A stress risk assessment is a systematic process helps businesses identify, evaluate, and manage factors that have the potential to cause stress to employees.
Employers are legally responsible to protect employees from work-related stress by conducting a general risk assessment covering all employees which sets specific measures for the control of demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
Failing to control stress can cause significant risks to your employees' mental health and to your business.
What is a stress risk assessment?
A stress risk assessment is a thorough analysis of the factors in a workplace that may cause employees to experience the effects of work-related .
Work-related stress is the negative reaction people have when going through excessive pressure from demands put on them at work.
By analysing organisational processes and culture from the lens of stress in the workplace, a stress risk assessment ensures that employees cannot negatively be affected by work related stress.
Why are stress risk assessments important?
Employers have a general duty to ensure their employees' health at work under the . This involves taking precautions to shield workers from a possible stress-related illness brought on by their job.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 also puts a legal duty on employers to carry out risk assessments.
On a moral level, we want to ensure that the health of our employees is protected. Constant exposure to work-related stress can lead to more serious long-term mental and physical health effects like anxiety, depression and .
These health effects can place a financial burden on your organisation. The adverse physical and mental health effects of work-related stress can cost your organisation heavily in sickness absences and a higher .
High levels of sickness absences and turnover mean more time and money spent on recruitment and training, and less time and money spent on improvements to the organisation or profit. With this in mind, can you afford not to risk assess work related stress?
How to carry out a stress risk assessment at work
In order to help simplify risk assessments, the Health and Safety Executive created a framework called the ‘Management Standards’. The framework outlines six factors that, if not properly managed, might lead to work-related stress.
These include demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
For each of the six factors, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) requires employers to have ways of promoting open communication so that staff members can easily address any specific concerns.
Below are the factors and their associated requirements in more detail:
Demands
It is important that employers assess the workload, work patterns, and the workplace itself. The HSE expects that your employees show that they can cope with their job responsibilities.
As an employer, you should be:
- Setting reasonable expectations for your employees in relation to the agreed-upon working hours.
- Ensuring job demands are matched to each person's skills and abilities.
- Ensuring that the capabilities of your employees are considered when assigning jobs.
- Ensuring that you respond to employee concerns regarding the demands of the work.
Control
Control refers to how much authority a person has over how their work is carried out. The HSE expects that your employees have the option to choose how they carry out their work.
As an employer, you should be:
- Giving your workers control over their pace of work.
- Encouraging your staff to do their work using their skills and creativity.
- Encouraging staff to learn new skills to help them take on new and difficult tasks (if possible).
- Encouraging staff to improve their abilities.
- Allowing individuals to choose when they can take breaks.
- Consulting your employees over their work patterns.
Support
Support involves the encouragement, guidance, , and resources provided by the organisation, line management, and colleagues for doing the job. The HSE expects that your staff members receive appropriate information and support from their managers and colleagues.
As an employer, you should be:
- Developing policies and procedures that detail how you will ensure that your staff are supported.
- Putting systems in place for the management team to support their staff.
- Putting systems in place for staff members to help their colleagues.Informing your workforce about the support that is available and how to access it.
- Training your staff on how to find the resources they need to perform their jobs.
- Simplifying work processes as much as possible.
- Ensuring that your staff receive constructive feedback regularly.
Relationships
Relationships in the workplace can make or break the work experience of any employee. It is important that employees feel safe and valued at work. Employers must ensure that clear policies are implemented that adequately address what constitutes unacceptable behaviour by any employee, to protect other employees from harm.
As an employer, you should be:
- Promoting positive behaviours in the workplace and ensuring fairness.
- Making sure that your employees share work-related information.
- Developing policies to prevent or handle unacceptable behaviour.
- Making sure that systems are in place that allow senior managers to deal with misbehaviour.
- Making sure that systems are in place that allow your staff members to report misbehaviour.
- Promoting a zero-tolerance policy to any form of work-related or bullying.
Role
A stressor experienced by employees is not having a clear understanding of the fundamental requirements of their role, if the goal posts of their role are constantly changing, or if they are given unrealistic deadlines that could cause them to work outside of their contracted hours.
As an employer, you should be:
- Providing information to your staff so that they can fully understand their roles and duties.
- Making every effort to ensure that the expectations you impose on your staff are as clear as possible.
- Ensuring that processes are in place to allow your staff to voice any doubts or conflicts in their roles.
- Setting objectives that you know your employees are competent enough to achieve.
- Ensuring that deadlines are reasonable for the time required to complete the work.
- Promoting a healthy work-life balance.
Change
Change can be stressful for employees, especially where change is being made without effective communication. Lack of communication about changes to an organisation can cause staff to have anxiety about the future of the organisation and their role.
As an employer, you should be:
- Providing your staff with accurate information to help them understand the reasoning for proposed changes.
- Ensuring that your staff are properly consulted about any changes and that they have opportunities to influence initiatives.
- Ensuring that your staff are aware of the potential consequences of any changes to their jobs. They should be trained if necessary to keep up with any changes in their roles.
- Communicating any changing schedules to your staff.
- Providing all your workers with assistance throughout the changes.
FAQs: What is a stress risk assessment?
Are stress risk assessments a legal requirement?
Yes, employers are legally required to complete risk assessments that protect their employees from work-related stress. This means carrying out a “suitable and sufficient” risk assessment for stress.
Do I have to write down the results of the risk assessment?
The best way to prove you have a risk assessment is to have it written down. It is also the most effective method of communicating the findings of your risk assessments with employees.
What happens if I don’t conduct a stress risk assessment?
By not properly managing stress in the workplace, an employer could face penalties by the Health and Safety Executive. Furthermore, it increases the chances of being subject to legal claims from employees.
Get advice on stress risk assessment from Peninsula
Work-related stress is one of the risks that needs consideration by employers. As an employer, you should protect your employees' mental health by conducting a stress risk assessment and taking appropriate action.
Failure to manage workplace stress can harm your employees' mental health and badly affect your business.
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