Managers should be familiar with the organisation's policies on work-related stress and their own role in preventing and dealing with it.
They should be able to implement up-to-date Health and Safety Executive guidance and conduct risk assessments for stress.
Managers should also know how and where to refer staff suffering from stress if they are unable to help the individual.
The Health and Safety Executive guidance 'Tackling Work-Related Stress: A Manager's Guide to Improving and Maintaining Employee Health and Well Being' is a useful guide for managers. It encourages managers to take a proactive role and highlights what they can do to reduce stress.
Creating a low stress workplace
A low stress workplace will generally be a place where managers encourage staff to be:
- effective
- creative
- decisive
- alert
- stimulated.
Frustration and boredom contribute to stress, so managers should look to help staff reach their full potential by allowing them some influence over their work, trusting them, encouraging them to put forward ideas, consulting with them and encouraging their self development.
Things to avoid include excessive monitoring, lack of interest in employees' concerns and problems and making excessive demands on them and their time.
Good communication helps to avoid stress. Grievances and complaints should be dealt with in a fair and open way. Clearly, bullying and harassment must not be tolerated and managers should not be confrontational.
Practical steps for managers
When someone is experiencing stress, managers need to consider who else to involve. For example, if the issue is pressure at work, it may be enough to involve just the individual and their line manager (or their manager if the problem is with the immediate manager), or possibly a trade union or employee representative.
If stress has led to ill health or absence from work, the manager could consult through HR to the individual's GP (with their consent), psychiatrist or other health professional involved in their recovery.
Other people to consider consulting could include human resources, occupational health or workplace counsellors.
