The Impacts of Employers Efforts to Manage Stress

There has been a significant rise in workplace stress during the years and many organisations and employers are trying to make efforts to reduce the stress level in the working environment so that productivity can be increased. The key findings of research done by IRS on employers stress management activities, show that the efforts made by the employers to manage stress had a significant effect on the employees and their activities.

According to the survey, which combines the statistics taken from almost 98 organisations, with a total workforce of approximately 300,000 employees, stress management measures have been increased in almost every organisation due to the recession, as stress levels are thought to have increased in this time.

It was concluded that almost 79% of the organisations were taking action against work stress but only 52% of organisations have actually searched and investigated to find out the factors that are responsible for causing stress.

Approximately 78% of employers used the method of analysing absent data to figure out the stress level in the organisations related to work. 65% of organisations followed the Employee Attitude surveys to figure out the stress levels and approximately 53% used the stress audit method.

The survey shows that the public sector employers have taken the stress risk assessment at large and have actively participated in assessing stress risks and factors associated with it.

The three major reasons that were concluded to be the cause of efforts made by the employers to reduce employee stress are to ensure that: the employee’s health and well being are not affected by work at any cost, that absence due to stress can be managed properly, and that the employees are protected under the Health and Safety legislation.

It was concluded in the survey that approximately 52% of the organisations followed the HSE that is, Health and Safety Executive Standards, for coping with work-related stress. But according to the survey, the employers were not sure whether the actions taken by them to reduce work-related stress have been effective or not. Many of them were not certain about the success of their stress management programme.

It is very important for the management of an organisation and the employers to make sure that employees are stress-free at work because work-related stress can deteriorate the productivity of employees, which would in return decrease the productivity and successful functioning of the organisation. Therefore employers are keen to reduce work-related stress within an organisation and make sure that external factors like the recession and other economic factors do not influence the work environment within an organisation.

It has been pointed out that employers follow a number of methods to manage stress levels related to work within an organisation, and it has been noted that more and more employers are acting to reduce stress than ever before.