Benchmarking stress management in 2012
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One employer in five has been forced to reduce their efforts to tackle workplace stress in order to save time and money, as a direct consequence of tough economic times. This figure more than doubles to over two-fifths (43.8%) of organisations in the public sector. |
These are among the key findings of the latest XpertHR Benchmarking survey on stress management. The survey is based on responses from 205 organisations with a combined workforce of 509,976 employees.
XpertHR Benchmarking subscribers can drill down into the complete benchmarking data from the 2012 stress management survey.
Measures taken to deal with stress
Just over half of employers are taking action to deal with workplace stress. Employers that are acting to tackle stress levels are most likely to pursue "a preventative, positive approach" to stress management:
- The most common measure taken to combat workplace stress is offering flexible working options. This is followed by initiatives to manage stress-related absences . Public sector employers are significantly more likely to take such measures.
- Stress management measures have been increased by many employers in order to deal with rising stress levels resulting from ongoing economic hard times.
- One employer in four has provided stress management training within the past 12 months.
- The most common forms of stress management training are helping line managers improve their people management skills and training staff to manage their own stress.
- Just over one employer in three has used the HSE management standards for work-related stress.
Are employers losing the battle to combat stress-related absence?
Stress, depression and anxiety are the cause of 5.9% of cases of absence in the UK, according to Office for National Statistics data. By gender, stress accounts for 7.4% of all sickness absence taken by women, and 3.8% for men. Cutting stress-related absence is cited by employers surveyed by XpertHR as a key motivator for their actions to tackle stress. However, the survey suggests that their actions to reduce stress-related absence are having little actual impact.
- The three main reasons for acting to reduce employee stress are: to promote employee wellbeing and health; to manage absence; and to comply with health and safety legislation.
- The most common measures taken by employers on stress-related absence are return-to-work interviews or phased returns to work following stress-related absences and occupational health referrals.
- Worryingly, only one-third of employers believe that their actions to manage or prevent stress have had a measurable impact on stress-related absence and or general absence. Public sector employers are more likely than those in the private sector to feel that their actions are driving down stress-related absence.
Benchmarking approaches to stress research and stress risk assessments
Truly effective stress management frameworks require a strong understanding of the factors responsible for workplace stress. Yet the XpertHR survey suggests that few employers are acting to investigate these factors:
- Only one employer in five has conducted research into the underlying causes of stress in their organisation over the past year.
- The most common methods used to research workplace stress are: assessing absence data; and conducting employee attitude surveys.
- Two-fifths of employers have conducted risk assessments relating to stress within the past 12 months.
- Stress risk assessments are most commonly focused on employees who have been absent for stress-related reasons and those who self-report a stress issue.
- Public sector organisations are significantly more proactive in undertaking stress risk assessments than those in the private sector.
You can also access XpertHR's detailed written analysis of the annual leave survey findings, and notes on the definition of work-related stress used in our research.
Michael Carty, benchmarking editor
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