Stress at Work - Acas

1 Stress at work booklet123456789 Every year Acas helps employers and employees from thousands of workplaces. That means we keep right up-to-date with today s employment relations issues such as discipline and grievance handling, preventing discrimination and communicating effectively in workplaces. Make the most of our practical experience for your organisation find out what we can do for informWe answer your questions, give you the facts you need and talk through your options. You can then make informed decisions. Contact us to keep on top of what employment rights legislation means in practice before it gets on top of you. Call our helpline 0300 123 1100 for free confidential advice (open 8am-8pm, Monday to Friday and 9am-1pm Saturday) or visit our website advise and guideWe give you practical know-how on setting up and keeping good relations in your organisation.

2 Download one of our helpful publications from our website or call our Customer Services Team on 0300 123 1150 and ask to be put you in touch with your local Acas trainFrom a two-hour session on the key points of new legislation or employing people to courses specially designed for people in your organisation, we offer training to suit you. Go to to find out work with youWe offer hands-on practical help and support to tackle issues in your business with you. This might be through one of our well-known problem-solving services. Or a programme we have worked out together to put your business firmly on track for effective employment relations. You will meet your Acas adviser and discuss exactly what is needed before giving any go-ahead.

3 Go to for more not keep up-to-date with Acas news and notifications by signing up for our popular e-newsletter. Visit inform, advise, train and work with you 1123456789 ContentsForeword by the Health and Safety Executive 3 Introduction 5 Policies and behaviour 5 Benefits of tackling Stress 6 Acas help 7 Summary 8 Demands: getting the balance right 10 Look at job design 10 Training 13 Consider flexible working 14 More control = more interest 16 Involve employees 16 Build teams 19 Review performance 20 Support: strength or weakness?

4 22 Talk about Stress 22Be supportive 24 Provide information 24 Other sources of support and advice 25 Clear policies can build relationships 26 Agree policies on discipline and grievances 27 Agree policies on bullying and harassment 29 Role what part do you play? 31 Look at induction 32 Review job descriptions 34 Monitor the effect of change on individual roles 34 Change: opportunity or threat? 36 Plan ahead 36 Consult 38 work together 41 Stress AT WORK2 Appendix 1: What is Stress your questions answered 42 Appendix 2: Job design principles 44 Appendix 3: Health and safety management standards for tackling work related Stress 45 Appendix 4: Important changes to making Employment Tribunal claims 49 Reading List and other sources of advice 51 Useful websites 5210111213 FOREWORD BY ThE hEALTh AnD SAFETY ExECUTIVE31 Foreword by the Health and Safety ExecutiveStress is much in the news at present but it isn t a new problem.

5 Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep us motivated. But excessive pressure can lead to Stress which undermines performance, is costly to employers and can make people estimates that million working days were lost to Stress , depression and anxiety in 2007/08. Each new case of Stress leads to an average of 31 days off work . work -related Stress costs society about billion every year (at 1995/96 prices).If organisations can reduce Stress they can reduce these costs, and effective management is the best way of doing this. Recent research links effective people management to good performance and need to tackle Stress is also recognised in law.

6 Under the health and Safety at work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of health and Safety at work Regulations 1999, employers are obliged to undertake a risk assessment for health hazards at work including Stress and to take action to control that , for many people Stress still represents something of an unknown quantity. hSE has addressed this problem by developing Management Standards to help employers measure their performance in managing the key causes of Stress at work and identify areas for Standards look at the demands made on employees; the level of control employees have over their work ; the support employees receive from managers and colleagues; the clarity of an employee s role within the organisation; the nature of relationships at work ; and the way that change is AT WORK4 The Standards are based on extensive research.

7 During their development, hSE has consulted widely with employers, employees, trade unions and other interested organisations. hSE is not trying to take the buzz out of work or set impossible targets. The Management Standards approach is about helping and encouraging organisations to continuously improve the way they tackle work -related is delighted to be working in partnership with Acas. We know that the causes of Stress at work can be alleviated by good management and improved employment relations. Acas has a wealth of practical experience helping employers and employees work together to improve the quality of working life and Rowe, Head of Stress Policy Team, Health and Safety Executive InTRODUCTIOn52 IntroductionThe health and Safety Executive (hSE) define Stress as the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them.

8 Recent research shows that this adverse reaction can seriously undermine the quality of people s working lives and, in turn, the effectiveness of the takes many forms. As well as leading to anxiety and depression it can have a significant impact on an employee s physical health. Research links Stress to heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances and alcohol and drug guide aims to help organisations and individuals reduce Stress at work as well as preventing it happening in the first place. This means doing something about the main underlying causes of Stress like poor communication and lack of training, and coping with the symptoms of Stress like anxiety and ill and behaviour To tackle work -related Stress Acas focuses on the two factors that often determine the nature of the relationship between employers and employees: For further information on the Health and Safety Executive s Standards and more detailed guidance on risk assessments, using focus groups and involving managers and employees, visit the HSE website at.

9 The channels we set up for effective communication and consultation and the policies we have for managing the workplace such as written policies for absence and discipline; andBehaviour: the way that these policies are implemented and the way we behave within the framework of organisational have identified six main causes of Stress or stressors in organisations. In this booklet we describe how it feels to experience the symptoms of each Stress AT WORK6of these stressors and offer three practical solutions for resolving the stressful situations and preventing future work -related of the solutions overlap. For example, although consultation is not listed until the final chapter on change it is relevant to many of the earlier sections on job design, flexible working and involving staff.

10 Also, while some solutions apply largely to the organisation, others are more concerned with the , common themes do emerge. These themes such as setting objectives, clear policies, effective communication and working together can help organisations prevent the underlying causes of Stress from of tackling stressThere are clear benefits to preventing work -related Stress : quality of working life: employees feel happier at work and perform better management of change: introducing a new pay system or new patterns of work is easier when Stress is managed effectively employment relations: problems can be resolved at work rather than at an employment tribunal attendance and sickness: attendance levels go up and sickness absence goes down.