What is stress?
Work related stress often emerges, when both Employers and Employees experience and an adverse reaction to excessive pressures, or other types of demands which has been placed upon them.
Employees feel stress when they can’t cope with pressures and other issues.
Employers should match demands to employees’ skills and knowledge.
For example, employees can get stressed if they feel they don’t have the skills or time to meet tight deadlines.
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.
Employers and Employees should manage the following areas properly.
· demands
· control
· support
· relationships
· role
· change
Employers should assess the risks in these areas to manage stress in the workplace for their employees.
Signs of stress
Stress is not an illness, but it can make you ill.
Recognising the signs of stress will help employers to take steps to stop, lower and manage stress in their workplace.
How we can help
The earlier a problem is tackled the less impact it will have.
If you think that an employee is having problems, encourage them to talk to someone, whether it’s their line manager, trade union representative, GP or their occupational health team.
Embark can offer support and advice for line managers to have simple, practical conversations with employees, which can help prevent stress by considering at one of our stress reductions tools.
To protect employees from stress at work, we can work with employers to assess risks to their employees’ health.
We can help your business conduct all the necessary stress risk assessments, then develop action plans for employees suffering from stress.