Securing commitment - Further information

"For the Management Standards approach to work it needs to be 'top lead and bottom fed'."
Delegate at HSE workshop

The Management Standards approach provides a framework that facilitates joint working between management and employees to tackle the causes of work related stress in their organisation. To achieve this goal managers and employees need to work collaboratively both to identify the issues and develop solutions to address them.

It is unlikely that one group, working alone, will be able to address the issues identified. The statement above points us to the key to making progress, that is, management providing leadership and resources while employees help identify working solutions to the issues identified. It is generally the case that if you want to know what the issues are for a group of employees you have to ask them.

Similarly, it is also true to say that these same employees, those doing the task, are probably best placed to suggest ways in which the task could be improved, but once again, you have to ask them. The Management Standards approach, related tools and guidance, can be used to help managers and employees to work together in a constructive way to improve well-being and performance.