Measuring Stress On-line

The British Safety Council (BSC), in conjunction with employment research consultancy ORC International, have published an online stress auditing tool. ORC SAFE (stress analysis for employers) is designed to help organisations conduct comprehensive stress audits.

The service allows users to add their own questions to the standard set of benchmark questions to give them the flexibility to measure specific issues. The BSC is releasing it in conjunction with ORC to highlight the importance of stress in the workplace.

David Ballard, director general of the BSC said: “Workplace stress causes lost revenue, time and ill health. However, traditionally employers have taken a reactive approach to stress management, which has proved to be ineffective, costly and risky for many businesses.”

The number of sick-days lost to stress-related illness has doubled in the last seven years, from 18 million in 1995 to 33 million in 2002. Research from the Health and Safety Executive shows that 2.3 million people in the UK claim to be suffering from an illness that they believe was caused - or made worse - by their current or past work.

Mr Ballard added: “We want to encourage employers to actively reduce the cause and minimise the effects of stress in the workplace. With stress-related illness on the rise, it is no longer acceptable to ignore the effects of stress.”

A December poll by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) revealed that a quarter of workers think their job is very stressful, with over three-quarters wanting legislation to tackle workplace stress.


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