Managing Stress in the Workplace

 

Managing stress in the workplace is an issue that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Stress needs to be assessed and addressed like any other health and safety risk at work. There are many things that organisations can do to prevent and reduce stress in the workplace and the law now requires employers to take action. There are many important reasons to tackle workplace stress:

 

• The high cost of sickness absence due to work related stress 

• Employees suffering from stress do not perform as well resulting in reduced productivity 

• Massive declines in morale, motivation, and perceived job security 

• A significant deterioration in attitudes to organisation management

 

Common stressors include job loss/unemployment, accelerating change, fewer people doing more, information overload, constant insecurity, high divorce rates, one-parent families. Stress can also result from work overload, lack of control, insufficient reward, lack of continuity and consistency, and difficulties with relationships & management of change.

 

At HSC Training, we favour a three-tiered approach to managing stress in an organisation: prevention, management and response.

 

Prevention:

 

• commitment from senior management·stress policy & procedures

• identify main causes of stress in organisationdeal with those at source

 

Management:

 

• stress management training for Managers

• act on results of identifying stressors/regular monitoring

• ongoing management training/development

• build teams and boost morale

 

Response:  

 

• clear guidelines & procedures for managers

• 4-stage process outlining managerial/employee responsibility

• individual referrals for counselling/stress management

• liase with occupational health on “return to work”

 

All the training programmes we offer are in line with HSE guidelines & stress management standards.  

 

 

Stress Management Training

 

Below is a brief outline of a typical day's training, however I can tailor all sessions to your particular needs.  For a more detailed agenda, please contact me.

 

 

Aims of the course:

 

• The main aim of the training is to give people a better understanding of what stress is, how it affects them, their colleagues and the organisation and what they can do about it.

 

 

Course content:

 

• A simple and practical theory of stress and stress management, which will enable participants to understand attitudes and causes of stress in individuals and organisations.

 

• Clarification of the symptoms of stress and in-depth discussion of how it affects people and the organisation.

 

• Development of strategies to recognise and deal with stress.

 

 

Style

 

Course participants will take part in small and large discussion groups, and a variety of exercises to help develop stress management skills.

 

Benefits of attending

 

Course participants will:

 

• Gain an understanding of what stress is and attitudes around stress

 

• Gain an insight into causes of stress in individuals and organisations

 

• Increase their own awareness of how to recognise signs and symptoms of stress in self and others

 

• Begin to develop strategies for dealing with stress

 

• Learn how to help others who may be struggling with pressure and stress (managers only)

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An extra service I often provide is a post-training company report to feed back confidentially to the company the main sources of stress for staff in the workplace. This is an invaluable tool to move the organisation forward in addressing the main causes of work related stress.  Please ask me for more information if this is of interest.