Preventing work-related stress isn’t just good for your people. It’s the law.
World Mental Health Day falls on 10 October each year. It’s a timely reminder for employers to tackle one of the biggest challenges in today’s workplace: work-related stress.
Stress, depression and anxiety account for around half of all work-related ill health in Great Britain. They drive sickness absence, staff turnover and lost productivity. The good news is that work-related stress can be prevented, and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a practical tool to help you do it.
In this post, we explain HSE’s Stress Indicator Tool (SIT), how it links to the HSE Management Standards, and how it can help you meet your legal duties.
Your legal duty to manage work-related stress
Every employer has a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work. That means carrying out a stress risk assessment and acting on what it finds.
This duty comes from the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Stress is treated in the same way as any other workplace hazard: identify it, assess it and control it.
What is HSE’s Stress Indicator Tool?
The Stress Indicator Tool is an online survey from HSE. It helps employers understand what is causing work-related stress in their organisation, so they can take targeted action.
Workers complete the survey anonymously. This encourages honest feedback about their experiences and perceptions of stress at work. The results can then feed directly into your stress risk assessment.
The six HSE Management Standards
The tool is built around the six HSE Management Standards. These are the key areas of work design that, if poorly managed, are linked to poor health, lower productivity, more accidents and higher sickness absence.
| Management Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Demands | Workload, work patterns and the working environment |
| Control | How much say people have in the way they do their work |
| Support | Encouragement, sponsorship and resources from the organisation, line managers and colleagues |
| Relationships | Promoting positive working to avoid conflict, and dealing with unacceptable behaviour |
| Role | Whether people understand their role, and whether the organisation avoids giving them conflicting roles |
| Change | How organisational change, large or small, is managed and communicated |
How the Stress Indicator Tool works
Getting started is straightforward. The process runs in five steps:
- Sign up. Create a free account, or buy a licence based on the number of workers in your organisation.
- Build your survey. Follow the set-up steps, customise the demographic questions and add your organisation’s branding.
- Collect responses. Share the survey link with your workers. All responses are anonymous and GDPR compliant.
- Analyse the results. Identify your priority areas and benchmark your performance against others in your industry.
- Take action. Discuss the results with your workers, plan interventions and track improvements year on year.
Key benefits of the Stress Indicator Tool
- Evidence-based. Built on the HSE Management Standards, so it aligns with recognised best practice.
- Gets to the root causes. Pinpoints where stress is coming from across the six areas of work design.
- Gives workers a voice. A structured, anonymous and GDPR-compliant way for people to share their views.
- Action-focused reports. Automated reports summarise results, highlight priorities and recommend improvements.
- Better wellbeing and performance. Tackling stress can reduce sickness absence, boost engagement and improve productivity.
- Supports compliance. Helps you meet your legal duty to assess and manage risks to workers’ health, and supports ISO 45001 and ISO 45003.
- Multiple languages. Workers can respond in their preferred language.
- Exclusive HSE benchmarking. Compare results over time, or against other organisations, to track progress.
Do you have to follow the Management Standards approach?
No, but it’s the simplest way to show you’ve done enough. If you follow the Management Standards approach correctly, HSE considers your stress risk assessment to be suitable and sufficient.
If you’re starting from scratch, the step-by-step approach can save you time, and the core tools and guidance are free. Before you begin, make sure the right resources, support and infrastructure are in place.
The free Management Standards workbook
HSE also publishes a free workbook to support the process. It includes practical tips from organisations that have been through it, plus checklists to confirm each step is complete before you move on.
Keep your completed workbook on file. It’s useful evidence of what you’ve done if an inspector asks. Even if you choose a different approach, the workbook explains how to make sure yours is equivalent.
How Complisafe can help
A survey is only the start. The real value comes from turning results into a robust stress risk assessment and a practical action plan.
At Complisafe, our Chartered health and safety consultants support businesses across London and the South East. We can help you:
- Write a suitable and sufficient stress risk assessment
- Develop a stress management policy and practical interventions
- Train managers and staff to recognise and respond to the signs of stress
This World Mental Health Day, take the first step. Call us on 0333 577 2700, email rob@complisafe.co.uk or visit complisafe.co.uk/ to find out how we can help protect your people and your business.
Frequently asked questions
Is a stress risk assessment a legal requirement?
Yes. Employers must assess the risk of work-related stress and take action to control it, just as they would for any other workplace hazard.
Is HSE’s Stress Indicator Tool free?
You can create an account for free. Paid licences are also available, priced by the number of workers in your organisation.
Are survey responses anonymous?
Yes. All responses are anonymous and the tool is GDPR compliant, which helps workers give honest feedback.
What are the six HSE Management Standards?
Demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. Together they cover the main causes of work-related stress.
Does the tool support ISO 45001 and ISO 45003?
Yes. The results can support accreditation to ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety) and ISO 45003 (psychological health and safety at work).
