Top tips for cutting stress at work

• Ensure that employees feel in control of their workload where possible and have a clear idea of their role in the organisation.
• Ensure people’s skills and abilities are matched to their job demands and that adequate and achievable demands are provided.
• Enforce a regular appraisal system to source and air any grievances your employees may have, reassess their work load, style of work and offer support.
• Encourage an open environment and ensure employees feel they can talk and raise any issues they may have with their employer. Make sure that there is an approachable individual available, be it their line manager or representative, to listen to any issues or queries and help advise the staff member on how to progress with these appropriately.
• Adopt a structured approach to tackling problems and make sure that this is followed through.
• Address the smaller problems employees may have and encourage the employee to do the same, however insignificant they may seem. This action could stop matters escalating and encourage employees themselves to be proactive in their approach to dealing with work related stress.
• Ensure that any upheaval and change at work is undertaken with clear communication channels and make sure everyone feels they are kept well informed.
• Keep the employee motivated and where possible encourage them to develop new skills and help them undertake new and challenging pieces of work.
• Ensure that the organisation has agreed policies and procedures to prevent, report, or resolve unacceptable behaviour within the workplace.
• Finally, encourage colleagues to be supportive of each other and maintain good working relationships. This could be through team building exercises and away days, or by a simple newsletter or weekly team email.

While the size of the company can affect the manpower, time and money that can be devoted to tackling work related stress, these top ten tips provide the basic foundations on which to build towards a more efficient and positive working environment.

To view the management guidelines published please visit www.hse.gov.uk/stress.