Risk Assessments

Are your processes and procedures for managing stress at work legally defensible?

Employers are required by law to do much more than produce a policy or provide counselling for individuals affected by stress-related illnesses. They have a duty to prevent and control workplace stress.

But other equally important questions are as follows:

• Have you any system in place for assessing the health and well being of the organisation?
• Do you know which factors of the work environment really have an impact on employee and organisational health and well being?
• Are you aware of the impact that stress related illness is having on your workforce?
• Do you want to manage stress but are unsure of where to begin?
• Which features of the work environment support staff?
• How supported are you employees when it comes to stress at work?
• Do you, your managers and your employees have a proper understanding of stress?
• How effective are staff coping strategies?
• Is your policy on stress updated dynamically or just resting on a shelf?
• These questions and many others like them are answered during a risk assessment for stress process.

The starting point for any stress management activity is evidence. The key to stress management is to find out the nature and the extent of the problem. Why?

Because 'you can’t manage what you can’t measure'.

This is the philosophy behind assessing risk for stress in any organisation and it is in line with best practice. Risk assessments are not academic exercises; they are lessons in knowledge gathering, knowledge sharing and problem solving. The information that is collected during a sound risk assessment process can form the basis of many integrated activities which support best practice in effective health and safety management. For example:

• Training employees: general staff stress awareness workshops
• Training managers: how to manage and support staff
• Informing health and safety policies
• Work re-design exercises
• Staff retention initiatives

Our people at Zeal have been carrying out risk assessment for stress for over two decades. Our consultants are leading experts in this area and act as national advisors on stress and stress management. Key to our success is our passion for helping improve the way organisations are supported in supporting their own people to create a healthy work force.

Our risk assessment services offer flexible and strategic support to any organisation. Our risk assessment services enable:

• Health profiles for the organisation as a whole (or any subgroup, department thereof) to be produced
• Clear guidance on effective and ineffective stress management intervention by individual and organisations alike (i.e. what works and doesn’t work in ameliorating stress) to be disseminated
• Benchmarking of stress management against developmental objectives
• Benchmarking of stress management across the organisation and between other similar sector organisations
• The evaluations of any interventions implemented to manage and/or reduce identified risk
• Hotspots to be identified (i.e. where stress management doesn't seem to be having the intended impact), so that support and guidance can be targeted and produced for any problem areas
• Positive practices to be identified and communicated to assist the transfer of learning across the organisation

Contact Us for more information about our Stress and Health services and how we can help.