevent work related stress where possible
• To lower the level of absence due to stress, anxiety and depression.

How we did it:

Our Heads of Branch were each asked to complete a Stress Risk Assessment for their branch with advice from their Occupational Health Adviser (OHA) where required.

We also collected data through return to work interviews, absence figures and the number of Partners attending Occupational Health (OH) with mental health issues. Since the introduction of electronic health records we have been able to produce more accurate statistics and to identify trends and allocate resources.

A working party was set up to look at the above. The working party included representatives from Personnel, Registry (an internal group which ensures democratic co-ownership, fairness and happiness of all Partners) and Occupational Health. As well as looking at Policy and training, talking therapies such as counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy were considered.

Statistics regarding absence with mental health issues were collected centrally by the OH Manager. The Heads of Branch sent in the Branch Stress Risk Assessments so that main issues and trends could be identified.

The OH Manager fed back any findings from the risk assessments to the OH team, to the Director of Selling Operations and to the JL Board via the Board Report. The OHA team communicated findings at management team meetings in their branch. At Head Office, findings were communicated to the Heads of Department and Directors at the team meeting.

The annual Partner Opinion survey was another useful tool in identifying any particular causes of stress and revealing any ‘hotspots’. This is an annual survey of Partner opinion on a whole range of issues regarding work.

Main Challenges

There was perhaps a lack of awareness amongst managers of the impact that stress had on the business as well as a lack of understanding of the signs and symptoms, causes of and recovery from stress. We sought to address this through Stress Management training which was part of an overall framework called the John Lewis Management Structure
.

• Primary issues include having control measures in place such as policy and procedures for bullying, grievance, diversity, sick pay, family leave and security etc; effective Personnel procedures and employee representation and communication.
• Secondary controls include management and Partner training in recognising stress, building personal resilience, communication skills, conflict resolution and job training
• The tertiary stage includes support measures such as referral to OH or Registry, private counselling or other mental health therapies, individual rehabilitation programmes, return to work interviews, support from line managers and guidance from Personnel

A working party was set up to look at the above. The working party included representatives from Personnel, Registry and Occupational Health. As well as looking at Policy and training, counselling services were considered. 

Impact on the organisation:

Action at Primary level: A Work Related Stress Policy was written and made known to all Partners. Other Policies such as Bullying, Harassment and Grievance Policies were reviewed.

At Secondary Level: Training in Mental Health issues for Managers was the most proactive action that we took.  Two representatives from SHIFT met with members of our OH team. They advised on how to reduce any stigma associated with mental health issues in the organisation and suggested a tool called the Manager’s Guide to Dealing with Stress in the Workplace which we introduced.

We also worked with another key person from Mental Health First Aid. Most branches have now had the two day Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Training for their management teams and we have recently been awarded Mental Health First Aid Champions.

As well as the MHFA training, Branch Management teams were given guides and advice on the role of the line manager and stress from the CIPD and the Managers guide to dealing with Stress in the workplace.

All Branches, (including head office) now complete Work Related Stress Risk Assessments at both branch and individual where necessary.

At Tertiary level: A budget was set so that OHAs could arrange for a counselling service for Partners.  Other complementary therapies such as various types of Massage are available for relaxation. Fitness is promoted through Health promotion events and initiatives such as Fit Club.

As well as support from OH and Personnel, Partners all have access to an Assistant Registrar who is trained in mediation and can help with any concerns.

Health Promotion days such as National Stress Awareness days are often held in branches which increase awareness for all Partners.

At Head office, sessions for Line Managers have been held regarding Absence management and Stress management (including Stress Risk Assessment) and a course in Building Resilience is underway.

The initiatives we have employed, regarding training in particular, have raised awareness of stress amongst Partners at all levels and helped to ensure that Partners are referred to OH sooner, to enable early intervention and to ensure all support is place on return to work in terms of gradual rehabilitation.

There is a greater awareness and understanding of mental health issues and more support is in place that Partners can access should they need to.

Advice to Other Retailers:

Doing plenty of groundwork, looking at what other companies were doing and involving specialist advisors from SHIFT and Mental Health First Aid helped to ensure that we were using evidence based practice.

Providing Senior Management with facts and figures regarding the impact of Stress on the organisation and how positive mental health could benefit business was useful in gaining their support (and also the budget for resources!). Figures from return to work interviews, absence figures and management referrals to OH were used to highlight areas of concern.