Managing stress in the workplace is no different to managing any other workplace hazard.  It is the responsibility of both the employee and the employer to ensure they have taken “all practicable steps.”  Both parties should work together to find solutions to managing and eliminating work place stress.?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" >

In investigating whether to take legal action against a company, OSH will look for evidence of:

·          Harm – confirmation by a medical practitioner that some harm is or has been suffered.

·          Recognisable Stressors – as an employer you knew, ought to have known or had been told about employee’s issues. 

·          Serious hazards - without which the harm would not have occurred

·          Coercion – the employee has no choice but to work in these conditions

·          Lack of action – as an employer you failed to rectify or investigate the potential hazards once were aware of them.

Stress – the ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" >OSH Definition

Stress – “An interaction between the person and their (work) environment and is an awareness of not being able to cope with the demands of one’s environment, when this realisation is of concern to the person, in that both are associated with a negative emotional response.”

Stressor – “Events or circumstances which in general result in pressure.  A perception that the physical or psychological demands are about to be exceeded.” Stressors can arise both in and out of work and the employer must be able to identify and manage both.

Fatigue – “The temporary inability, or decrease in ability or strong disinclination to respond to a situation, because of inadequate recuperation from previous over-activity, mental, emotional or physical.”

OSH broadly defines issues that cause stress as inevitable or avoidable.

Inevitable:  That is the potential stress caused by starting a new job, being promoted, dealing with emergencies and intrinsic difficulties. Research indicates that people working in occupations such as health care, police, ambulance and prison services are amongst the most likely to suffer workplace stress.  The very nature of their roles is stressful.  While an employer cannot be expected to eradicate these, the Act does require that procedures/programmes are in place to support the employee.

Avoidable: Stress caused by undertaking hazardous work, working for too many hours each week or for long periods in a physically demanding environment.  Other factors might be the absence of performance management, bullying and harassment, lack of resources and unrealistic timeframes.

The Act recognises that the employer has no control over stress caused by out of work factors such as relationship issues or family illness.  However the employer is considered responsible for being aware of issues that may impact on an employees work standards and the effect that these outside influences may have on the safety of the employee and those employees who they may work with.

Managing Workplace Stress

Existing hazard identification programmes can be utilised to identify, investigate and evaluate areas of concern and if necessary management programmes introduced.  This is no different to managing any other potential hazard in the workplace.  An employer should take particular note of unreasonable demands and unavoidable stressors within the workplace and any unhealthy work practices.

1.                   Elimination

2.                   Isolation

3.                   Minimisation

The identification and removal of stressors in the workplace by developing:

·          Safe work practices

·          Balanced work schedules

·          Sociable responsibility

·          Systems in place for identifying hazards

·          Pleasant work environments

·          Safe work environments

Right people in right jobs 

·          training

·          performance management

·          workload

·          recruitment and selection procedures

Stress management processes that provide support to employees who are feeling the effects of stress.

·          managing the length of exposure to the stressor

·          training in dealing with stress

·          work based training

·          organisational training

·          support for any personal issues

·          exercise programmes or relief breaks

·          management of any critical incidences

·          encouraging employee involvement

·          outside professionals at employees' disposal for assistance such as employee assistance programmes

Communication is the key to acting in GOOD FAITH 

1.              The employer and employee need work together to find a solution.

2.              You must deal with issues early to prevent further harm and take steps to eradicate or reduce the impact.

3.              Make sure all the facts are carefully considered.

4.              Identify cause both obvious and underlying.

5.              Provide a support person to lessen the effect of the stress being felt such as a Health & Safety Representative.

6.              Provide assistance if this is required

Processes

1.              Investigate any complaint or report of stress

2.              Is this a work-related issue?

3.              Discuss the results of your investigation

4.              Suggest solutions

5.              Ask for additional solutions

6.              Agree on the implementation of the solutions

Critical Incidences

There is no doubt about the need to provide support to employees following a critical incidence such as death.  However there is considerable dispute over the methods of support and the value of critical incidence stress debriefing.  Rather OSH recommends that:

·          Staff should not be forced to attend debriefing sessions.

·          Employers should focus on support which enables the employee to take their own steps towards coping.

·          Provide training in personal skills that can help an employee get through an incident such as death. 

·          Allow the employee to access a supervisor or manager.

·          Provide easy access to professional help.

Creating a Programme

If you have an existing health & safety co-ordinator or team then the design, implementation and management of a programme can be an extension of their existing duties and responsibilities.

The co-ordinator should have both time and resources to dedicate to the role.  They should be capable of negotiating with other managers in the implementation and on going management of a Stress Prevention Programme.  The co-ordinator should work with a team of people who is representative of the company structure and encourage pro-active input into the design of any programme.  Both the co-ordinator and the team should be provided with training in terms of legislation, stress recognition and programmes.

In determining the needs of a programme, and audit should be carried out that aims to find out what employees find rewarding at work and identify existing or potential hazards.

An audit should aim to discover:

·          What people like about their work

·          How that could still be improved

·          How stressful they find the environment?

·          What causes them stress within the workplace?

·          Is the work itself stressful or the way it is performed?

·          What do the employees see as the most critical areas for consideration?

In carrying out an audit the Health & Safety Co-ordinator might also want to consider factors such as:

·          Level of absenteeism

·          ACC claims

·          Staff turnover rates

·          Reasons why staff leave

·          Productivity

Sick leave, low staff retention rates and high incidences of ACC claims are all indicators that there may be workplace stress in the company.  Use of best practice HR procedures such as exit interviews, performance management and climate surveys can be of assistance in investigation of some of these issues.  These will also help to measure the success of any programme over a longer period.