NICE challenges employers to cut workplace stress

The guidance will include information on how to prevent stress and identify problems early. It promises to help save a 1,000-employee business up to £250,000 per year in reduced absence and increased performance.

It comes after yesterday was designated National Stress Awareness Day, and findings revealed 13.7 million days were last year lost to work-related mental health issues.
 
Professor Mike Kelly, public health excellence centre director, NICE, said: "Measures such as performing annual audits of employee wellbeing are not common practice. The financial incentives for employers adopting these approaches are significant, however."
 
The NICE guidelines come as a flurry of other organisations have timed the release of research to coincide with National Stress Awareness Day. Badenoch & Clark's latest employment study revealed 91% of staff say they are stressed at work, with 71% claiming they feel unable to raise this problem with their manager.
 
Separate research by Eversheds yesterday revealed one in four people describe their mental health as poor, but only a third of workers say their organisation supports people with mental health issues. Meanwhile, data complied by the Men's Health Forum has found 75% of all suicides are by men. "Work-related stress; pressure to work long hours; and unemployment are all damaging to mental wellbeing and are more likely to affect men than women," said Ian Banks, president of the Men's Health Forum.