Business Mentality
How to deal with stress
Tackling work-related stress is essential to ensure the well-being of both you and your employees and safeguard your business' performance.
Stress can be particularly damaging for owner-managers and the self-employed. Though a degree of pressure can help you to perform effectively, excessive demands can reduce your productivity and make it more difficult to take important decisions.
Stress can also undermine employees' effectiveness, cause a rise in sickness absences and increase staff turnover. You have a legal responsibility to ensure your employees don't become ill, either physically or mentally, because of work-related stress.
This guide helps you identify and tackle possible causes of stress in your business - from excessive workloads and communication problems to insufficient training and poor management.
Why tackling stress in your business is important
The costs of neglecting stress in your business can be high. Stress is sometimes overlooked as a health and safety problem by small businesses. However, the unexpected absence of just one member of staff can affect productivity, and efforts to secure cover can be costly and time-consuming.
Stress can cause many workplace problems, including:
- a fall in your productivity and that of your employees
- poor decision-making
- an increase in mistakes which may in turn lead to more customer complaints
- increased sickness absence
- high staff turnover
- poor workplace relations
Stress often has a cumulative effect. If one member of staff becomes ill through stress, it places added pressure on those covering for them.
A stressed manager may find it difficult to create a positive working environment and monitor stress levels in others.
It's also important to tackle any stress you face as an owner-manager or self-employed person. This is often caused by working excessively long hours or from a feeling of isolation.
Your legal duty on stress
Employers have a legal duty to ensure employees aren't made ill by their work. This includes taking steps to prevent physical and mental illness brought about by stress. These steps need not cost a lot of money and the benefits can be significant.
You must assess the risks of stress caused, or made worse, by work as part of your overall health and safety risk assessment. See our guide on risk assessment - an overview.
One of the best ways of assessing stress levels in your business is to carry out a stress audit. See the page in this guide on how to assess whether stress is a problem for your business.
Failure to take action could leave you open to a compensation claim from workers who fall ill due to work-related stress.
Common causes of stress at work
It's important to recognise the common causes of stress at work so that you can take steps to reduce stress levels where possible.
Some typical stress inducers
- Excessively high workloads, with unrealistic deadlines making people feel rushed and overwhelmed.
- Insufficient workloads, making people feel that their skills are being underused.
- A lack of control over work activities.
- A lack of interpersonal support or poor working relationships leading to a sense of isolation.
- People being asked to do a job for which they have insufficient experience or training.
- Problems settling into a new promotion, both in terms of meeting the new role's requirements and adapting to possible changes in relationships with colleagues.
- Bullying or harassment.
- A blame culture within your business where people are afraid to get things wrong.
- Weak or ineffective management which leaves employees feeling they don't have a sense of direction.
- Multiple reporting lines for employees, with each manager asking for their work to be prioritised.
- Failure to keep employees informed about significant changes to the business, causing them uncertainty about their future.
- A poor physical working environment - perhaps caused by excessive heat, cold or noise.
You can also find out about stress at work on the Acas website.
Businesses in Northern Ireland can get information on health issues relating to work from the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland website or from the Employment Medical Advisory Service on Tel 028 9040 8004.
Assess whether stress is a problem for your business
Carrying out a stress audit is one of the best ways to find out whether stress is a problem in your workplace.
It can also help you to assess the risks of stress that people in your business may face as part of your health and safety risk assessment. See the page in this guide on why tackling stress in your business is important.
A stress audit involves talking informally to staff - either individually or in groups - to find out where there may be problems. Let employees know why you are carrying out the exercise and what you're trying to achieve. If there are safety representatives, involve them in your plans and decision-making. Always respect the confidentiality of staff.
A useful exercise is to ask staff to list three best and worst things about their job and whether these put them under excessive pressure.
You can also use questionnaires to gather the same information. Though there's a range of commercially available questionnaires, you may be better off developing your own checklist to fit the particular needs and working conditions of your business.
There are a number of key areas you should consider:
- work scheduling and the type of work
- working relationships with colleagues
- the level of communication and reporting
- the physical working environment
- employees' expectations of their work
Don't forget to monitor your own stress levels. See the page in this guide on dealing with your own stress.
Identify signs of stress in employees
Individuals suffering from stress often display a range of outward signs that may be noticed by colleagues and other managers.
These signs include:
- tiredness and irritability
- reduced quality of work
- indecisiveness and poor judgement
- loss of sense of humour
- physical illness such as headaches, nausea, aches and pains
- employees seeming jumpy or ill-at-ease, or admitting to sleeping badly
- increased sick leave
- poor timekeeping
- staff changing the pattern of their working days - perhaps by staying late or taking work home with them
You should also look for signs of more widespread problems among groups of employees. For example:
- arguments and disputes between staff
- general absenteeism
- more grievances and complaints
- greater staff turnover
You also need to watch out for signs that your own stress levels are rising. See the page in this guide on dealing with your own stress.
