Employers have a legal responsibility to assess their employees’ risk of workplace stress, and respond appropriately to that assessment. As well as the legal requirement, there are benefits from savings on costs due to sickness absence, replacing staff, increased productivity and reduced accident rates.
These resources will help you to meet these responsibilities and fulfil your duty of care towards your employees by working towards the core standards recommended by the Stevenson/Farmer review.
Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing, and acting on, a risk assessment. This is an easy-to-use template you can use, along with examples from three small to medium-sized businesses.
An independent review into how employers can better support all employees' mental health, including recommended core standards.
Excessive pressure and demands at work can cause stress. HSE's Talking Toolkit helps you to have a series of conversations with workers to identify and help prevent work-related stress.
Employers can be required to make adjustments to make sure employees aren't disadvantaged by mental health problems—and, even when not a requirement, it's a good idea. This brief document from Acas lists lots of suggestions, including many free ones.
Supporting employee mental health needn't be expensive - there's a considerable return on investment, and many measures you can offer are tax free. This one-page briefing from HMRC has information and links to further details.
A proactive approach to workplace mental health can help you grow your staff and your organisation. This toolkit is designed to help small and medium organisations build a culture that champions good mental health.
Work-related stress and common mental health problems can often go together. This guide from the Health & Safety Executive gives an overview of both, shows how they relate, and has lots of advice for employees, employers and line managers.
