How to: Regaining Connectivity, Certainty and Control in the Workplace. Stress Awareness Month.

Wow! April 2021 is just around the corner, meaning it's nearly Stress Awareness Month.

If we feel anything right now it's probably a lack of connectivity, certainty or control thanks to the impacts of the pandemic.

April is Stress Awareness Month and this year the theme is about how to use connectivity, certainty and control to reduce stress, just in time for our journey out of lockdown. In this article I will explore why we need to tackle work related stress and how, as an orgnanisation you can create connectivity, control and certainty, by complying with HSE legislation.

I feel that if there is anything that humans are acutely aware of is stress. Paradoxically the more aware we have become, the higher the numbers climb for stress related sickness absence in the workplace.

Pre-Pandemic.

In March 2020 new data released by the HSE was staggering. The data showed that 2019/20 saw the highest rates of self-reported work-related stress, anxiety and depression since data began in 2003/04. The rates were quite stable until around 2015 when we started to see them steadily increase. In my opinion, this increase, in part, correlates with the explosion of “mental health in the workplace” where the more awareness we have raised and the stigma reduced, also impacted the confidence to self-report.

Add this factor to an increase in the workplace demands and pressures and we are seeing a definite upward trend. Between 2019/2020, 828,000 Workers, new and long standing were suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety (Labour Force Survey). This was an increase of over 200,000 workers from the year before. The biggest increase ever reported since 2006.

2020-2021 and a Pandemic

Our Mind's Work have been conducting mental health temperature checks using our Mental Health Continuum Model with our clients. Since the pandemic hit we have seen an increase in people evaluating their mental health in the YELLOW. Using our traffic light system: Green - Mentally well, Yellow - reacting to stressors, Orange - struggling with my mental health and Red - I need immediate help and support, we have been able to constantly check in on how people are doing. More people have been been experiencing symptoms related to the early signs of stress, which has been no surprise. What will be interesting to see from the HSE and their 20/21 data is just how much of the stress people are experiencing is work related and has caused psychological injuries.

A Legal Obligation Ignored?

Under Section Three of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 an Employer (including managers) are legally responsible for completing a risk assessment and acting on it to prevent work related stress, however this just isn't happening in the majority of workplaces and the HSE have not been actively enforcing this.

Stress Risk Assessments to Prepare for Major Change or After Major Change

Morally, preventing a psychological injury caused by the workplace is the right thing to do, but the legal responsibility is there too. The HSE recommends that stress risk assessments should be done when preparing for a major change and after a major change. If 2020/21 has been anything, it has been a major change. The road out of lockdown and the impacts it will have on the workplace is the perfect opportunity to prevent further work related stress for employees by completing a stress risk assessment and taking action to help create a psychologically safe process.

Using the Stress Awareness Month theme Regaining Connectivity, Certainty and Control will all be supported by working with your teams to engage in the stress risk assessment approach and the HSE Management Standards. They cover six key areas of work design that, if not properly managed, are associated with poor health, lower productivity and increased accident and sickness absence rates.

The Management Standards are:

Demands – this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment

Control (control) – how much say the person has in the way they do their work

Support (connectivity)– this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues

Relationships – this includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour

Role – whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles

Change (certainty) – how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation

The time is now, the solution is simple but effective. Our Mind's Work are here to help to create a mentally healthy workplace that thrives. Our services include:

Workplace Stress Consultancy Support

Level 3 Preventing Work Related Stress & Supporting Mental Health for Managers

Building Emotional Resilience & Coping with Change workshops

Managing Stress in the Workplace Masterclass for Managers

Level 4, Mental Health Leadership Diploma

Our Mind’s Work – Experts in Workplace Mental Health Culture Change Programmes.

To hear more about Our Mind’s Work’s solutions for your workplace contact [email protected]