A beginner’s guide to stress risk assessments

In your free guide:

• What are stress risk assessments? 
• What are your legal responsibilities when it comes to stress risk assessments?
• The HSE’s six Management Standards
• Who is most at risk of work-related stress and what are the signs?
• How to help employees with work-related stress

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Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 51% of all work-related ill health cases in 2021/22, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). This problem is only getting worse, with workplace stress, depression and anxiety accounting for over half – 55% to be exact – of all working days lost to ill health in the UK in 2021/22.

What is a stress risk assessment? 

Stress risk assessments are a legal responsibility. They help you protect your people from stress at work by assessing risks and acting on them. 

What are your legal responsibilities when it comes to stress risk assessments?

As we’ve said, you have a legal responsibility to do stress risk assessments and act on them. If you’ve got less than five workers, you don’t have to write anything down – but it can be handy so you can review it later. If you have more than five workers, then – you guessed it – you do have to write your risk assessment down.

The HSE’s six Management Standards

The HSE’s six Management Standards help you spot and take control of six areas of work design that could cause stress to your people. Our workplace stress risk assessment guide explains what these are and how to use them. 

Who is most at risk of work-related stress, and what are the signs?

Prevention is better than cure – and that’s what stress risk assessments are all about. Knowing what causes stress and how it manifests at work is important to help improve your people’s health, safety, and well-being. That’s why we’ve explored some of the most common stress risk factors and signs in our free guide. 

How to help employees with work-related stress

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to support employees with work-related stress. But we’ve used our experience working with businesses of all shapes and sizes to give you our top recommendations on effective ways to help employees with stress at work in our free guide.

Workplace stress: your duty of care as an employer

As an employer, you’re legally required to tackle stress in the workplace by completing stress risk assessments – just like you’d complete a risk assessment for a new piece of machinery.

Workplace stress risk assessments allow you to spot any potential stress hazards and find ways to tackle them. As an employer, stress risk assessments can:

• improve the safety of your workplace
• cut down on absences
• boost productivity and performance
• reduce stress in the workplace
• increase employee retention 

Not sure where to start? This helpful guide has been created by our Health & Safety consultants and takes you through everything you need to know about stress  risk assessments. For unlimited lifetime access to this guide, simply fill in the form on this page and grab your free copy. You can also browse our fill list of Health and Safety Services.

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