You can read about mental health in the workplace on the Mental Health Foundation website.
You can also download a guide on managing work-related stress from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) website (PDF).
Businesses in Northern Ireland can get information on health issues relating to work from the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland website or from the Employment Medical Advisory Service on Tel 028 9040 8004.
Tackle the causes of workplace stress
Once you've identified possible stress problems in your business, you can then take steps to tackle the causes:
- If overwork is a problem, consider how you might reduce people's workload. Ensure targets are challenging but realistic. Help people to prioritise work, cutting out unnecessary tasks and providing time-management training if necessary. Encourage delegation of work where possible, and try to delegate work yourself.
- Make sure staff take their holiday entitlement - and take your own.
- Check individuals are well-matched to the jobs you give them. Make sure your recruitment and selection procedures help you to achieve this.
- Make sure every employee has a well-defined role - and that they know what this is.
- Review people's performance so that they know how they're doing. Reviews also allow you to get feedback from employees about potential problems and identify any training they may need.
- Where possible give employees more autonomy, allowing them to plan their work schedule and decide how to tackle problems.
- Adopt a management style that encourages employees to discuss problems with you. Provide them with opportunities to express ideas about their work.
- Keep staff informed about your business' direction and make sure you tell them about significant changes to the business.
- Ensure you have effective discipline and grievance procedures to tackle bullying and harassment.
- Encourage employees to achieve a better work-life balance. You can read about work-life balance issues at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) website.
- Take a sympathetic approach to any personal problems employees may have - a relationship break-up or family illness. See the page in this guide on external causes of stress.
You can also read about mental health in the workplace on the Mental Health Foundation website.
External causes of stress
Sometimes people may suffer from stress that isn't caused by work-related issues but instead has an external cause.
Common external causes of stress include:
- relationship difficulties or a divorce
- serious illness in the family
- caring for dependents such as children or elderly relatives
- bereavement
- moving house
- debt problems
Remember that such external causes of stress can also affect you as an owner-manager or self-employed person. See the page in this guide on dealing with your own stress.
Though you have no legal responsibility to tackle such causes of stress among employees, you should remember that they can have a significant impact on their performance. So it's a good idea to adopt a sympathetic and understanding approach.
Offering employees paid time off, or suggesting more flexible working arrangements, can be practical ways to help employees deal with their problems.
You may want to suggest an employee seeks professional help from their doctor or point them in the direction of support groups such as Relate or Alcohol Concern.
However, there's a risk you could be seen to be interfering, so it's important to use your judgement to decide whether this is appropriate.
Always respect employees' confidentiality if they tell you about personal problems they face.
Stress-management training and counselling
Training courses may help business owners, managers and employees deal with work pressures more effectively.
Appropriate courses may include those covering areas such as:
- time-management
- leadership skills
- assertiveness
- communication skills
- relaxation techniques
You can search our Training Directory for details of stress management courses.
Managers may also benefit from training to identify signs of stress in others and to assess the impact of their managerial style on staff.
It can also be a good idea to promote healthy living, which can help people keep fit and deal with workplace stress more effectively. You might do this by providing health information and education - or perhaps by organising keep-fit classes.
You may want to consider whether stress counselling would be appropriate for your business. Some organisations pay for confidential one-to-one counselling sessions for their employees, who can discuss both work and non-work problems with a professional counsellor. But such schemes - known as Employee Assistance Programmes - can be expensive and are typically used by larger businesses.
Dealing with your own stress
Owner-managers and self-employed people need to learn to identify the signs of their own stress and take steps to tackle it.
Signs that you might be experiencing stress yourself could include:
- poor judgement and indecisiveness
- difficulty in concentrating
- a lack of assertiveness
- irritability, aggressiveness, depression or loss of sense of humour
- physical symptoms such as breathlessness, headaches, chest pains, nausea, sleeplessness, high blood pressure and constant tiredness
Stress can be magnified if you work alone. If you have no one to confide in, you can easily get things out of proportion.
This can be a particular problem for owner-managers who don't have the support of a management team and who may feel under pressure to work through periods of stress to ensure the continuity of the business. Although employees expect the managing director to know what to do in a given situation, you may in fact need help yourself.
In addition, business owners often have significant capital invested in the business, putting added pressure on key decisions.
One way of dealing with this is to network with people running businesses of a similar size to talk through each other's problems.
You might even bring in a mentor to help you cope with the pressures of running your business. See our guide on how to find a training provider/course.
