How can we manage work related stress?
Stress places huge demands on employees’ physical and mental health and wellbeing, impacting their behaviour, performance and relationships with colleagues. In addition, it’s also a major cause of long-term absence from work, with 79% of respondents to the CIPD survey on Health and Well-being at Work reporting stress-related absence in the last year.
Therefore, taking steps to manage work-related stress is beneficial, not only for employee well being, but for your organisation as a whole.
In this guide, we explore the following questions:
- What is stress?
- Why are employees stressed?
- What are the top three causes of work related stress?
- How does management style impact stress?
- What can we do to support managers with work related stress?
- Can you spot symptoms of stress in your team, and how do you offer help?
- How can we take action to manage work related stress?
- Does a GP fit note citing “stress” mean an employee has a disability?
Why is stress in the spotlight?
Mental health awareness and well-being movements have moved up the agenda in recent years. For example, the Stress Management Society have been promoting April as a ‘Stress Awareness Month’ since 1992. The society advises organisations and individuals about the importance of well-being and recommends solutions to ensure their workforce is healthier and more productive.
However, we still have a long way to go to improve our relationship with stress and reduce work related stress, with nearly one in five companies surveyed not doing anything to improve employee health and wellbeing (CIPD, 2022).
What actually is stress?
Firstly, in order to manage the impact of stress on our staff, it is important to gain a better understanding of our biochemistry and ‘fight or flight’ response to stress. Our coping mechanisms haven’t changed a lot since our hunter gatherer days where our fight or flight response prepared us to either run away or physically fight back. This means that most of us are poorly designed to respond to the types of stressors we experience today (less woolly mammoths).
As a result, in modern working environments, when we feel stressed about a deadline or a difficult conversation for example, our fight or flight reaction is triggered. However, this is not helpful in these scenarios and only increases our anxiety further. Experiencing stress frequently can be damaging. Not only because long term high stress levels have been found to increase the risk of serious cardiovascular issues, but it also impacts mental wellbeing.
Therefore, it is important that we are aware of the impact of stress. At the same time, stress isn’t a negative all of the time. Short periods of moderate stress can increase our alertness and ability to learn and focus. A small amount of stress can also increase our ability to persevere with tasks when under pressure. However, when our stress levels go beyond this optimal level, we can start to experience the negative effects on our health. Therefore, we must look to prevent this, and introduce tools to help employees to manage their well-being.
Why are UK employees stressed?
YouGov’s ‘Big Work Survey’ 2013 concluded that the UK is a nation of stressed out staff. They questioned 2,011 working adults in the UK and 520 senior decision makers on behalf of Westfield Health.
The research discovered that 64% of respondents felt stressed at work. In addition, they also found that 82% of employees had worked over their contractual hours in the last 12 months. Further to this, workers reported eating their lunch at their desks, working overtime and working through holidays and sickness.
This tells us that there is work to be done to improve the culture around stress at work. Therefore, as employers we need to address these issues nationally to reduce the impact of work related stress.
What are the top three causes of work related stress?
The CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work survey found that stress is one of the main causes of short term and long term absence at work. The survey lists the three top causes of work-related stress as:
- excessive workloads/volume of work;
- management style; and
- covid-related anxieties and issues.
Some of these findings correlate with what we ‘expect’ when we think about stress and its causes. They also provide us with a fresh opportunity to acknowledge issues and make changes to how we manage work-related stress.
How does management style cause stress?
Management style was identified as one of the top causes of stress in teams by the CIPD survey. This is explained by the fact that only 56% of respondents said managers have been trained to manage stress, and only 44% said managers received training to support staff with mental health.
People management responsibilities are a key part of managerial roles. However, these skills are often overlooked when technical experts, or highly qualified professionals, are promoted into line management positions.
Management style clearly plays a significant role in maintaining the well-being of your whole team. So, it’s important to ensure that your managers receive the relevant training they need. This will enable them to support their staff effectively and cope with their people management responsibilities, including managing work related stress.
What can we do to manage work related stress in our teams?
The CIPD suggests four tips for managers to address issues of stress and wellbeing at work:
- Get to know your team better – Perfect your induction process and dedicate time to welcoming new employees when they join the company. Keep up positive communication throughout the employee life-cycle through regular one-to-one feedback sessions.
- Lead by example – Promote healthy working habits. For example, take regular breaks, use all of your annual leave and don’t send emails outside of work times. Take an interest in your own well-being and management of your own stress levels.
- Review job design and workloads with your team regularly. Review job descriptions, ensure that work is being shared equally, and identify any roles that may be overworked.
- Assess your management style – Identify your own strengths and weaknesses. This will help to guide your own personal development. You can identify your management style, and areas for improvement by using the HSE Management style assessment tool here.
To sum up, by addressing these four areas, managers can support their teams and manage work related stress more effectively.
How can we support managers with work related stress?
With that in mind, be aware of the impact that increased pressure on managers can have on their own stress levels. A Bupa survey of 6,000 employees revealed that 12% of managers are so close to breaking point that they cannot provide support to their staff (HR Review, 2013).
The survey also revealed that employees in certain sectors were suffering more than others. For example, 54% of workers in real estate said that they felt under pressure and 20% stated that they were finding it difficult to cope. Similarly, cuts in public sector funding have created stressed managers within the local authority workforce, with almost half reporting that they are struggling with workloads.
If managers play a key role in dealing with our workforce’s work related stress, it is very important that we also ensure our managers are being fully supported.
Symptoms of work related stress in teams
The Health and Safety Executive state that if an employee is acting differently, it could be a sign of stress. You could see a change in work performance, behaviour and mood, or a loss of motivation or confidence.
