NICE challenges employers to cut workplace stress
Peter Crush, 05 November 2009
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3 comment's on this article.NICE - the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence - will today launch new guidance for employers about how to improve mental wellbeing promotion.
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.
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Geraldine Lay - 05 November 2009
This is great news! Working to extremely tight deadlines, as we do, causes major long-term stress. We have recently created a chill-out room and have organised a weekly yoga session which is available to all staff. We have also installed a small gym and already we are seeing many benefits. The staff are more motivated, and are dealing with stressful situations so much more calmly. More companies need to recognise that stress causes disease, sometimes disease that kills! Well done NICE!
Jeff Archer - 05 November 2009
We conducted a range of stress relief and relaxation sessions yesterday to mark Stress Awareness Day and what was great was that people didn't come along complaining they were stressed and couldn't cope, they arrived accepting that a certain level of stress is inevitable for most people and they were looking for new strategies and techniques to channel stress and deal with it positively. It was great to see people taking responsibility for themselves and seeking out proactive solutions.
Christian Zarro - 05 November 2009
Mental health problems in UK workplaces are both widespread and largely invisible. Many employers ignore such issues, yet bear the consequences every day through reduced productivity and high absence from work. The NICE report highlights the preventative effect which well-managed workplaces and well-designed jobs can have on resilience. We need more UK workplaces to embrace these practices if the burden of mental health problems are to be reduced.
Stephen Bevan, Managing Director, The Work Foundation
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