If you are suffering from stress, you need to try to:
- identify and tackle the underlying causes
- practice relaxation techniques
- improve your diet and cut back where appropriate on smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption
- take regular exercise
- avoid regularly working long hours if at all possible
- make sure you take holidays
You can find out about managing your own stress levels on the Mind website. You can also read about coping with stress on the Mental Health Foundation website.
Here's how we tackle stress to create a healthier working environment
Stephanie Horton
Stephanie's top tips:
- "Set specific time aside to communicate with your employees."
- "Think outside the box - look for solutions that suit your company and its way of working."
- "Make sure your employees feel valued and appreciated. Encourage everyone to put forward suggestions about improvements."
Stephanie Horton is the managing director of River Canal Rescue. Set up in December 2000, it's a 24-hour national breakdown and recovery service for boats on UK waterways. During the peak summer months of 2004, Horton noticed her call-out engineers were suffering from stress. She explains the measures put in place to create a healthier working environment.
What I did
Acknowledge the problem
"We get peak periods when our engineers attend several calls in one day, often in different parts of the country. Other days they might only get one call, but this could come at 6am or 6pm. This limits where they go and what they do and can contribute to feeling stressed.
"I discovered our staff were feeling stressed through our appraisal system. We also had one engineer who left - because of stress and other health problems. I realised we needed to tackle it because delivering a high standard of service is a priority and this is compromised if we have stressed engineers or lose them at peak periods. It can be hard to find suitable recruits and normally takes three months to train them."
Introduce stress-reducing initiatives
"The first thing I did was introduce monthly meetings where the managers sit down with each employee to discuss how things are going. This helps cut stress because people don't bottle things up and it also makes them feel valued.
"Starting this summer, we're introducing time-out days. Each engineer will be given five individual time-out days to use during our peak periods, in addition to their holiday allowance, that they can take at 24 hours' notice. Any extra work will be given to contractors to avoid creating more stress for the rest of the team.
"The days are designed to prevent employees from throwing sickies - although that was never a real problem - the key is that it is self managed by the individual, because they know better than we do if things are getting too much. Knowing the time off is there and that we trust them can help reduce stress."
Monitor the situation
"We are already seeing the benefits of the monthly meetings and although the time out days haven't taken effect yet, knowing we will be doing something to tackle stress this summer is appreciated by our employees. It has also been a selling point to new recruits.
"Now I know how stress can affect the business, I also keep an eye out for signs that our employees are under pressure - such as if they show up for work looking haggard or seem to be losing motivation."
What I'd do differently
"I would have introduced the monthly meetings much earlier. Although there was always an informal plan to do this, and I encourage all staff to come to me with their problems, if you don't make it a formal arrangement it is easy to keep putting it off."
Health & Safety Executive Infoline
0845 345 0055
Related guides on businesslink.gov.uk
Risk assessment - an overview
Occupational health and welfare: an overview
Hours, rest breaks and the working week
Ensure the safety of lone workers
Meet the need for work-life balance
Bullying and harassment
Manage absence and sickness
Use appraisals to manage performance
Search our Training Directory for details of stress management courses
How to find a training provider/course
Here's how asking employees for ideas improved our business
Here's how I manage working hours to control costs and avoid unnecessary pressure on staff
Related web sites you might find useful
Buy the online course "An Introduction to Health & Safety at Work" at the learndirect business website
http://www1.learndirect-business.com/?target=xpc.asp?course_id=8300%26wbt_type=course
Read about stress at work on the Acas website
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=700
Read about the prevention and reduction of stress on the International Stress Management Association website
http://www.isma.org.uk/index.htm
Understand the causes of stress and find help in identifying and solving problems in your workplace on the HSE website
http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/
Download the five steps to risk assessment from the HSE website (PDF)
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.pdf
Read about the causes of workplace stress on the UK National Work-Stress Network website
http://www.workstress.net/causes.htm
Download a guide about dealing with bullying at work from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development website (PDF)
http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/D9105C52-7FED-42EA-A557-D1785DF6D34F/0/bullyatwork0405.pdf
Read about mental health in the workplace on the Mental Health Foundation website
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/
Find information about health and employment on the Acas website
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=693
Read about work-life balance issues at the CIPD website
http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/wrkgtime/wrktmewrklfbal/worklifeba.htm
Read about the prevention and reduction of stress on the International Management Association website
http://www.isma.org.uk/stressnews.htm
Read about dealing with alcohol-related problems at work on the Health & Safety Executive website
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg240.htm
Find details of providers of stress counselling services on the EAPA website
http://www.eapa.org.uk
Find about managing your own stress levels on the Mind website
http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/Mind+guide+to/Mind+guide+to+managing+stress.htm
Read about coping with stress on the Mental Health Foundation website
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/information/mental-health-a-z/stress/
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