Risk assessments for stress

In November, we hosted the new IOSH course 'Work Related Stress, the Managers Role'.

It was fully subscribed and very useful.

The HSE web site is a valuable resource as is: www.stress-ip.co.uk Stress in Perspective.

I commend careful consideration of this complex subject, there are warning signs and ways to remove or reduce the risk.

Maureen,

found the website but not the pack? Can you email me the necessary link to philip.jeffs@atpi.com

Thanks

I consult with many organisations wishing to conduct a risk assessment for work-related stress.

Stress is defined by the HSE as "the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them".

They have created six Management Standards, Demand, Control, Support, Relationship, Role and Change. Each Standard specifies desired "states to be achieved".

By conducting a stress survey, based around these Management Standards, you can establish how closely your organisation is to meeting or exceeding each of the desired states.

We generally run a "Stress Test", a 30 statement survey based around the Six Management Standards produced by the Health and Safety Executive. Its aim is to test the elements of each Standard to provide an overall measure of work-related stress.

We have an interactive interview line, on 08712 77 88 05, which contains our 30 stress related statements. If you call this number, and respond to the 30 statements, you will get some idea of the sort of questions to ask when thinking about conducting a risk-assessment for work-related stress.

I have a great pack with a questionaire from the Health Education Board for Scotland called Work Positive.

Hi i work for a Public Sector Organisation teaching health and safety and find stress a very difficult subject to get management to deal with.

I have found that the HSE guidance (7 factors)is good when undertaking risk assessments both generic and on an individual basis - it can be used almost as a check list when trying to find out underlying causes and hazards.

Reading some of the comments already posted is very interesting because without a doubt in this society of claims people do jump on the bandwagon when looking at compensation but equally if management dont accept that stress does exist (in all its shapes and sizes) and lead from the TOP it can never hope to be eradicated. Pressures from work and personal life are intertwinable these days and it takes an empatheitic but consistent approach to deal with it. Responsibility has to come from both sides. The individual and the employer.

Good control measures include training but often it about styles of communication, reralistic workloads and genuine support.

I think Bill you are right about stress cultures to a degree - In 20+ years of occupational health and healthcare in general, stress was not discussed until relatively recently.

However, I do think there are more factors coming to bear than just effective management perhaps, litigious culture being one unfortunately, very competitive markets creating more `call centre' type environments and exceptional demands on customer service to compete with the current trend of outsourcing all over the world (this wasn't widespread until the last few years) being another.

Our occupational health advisers see work related stress cases (by which I mean work-related only) on almost a daily basis at the moment and even competent managers do seem to be at thier wits ends in dealing with them. With respect to auidts, assessments etc - a degree of paper for paper's sake - I agree - but on the basis this is the only way to make some companies aware of what they are creating within the workplace, while it is on the HSE hot topic agenda, it is a good thing while it lasts>

Strictly, Stress is the stimulus and Strain is the consequence - so medically, people do not suffer from stress, they suffer from strain. This common misnoma leads to a great deal of confusion in being able to determine risk - the whole point of which is to consider Consequence and Probability, rather than to confuse these concepts.

The reaction to work stress imposed on a group of similarly employed people, in a common working environment will vary from positive motivation possibly all the way through to mental collapse, depending on the individual.

Thus, any risk assessment must take account of the personality profile and history of the subject - much in the same way as one calculates the relative risk for accidents amongst Fork lift truck drivers; where even if the training and environment appear identical, there is revealed higher risk in particular age and social groups. This is much the same with Domestic Fire Risks, or, with road safety and any other physical hazards. It is no different for notional hazards, such as mental break-down.

Usually, the susceptibility profile of a subject can be monitored and assessed in the task/job reviews that most companies periodically carry out. Here it will be apparent how individuals react to increased responsibility or to the more common 'cause' of 'stress', these days, incurred by companies failing to set clear, achievable targets for individuals and then compounding the problem with faceless, uncommunicative management, which paints by numbers and uses computers to increase, rather than to reduce a plethora of meaningless task reports or 'management information' that is barely read and almost ignored.

At the risk of being otherwise perceived, Brevity, Clarity and Targets for measuring and rewarding are what is needed.

In nearly forty years of management, I have never encountered 'stress cultures' in well managed companies that have clear, concerned, visible, colourful leadership. Concentrate on that rather than fictitious Risk Assessments, adding to the pile of paper.

Regulation, indeed, is the problem - not the solution.

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I hosted a lunchtime seminar on stress for those responsible for staff in my tenant companies onsite.

Each company has responsibility for assessing risks in the workplace. 'Stress in Perspective' are foremost in Stress assessment and training.

I commend: www.stress-ip.co.uk

- email stressip@aol.com

Thanks Carolyn, I'll check it out. I'm not actually in an SME - it just seems like it sometimes where H&S is concerned!

Philip

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Philip, the HSE nave produced a pack called "Real Solutions, Real People" which costs £25 and actually is really good. It provides a good structure for a basis Risk Assessment on stress, and also has tons of case examples which show how other companies have acted.

Provides a guidleine for fairly simple, straightforward approach if, like me, you are in an SME where everyone has to "get their finger out" and tends to take on a bit much as a matter of course.

Good luck with it!

Carolyn

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Thanks Helen, very much what I was looking for.

Fortunately we don't have a large problem, but being a call centre type operation we always have to keep ahead of the game. We had discussed how to do a generic risk assessment to identify those areas that may result in stress, or how some individuals may react differently to changes, but without asking everyone searching questions it seemed a difficult task?

Philip

If you mean a generic stress risk assessment (cf one for an individual), we have been working with a number of companies, public and private, on this. Consensus on what seems to work (so far) is :

Small working group to include H&S, HR, Union rep., representative line manager, and occ health. Should have identifiable top level support ie nominated Director or Senior Manager heading the group although not necessarily running it.

Stress audit - bespoke for the organisation to reflect specific problems (eg our NHS Trust audit includes questions about debriefing, training and coping post major event, shifts, impact of target to attend a 999 in x minutes issues, etc.as well as the usual social, harrassment, satisfaction, communications, questions...)

Communicate findings to workforce

Commitment to act on findings - timescale, priority areas and how effectiveness will be measured

Clear policy including level of support to be offered and how this will be managed and monitored.

Hope this helps.

Helen Morgan

Helix Health Management

0161 428 5907

Lots of things could cause stress in the worklace, but it could also be caused by the individuals private life so keep an open mind and gather the facts.

1. check the work area to ensure it is safe

2. HR should talk to the individual to ascertain what they think the cause is, ie., too much/too little work, do they understand what is expected of them, long hours, bullying/harrassment from line management/colleagues etc., or is the individual burning the candle at both ends?, do they have a stressful home life? Any one or all of these things could cause stress.

3. HR should talk to the line manager and get their view

4. If you have a company doctor arrange a full medical for the individual, if you don't, suggest they go to their doctor for a check-up.

Of course, 'stress' being the new in word, this could all be hogwash to take time off work, so treat it the same as the unexplainable, undiagnosable backache - its predecessor!!

Has anyone any practical advice on exactly how to do a risk assessment for work-related stress?

It has become the latest topic for discussion in many H&S/HR magazines, but its difficult to see what you can practically do without becoming a 'big brother' employer watching people all the time which no-one would want to be?