EMPLOYERS

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

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

In practical terms, that means doing a risk assessment and acting on it.

Get started in 5 steps…

1. Reach out and have conversations

2. Recognise the signs and causes of stress

3. Respond to any risks you’ve identified

4. Reflect on actions you’ve agreed and taken

5. Make it Routine to check in on how people are feeling and coping.

Make prevention a priority

Around half of all work-related ill-health is due to stress, anxiety or depression with each person suffering taking around 15.8 days off work on average (2022/23).

A report by Deloitte estimates that the total annual cost of poor mental health to employers is up to £51 billion a year.

Get started today

Download a risk assessment template to develop your processes for preventing or managing stressors
Use a Talking Toolkit to help structure your conversations
Read the Blog: taking an organisational approach to risk assessment can tackle the root cause of issues and help the whole team.
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If you’d like to learn in more depth, you can also find out about NEBOSH HSE Certificate in Managing Stress at Work

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.

For more information see: Work-related stress and how to manage it: stress risk assessment – HSE

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

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.

Supporting workers

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.

You may also want to signpost or access additional resources that might help.

NHS mind plan answer 5 simple questions to get a personalised mental health action plan, with tips and advice.

Supporting mental health at work – Acas 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.

The Mental Health at Work Commitment, hosted by Mind, is simple framework that all organisations can sign up to free of charge, to improve and support the mental health of their workers.

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

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)

Contact Details

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campaigns@hse.gov.uk