EMPLOYERS

You have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work

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

You need to assess the risk of work-related stress and to put steps in place to tackle those risks. This can reduce sickness absence, boost morale and therefore help improve productivity.

Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be costly, time-consuming or difficult, and we have got some great tools to help. It only takes 5 steps…

5. Make it Routine

MENTAL HEALTH IS THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR SICK DAYS

Last year more than 17.9 million working days were lost as a result of stress, anxiety, or depression. While the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to be fully understood, work related stress is the number one reason given for sick days in the UK. A recent survey by the charity Mind suggests that two in five employees mental health has become worse during the pandemic.

What is stress and mental health?

Workers feel stress when they can’t cope with pressures and other issues.

For example, workers can get stressed if they feel they don’t have the skills or time to meet tight deadlines. Employers should match demands to employees’ skills and knowledge. 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 an employee can cope.

Mental health is about how we think, feel and behave. Anxiety and depression are the most common mental health problems. They are often a reaction to a difficult life event, such as bereavement, but can also be caused by work-related issues.

When work-related stress is prolonged it can lead to both physical and psychological damage, including anxiety and depression. Work can also aggravate pre-existing conditions, and problems at work can bring on symptoms or make their effects worse.

THE LAW: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW (STRESS)

Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it.

If you have fewer than five employees you don’t have to write anything down. But it is useful to do this, so you can review it later, for example if something changes. If you have five or more employees, you are required by law to write the risk assessment down.

Any paperwork you produce should help you communicate and manage the risks in your business. This does not need to be a big exercise – just note the main points about the significant risks and what you decided.

The Health and Safety Executive has created an easy way to record your findings by using a risk assessment template.

It might help to view example risk assessments on stress in small businesses.

THE LAW: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW (MENTAL HEALTH)

Whether work is causing a mental health issue or aggravating it, as an employer you have a legal responsibility to help employees.

Work-related mental health issues must be assessed to measure the levels of risk to staff. Where a risk is identified, steps must be taken to remove it or reduce it as far as reasonably practicable.

Some workers will have a pre-existing physical or mental health condition when recruited or may develop one caused by factors that are not work-related factors.

There is advice for line managers to help them support their employees with mental health conditions.

You could have further legal requirements, to make reasonable adjustments under equalities legislation. Information about employing people with a disability can be found on GOV.UK or from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in England, Scotland and Wales.

TALKING TOOLKIT

HSE has created a Talking Toolkit to assist employers in speaking to their employees and taking the important first step towards preventing work-related stress and developing the actions and stress risk assessment employers need to comply with the law.

The Talking Toolkit should not be used in isolation as an employer’s only response if there is an existing problem with work-related stress in the organisation.

The toolkit has six templates for six different conversations. Each of these has a different theme designed to get line managers and employees talking about issues which may be causing work-related stress or issues which could have the potential to become future causes if not managed properly.

Talking Toolkit: Preventing work-related stress (hse.gov.uk)

Additional advice: Stress and Mental Health

If people you work with are experiencing stress, they should be encouraged to talk to someone, whether it’s a manager, their trade union representative, GP or an occupational health team.

The Mental Health at Work advice portal curated by Mind has 482 resources, from organisations across the UK, all aimed at helping you get to grips with workplace mental health: Home – Mental Health At Work

ACAS provides a wealth of information, including links to its framework showing the role of employers, managers and individuals in promoting mental health at work: Supporting mental health at work – Acas

Samaritans provide confidential, non-judgemental emotional support for people experiencing feelings of distress: Samaritans | Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy | Here to listen
TELEPHONE: 116 123 (24 hours a day, free to call)

Additional advice: Thriving at Work

The government commissioned Lord Stevenson and Paul Farmer to review the role of employers supporting individuals with mental health conditions. Their ‘Thriving at Work’ report sets out ‘Core Standards’ that the reviewers recommend employers of all sizes can and should put in place: Thriving at Work: a review of mental health and employers – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

These standards are now captured in the Mental Health at Work Commitment, a simple framework that all organisations can sign up to free of charge, to improve and support the mental health of their people.

Additional advice: Agriculture

The Farm Safety Foundation is dedicated to support the physical and mental wellbeing of the UK’s farmers, and has created a specific guide for agriculture: LittleBookOfMindingYourHead_0421.pdf (yellowwellies.org)

Additional advice: Scotland

Healthy Working Lives (Scotland) provide information and guidance on tackling stress in the workplace: Mental health – Healthy Working Lives

Training opportunities available online can help improve awareness about mental health and develop key skills. If you’re based in Scotland, you can access NHS Health Scotland’s Mentally Healthy Workplaces course: Virtual Learning Environment (publichealthscotland.scot)

See Me in Work (Scotland), Preventing unlawful discrimination – A checklist for employers: employers-checklist.pdf (seemescotland.org)

Additional advice: Wales

Healthy Working Wales is a Welsh Government programme helping employers support people in Wales to stay fit and healthy so they can remain in employment, or return to work following a period of ill health. They offer free resources on mental health and stress:

Healthy Working Wales – Public Health Wales (nhs.wales)

Mind Cymru runs numerous initiatives, including the Time to Change campaign for Wales:
Mind Cymru | Mind, the mental health charity – help for mental health problems

Contact Details

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campaigns@hse.gov.uk