Being Proactive:

An Organisational Approach to
Managing Workplace Stress
I/O Net
Presentation by

Dr Hillary Bennett
Director, PsychAssessments

Healthy Work: Managing

Stress in the Workplace. (2003)
Creating a healthy and safe
workplace requires employers and
employees to work systematically
together to identify hazards and
manage them

Stress an integral and inevitable

feature of most contemporary
workplaces
Workplace stress arises when
individuals perceive an imbalance
between the pressures and demands
made on them and the resources
they have to cope with these
demands

Managing Stress in the

Workplace
Traditional view
Stress the responsibility of the individual

Organisational view
Employers and employees have a
responsibility to address work-related
stress

The HSE Amendment Act 2002

Objective:
To promote the prevention of harm to
all persons at work through the
systematic management of hazards

HSE Amendment Act 2002 holds

Employers Responsible for
Implementation of effective systems for
identifying existing and new hazards,
including work-related stress
Systematic management of hazards, by
eliminating them, isolating them or
minimising them, in that order of
preference.
Provision of opportunities for employee
participation.

3 Approaches to Tackling Workrelated Stress

Prevention
Identifying and acting on the causes of stress
Stress Risk Assessments

Management
Giving staff the skills to cope / manage

Treatment
Professional medical and psychological support

Stress Risk Assessment A Preventive Approach

SRA aims to identify:
1. The level stress (the harm)
2. The main sources of work-related stress
(the hazards)
3. What practicable steps can be taken to
eliminate the sources of stress
(hazards), if possible

An International Perspective
An
international
review
of
stress
prevention in the workplace highlights
that there has been a lack of systematic
Stress Risk Assessment (Kompier and
Cooper, 1999).
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
Guidance recommends that a risk
assessment approach be followed when
tackling work-related stress

Steps to Risk Assessment

Step 4 & 5 - Record and Re-Assess

Step 1:
Identify Hazards
What might
cause harm?

Step 2:

Step 3 (a):

Step 3 (b):

Evaluate Harm
Who could
be harmed,
and how?

Evaluate Risks
How likely
is it that the
hazard could
cause harm?

Introduce controls
What can we do
to reduce the risk
that hazards
will cause harm?

Comparison of a Risk Assessment

With a Stress Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment

Stress Risk Assessment

1. Identify the Hazards

1. Assess levels of stress

(harm)

2. Evaluate the Harm

2. Identify main sources of

stress
3. Identify the main sources of
stress for individuals / teams

3. Evaluate the Risk

4. Introduce Controls

4. Identify what can be done to

manage the main sources of
stress

Stress Risk Assessment Process

1. Planning and Consultation
2. Data Collection
Qualitative methods e.g. interviews, focus
groups, Stress Diaries
Quantitative
methods
e.g.
structured
surveys, StressTools

3. Data Analysis
4. Feedback and Action Planning

StressTools
A Tool for Tackling Work-related Stress
StressTools aims to help organisations identify
and manage work-related stressors.
StressTools takes a preventive approach
emphasising removing work-related stressors
rather than treating stress symptoms
StressTools developed by the Keil Centre with the
assistance of Birbeck College and local industry
StressTools won the European Health and Safety
Best Practice Award.

StressTools
3 Work Stress Risk Assessments(SRA)
Task-based SRA

Team-based SRA
Future-focused SRA

Task-based SRA
Identify and control stressors and other human
factors hazards arising from an unusual, complex or
hazardous task
To be included in pre-existing Risk Assessment
process
Emphasises links between stress and safety
Tackles stigma associated with mentioning stress

Future-focused SRA
Involve cross-section of employees identifying work-related
stressors likely to be associated with a future project or
organisational change and planning preventative measures
Focuses on preventing future work-related stress

Relevant to major projects or organisational changes

Identifies relevant work-related stressors through employee
involvement

Can be tailored to local circumstances

Identifies actions to prevent / manage future sources of workrelated stress

Team-based SRA
The team-based SRA method, which
identifies levels and sources of
stress in teams doing similar work in
organisations and identifies locally
relevant solutions through employee
involvement is particularly relevant
in light of the changes to the Health
and
Safety
in
Employment
Amendment Act 2002.

Team-based SRA Involves 4 Steps..

Step 1. Evaluating harm .
Measures team members perceptions of level of workrelated stress and benchmark levels of stress with other
groups
Step 2. Identifying the hazards.
Assesses which work- related stressors are causing
stress, using a generic (40 predefined) and locally
relevant work related stressors. Identifies the main workrelated stressors affecting team members now or in the
recent past
Step 3. Evaluating risks.
Assesses what are the most significant sources of stress
for team members and describing these sources in more
detail.
Step 4. Introducing controls.
Identifies what can be done by management or team
members to prevent and manage work-related stress

Conducting a Team-based SRA

Train project organiser / working team

Needs to be well-respected by the team

Important to maintain confidentiality about employees
opinions about stressors and levels of stress

Prepare for the team-based SRA

Use cross-section of employees to identify local workrelated stressors

Customise the team-based SRA

Identify sub-groups
Choose comparison group for benchmarking purposes
Add local work-related stressors
Add additional questions. Questions need a yes no answer
format

Collect data

Paper workbook / on-screen option

Results of Team-based SRA

Stress levels
Stress comparisons with benchmark group
Stress exposure - % of people in each group
which indicated that each stressor was often
of always a source of stress
Stressors high- low
Ranked stressors significance of stressors
Movement
Written comments on main sources of stress

StressTools
14 Management Standards Providing Guidance
on How to Prevent Work-related Stressors

Workload
Job Insecurity
Teamworking
Performance
feedback
Training &
development
Hours of work

Job design
Management support
Tools and equipment
Communication
Role ambiguity
Skill under-utilisation
Work-life balance
Effort-reward
imbalance

Each Management Standard Includes

A definition of the stressor
How the stressor can cause individual harm and organisational
harm
How to identify if problem exists now or may do so in the future
Management practices that may prevent or resolve these
problems
A table which includes:
States which describe a well-managed organisation, in
relation to this stressor
A space to record current organisational practice, enabling
a gap analysis to be done
Examples of the types of best practice which exemplify the
state
A space to record next steps/actions

International Research Shows

1. Most of the activity in the field of stress
management has focused on reducing the
effects of stress rather than on reducing
the presence of stressors at work.
2. Most activities are primarilyy aimed at the
individual rather than the organisation.
3. Concluded that successful management of
stress requires intervention at both an
individual and organisational level.

Benefits of Stress Risk

Assessment
Signals to employees that the employer is
being proactive and serious about managing
stress in the workplace.
It ensures that subsequent stress-related
activities aimed at management or treatment
are targeted at specific problems and specific
individuals.
Provides a tailored approach to managing
stress rather than a pray and spray
approach.
In the long term it is more
effective in terms of costs and time.

In Conclusion
Compared to other stress management
techniques
The risk assessment approach to stress is
likely to more effective, as the source is
being addressed rather than the
symptoms
It is a proactive

Stress Management = Good

Management
and

Good Management = Stress

Management