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Stress and Wellness Management in 2007

UK employers have reacted with very different levels of effort and interest to the Health and Safety Executives (HSE) guidelines on work-related stress which were published a few years ago. See more at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/ 

Whilst a number of employers of different sizes initially reacted with some panic to the initial provisions which placed difficult-to-achieve percentage-based expectations on employers, and initial press reports of expected fines against high profile employers; in November 2004, the HSE adjusted its provisions to support a far more sensible commercial approach to raising the management ofworkplace stress on corporate radars.

In truth, it would be difficult for anyone to argue that the HSE's guidelines and the definitions they contain are unreasonable. The HSE has identified six potential sources of workplace stress that need to be managed by employers, relating to the following workplace elements:

Demands
Control
Support
Relationships
Role
Change

A cursory read of the definitions of each of these elements on the HSE website will show that achieving HSE expectations generally makes good business sense at the most general level - notwithstanding the fact that each workplace will have specific factors that need to be taken into account.

The thing about measuring and managing workplace stress though is that one man's meat is another man's poison - what is highly stressful to some is less so to others. Most importantly, what is stressful to some is invigorating and highly attractive to others. For example; whilst long and irregular hours may be considered highly debilitating to employees in a manufacturing or warehousing environment, the same long and irregular hours may be considered exciting and challenging in a technology start-up.

''I have a busy workload'' may have very different implications for eg. an executive-level employee, and an operative, or lower-level administrator.

Equally, whereas some will experience great difficulty with being provided low levels of managerial support, others will thrive on the independence this creates. In short, establishing what is stressful across workplaces is complex - managing stress in the hustle and bustle of an investment bank front-office will always be different to managing stress in the same investment bank's canteen or payroll department.

These differences are recognised by astute employers who know that taking a narrow, one-size-fits-all approach to managing stress is naive and futile, albeit that they want to be seen to be addressing workplace stress in terms of HSE guidance.

From a ''managing stress'' best-practice perspective, the most successful organisations take a pragmatic and commercially-focused approach to auditing and managing levels of workplace stress. They also carefully avoid creating a ''self-fulfilling prophecy'' situation where employees are led to believe that being stressed is the norm in that environment.

They show evidence of concrete attempts to take meaningful measurements across the organisation, they ask the right questions and critically assess responses against the HSE guidelines.

These organisations focus on active participation in promoting ''wellness'', and on obtaining balanced employee feedback about what is good and what is bad about their working environments. Complementary stress management interventions should include:

• regular employee feedback via surveys, focus groups and one-to-ones
• regular training events
• stress management resource centres, including online tools
• regular ''wellness'' events, including lifestyle workshops
• prompt one-to-one counselling and / or coaching where there is fresh evidence of avoidable work-related stress

HDA works with a range of organisations in all sectors to mitigate the effects of work-related stress. HDA practical stress management interventions, include the following:

• stress management surveys linked to broader employee engagement measures,
• online stress management resource centres,
• ''wellness events''
• stress management training,
• time management training,
• traumatic incidents de-briefer training,
• counselling skills training,
• employee counselling and coaching

More on Tricia Dicks:

Tricia is CEO of HDA, and founded HDA in 1979. She holds directorships with HDA and with CNI, HDA’s international affiliate.

Prior to her time at HDA, she worked for Rank Xerox, Bowater Scott, Coopers & Lybrand and the P&O Group in Europe and North America. At P&O she initially held market research roles, and subsequently took on responsibility as the Group Development Advisor for mergers and acquisitions. In addition to her business leadership role, Tricia brings her training as a psychologist to HDA. She has had significant success delivering consultancy across all sectors and in most industries; both in the UK and internationally.

 

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