You could see a withdrawal from others at work, aggressive or other out-of-character behaviour. It can manifest in physical symptoms (e.g. headaches, tiredness, sweating, weight change etc.). An employee could also be taking more time off work, arriving for work later or acting in a more nervous way.
In teams, signs of stress could be:
- arguments;
- higher staff turnover;
- more reports of stress;
- more sickness absence;
- a decrease in team performance; and/or
- more complaints or grievances
How to help
As employers, we should act now and proactively put in place tools and processes to support staff well-being, and identify signs of stress. This will mean that employees are healthier, more present and productive in the workplace in the long term.
The data suggests that public sector organisations are being more proactive in addressing stress in the workplace. According to the survey, 85% of public sector and 80% of non-profit organisations are taking steps to address the issue, compared to 70% of organisations in the private sector.
There are many approaches we can take to manage work related stress, and employee well-being. Employers have a legal duty to approach stress management proactively. This means focusing on prevention and early intervention, not just responding when a problem becomes unavoidable, or when someone goes on sick leave.
How can you take action to manage work related stress?
There are lots of things we can be doing to tackle stress in our organisations. But, where do we start?
Take a look at the following eight steps to help you manage work related stress:
Step 1. Conduct a stress-risk assessment
Above all, conduct a stress-risk assessment for any employee saying they feel stressed or showing signs of stress, or for any employee with a self-certificate or fit note referring to work related stress. The Health and Safety Executive state: ‘employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it.’
Step 2. Audit your practices, policies, procedures and systems
Audit your practices, policies, procedures and systems to ensure that you are providing a work environment (both the physical and emotional environment), that protects the well-being of your staff to try and prevent stress.
Step 3. Train your staff and managers to spot signs of stress
Train your staff and managers to spot signs of stress in themselves and others in their team. Equip them with the skills and tools to take early action to support one another.
Step 4. Encourage regular communication
Encourage regular communication within your teams and between managers and employees to discuss ideas on how best to raise awareness and promote well-being. Find ways to support your staff so that they can enjoy their work and perform at their best.
Step 5. Promote flexible working options
Promote flexible working options and an improved work/life balance. Maintain an open conversation around roles which might be suitable to be worked more flexibly. Offer the option of flexible hours to support employees’ commitments outside of work.
Step 6. Introduce an Employee Assistance Programme
Introduce an Employee Assistance Programme to provide confidential emotional support to employees during times of stress. Qualified advisors will be able to provide invaluable advice and support with stress management.
Step 7. Carry out an employee survey
Carry out an employee survey or invite employees to a focus group to discuss and identify the main causes of stress in the workplace. Ask how you could support them to manage and minimise this. You could also broaden the survey to include a wider employee engagement analysis.
Step 8. Provide well-being sessions
Provide well-being sessions to employees on coping techniques and mindfulness to help your staff to build personal resilience.
Good health and well-being can be a core enabler of employee engagement and organisational performance. Therefore, addressing stress in your workplace will benefit both your staff and your business.
Want to read more about employee engagement? Read our article: The Four Stages of Employee Engagement
How to manage individual absence for work related stress
So, we’ve addressed how stress impacts your team and workforce as a whole and what you can do to reduce this on a more general scale.
But, how can we manage work related stress on a case by case basis? In the following sections, we’ll cover how to support individual employees that are experiencing work related stress absence.
Does a GP fit note saying ‘stress’ mean an employee has a disability?
The short answer to that is no, not necessarily if it’s in isolation. However, it is advisable to be mindful of the possibility of this.
As managers and HR professionals we’re not medical experts, so the only definitive way of knowing if an employee has a disability is:
- if they tell you (for example this could be during a recruitment process, or capability process, but it could be an informal comment heard by a manager); and/or
- this is confirmed by a medical professional (e.g. GP or occupational medical assessor).
Remember, employers have a legal duty to:
- make reasonable adjustments for employees with a disability or disabilities; and
- protect against discrimination arising in consequence of a disability.
What do we need to do if we receive a GP fit note saying an employee is suffering from “stress”?
Most importantly, work with the employee to explore ways to support and help them perform at work and prevent any unfavourable treatment.
In disability related cases, employment tribunals are looking for employers to demonstrate that their actions are ‘proportionate to a legitimate aim’, rather than the lesser test of ‘within a range of reasonable responses’.
What can you do to support a stressed team member who is absent from work?
Firstly, start by acknowledging to the employee that you are aware of their medical condition(s) and, seek confirmation if necessary. If the employee is absent from work, you’ll need to maintain a sensitive balance of keeping in contact yet giving the employee space to recuperate.
Secondly, whether they are at work or off work on sickness or other absence, your next action should be to adopt a genuine problem-solving approach to explore any potential reasonable adjustments (i.e. physical working environment, duties, hours, absence policies and trigger levels, redeployment options etc.) in order to facilitate the employee’s return to work and/or performance at work. Above all, conducting a stress-risk assessment will help to identify root causes and potential solutions.
Be aware that absences for similar reasons may be linked and seek medical input (i.e. a GP Report or occupational medical assessment) to inform your decision-making on reasonable adjustments.
Review policies and practices to check whether you have a legitimate aim and whether this aim can be achieved by a different approach.
Important take aways
In short, employers have an obligation to manage work related stress by focusing on stress prevention and early intervention. HR and management teams should look at proactive ways to support all employees in order to reduce the impact of work related stress.
If you’d like any support on managing stress at work, conducting a stress risk assessment, or if you have an employee matter you would like advice on, please contact our team of HR Consultants.
