HSE Campaign – April is Stress Awareness Month

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HSE has launched a new campaign for April in relation to Stress Awareness

What is stress?

HSE defines stress as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them.’

Workers feel stress when they can’t cope with pressures and other issues. Employers should match demands to workers’ skills and knowledge. For example, workers can get stressed if they feel they don’t have the skills or time to meet tight deadlines. Providing planning, training and support can reduce pressure and bring stress levels down.

Stress affects people differently – what stresses one person may not affect another. Factors like skills and experience, age or disability may all affect whether a worker can cope.

There are six main areas of work design which can affect stress levels. You should manage these properly. They are:

  • demands
  • control
  • support
  • relationships
  • role
  • change

Employers should assess the risks in these areas to manage stress in the workplace.

Signs of stress

Stress is not an illness, but it can make you ill. It can cause symptoms that affect how you feel physically and mentally. Recognising the signs of stress will help employers to take steps to stop, lower and manage stress in their workplace.

Spotting signs of stress

If you are stressed you may notice changes in the way you think or feel, for example:

  • feeling negative
  • being indecisive
  • feeling isolated
  • feeling nervous
  • being unable to concentrate

You may act differently, for example:

  • eat more or less than usual
  • smoke, drink or take drugs ‘to cope’
  • have difficulty sleeping

The earlier a problem is tackled the less impact it will have. If you think that a worker is having problems, encourage them to talk to someone, whether it’s their line manager, trade union representative, GP, or their occupational health team.

Advice for Employees

If you are feeling signs of stress at work, it is important to talk to someone, for example your manager. If you talk to them as soon as possible, it will give them the chance to help and stop the situation getting worse.

If the pressure is due to what your line manager is doing, find out what policies are in place to deal with this. If there aren’t any, you could talk to your:

  • trade union representative
  • employee representative
  • HR department
  • employee assistance programme/counselling service if your company has these or
  • GP

Many employees are unwilling to talk about stress at work, because of the stigma stress has. But stress is not a weakness, and can happen to anyone.

What your employer must do

Your employer has a legal duty to assess the risks to your health from stress at work and share the results of any risk assessment with you. Your employer may follow HSE’s Management Standards approach, which help identify and manage the main causes of stress at work.

Advice for managers on mental ill health conditions

  1. Broaching the Topic of Stress
  • Use routine management tools to identify and tackle problems or needs
  • Use scheduled work meetings, appraisals or informal chats about progress to find out more about any problems an employee may be having.
  • You could have health and safety as an agenda item at meetings. As well as things like display screen equipment assessments for example, this could be used for stress or mental health issues. Remember, you must protect workers and others from mental health and stress at work risks in the same way you must protect them from other health and safety risks.

If you have specific concerns about someone’s health, talk about these at an early stage. Ask questions in an open, exploratory and non-judgemental way. These conditions affect people differently, so adjustments to how they work could relieve symptoms. You should be positive and supportive while exploring the issues and how you can help.

  •  Talking at an early stage

As a manager, you may have employees who experience mental health difficulties. As soon as you notice that an employee is having difficulties, talk to them – early action can prevent them becoming more unwell.

If the person does not want to speak to you, suggest they speak to someone else, for example someone from your employee assistance programme, occupational health team or their own GP.

Managers should concentrate on making reasonable adjustments at work, rather than understanding the diagnosis. Their GP, medical support or occupational health should be able to provide guidance on what you can do to help them.

If an employee goes off sick, lack of contact or involvement from their manager may mean they feel isolated, forgotten or unable to return. You can reduce the risk of them not returning to work by:

  • keeping them informed about what is going on, including social events
  • reassuring them early on and throughout their absence
  • If a person has been off sick,

You should discuss their return to work and reintegration into the workplace beforehand. A written plan can help. You both might want to agree when they have reached the stage of ‘business as usual’. At this point, you can use existing management processes to review their performance, needs and work plan.

  • Supporting an employee who is tearful and upset

If an employee gets upset, talk to them, reassure them, and tell them that you will give them all the help and support available. Explain that things will go at a pace that suits them. If you are in a meeting with them, ask if they would like someone else with them.

Try to be sensitive to the level of information the person can cope with. In the middle of a crisis, they may not be able to think clearly and take in complex information.

Problems can build up over time and while you may feel pressure to do something, it might be better to take some time to think about options properly. Agree with the person which issues are most urgent.

A much smaller number of people will experience more severe anxiety or depression. These can be associated with episodes of ‘mania’, which can include:

  • extreme, heightened activity
  • psychosis
  • loss of touch with reality
  • hallucinations
  • distortion of the senses

In these rare instances, an employee may behave in ways that impact on colleagues or clients and you should keep your responsibilities for all employees in mind.

Take the person to a quiet place and speak to them calmly. Suggest that you could contact a friend or relative or that they go home and contact their GP or a member of their mental health team.

If someone is experiencing hallucinations or mania, they may not take in what you are saying. In this case, they will need immediate medical help. If an employee is disturbing others and refuses to accept help, seek advice from:

  • your occupational health provider
  • the person’s GP
  • the NHS – call 111
  • or call an ambulance.
  • Managing a person with an ongoing illness

Most people who have ongoing mental health problems continue to work successfully. But when someone needs support, managers can work with them to ensure flexibility to suit their health needs.

People with mental health problems should be treated in exactly the same way as any other member of staff, unless they ask for help or demonstrate clear signs that they need it. It is discriminatory to make assumptions about people’s capabilities, their promotability or the amount of sick leave they may need because of their illness.

HSE has developed principles to support disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions in work.

Coping strategies

Most people are encouraged to develop a coping strategy as part of their care. This often involves noting signs of a possible relapse and taking pre-emptive action, such as cutting down on work, being careful about drinking alcohol, taking exercise and finding time to relax. It is important you support the employee at this first warning stage. Small, inexpensive adjustments may well prevent a more costly period of illness.

  • Tools, Action Plans, Risk Assessments

Employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it. This is the same duty you have to protect people from other health and safety risks.

HSE Talking Toolkits can help line managers have simple, practical conversations with workers which can help prevent stress.

To protect workers from stress at work, employers should assess risks to their health. These example stress risk assessments may help.

  • You may need to develop individual action plans for workers suffering from stress.
  • HSE’s Management Standards may also help you to identify and manage the six causes of stress at work.
  • As part of your first aid at work needs assessment, you should consider the potential need to support workers who might become ill at work as a result of a mental health issue.
  • 5 simple steps

Complete the 5 steps of HSE’s Working Minds campaign over the course of April to help to prevent stress and support good mental health of your workers:

1.         reach out and have conversations

2.         recognise the signs and causes of stress

3.         respond to any risks identified by agreeing action points

4.         reflect on the actions taken – have things improved?

5.         make it routine to check back in on how things are going

Take your business to the next level

Preventing work-related stress, depression and anxiety is a legal duty, it’s good for business and it’s the right thing to do.

By being proactive, you can improve productivity, reduce sickness absence and help retain valued workers.

  • Work-related stress and the law

No matter whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, the law requires all employers to prevent work-related stress to support good mental health in the workplace.

The need for -employers to protect workers from work-related stress, depression and anxiety – falls under the provision in sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Find out more about work-related stress and the law.

Earlier this year, HSE held a webinar for businesses in Wales on managing workplace stress and mental health, which is now available to watch on demand.

Stress experts from HSE and Healthy Working Wales joined together to discuss work-related stress, explain legal requirements and share resources.  

More information can be obtained from www.hse.gov.uk/stress/index