Stress Management Expert FirstAssist Embraces the HSE Approach to Stress Auditing

FirstAssist, health and wellbeing solutions provider, is leading by example; conducting its own internal stress audit in response to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance on monitoring and addressing work-related stress. In support of National Stress Awareness Day, which is targeting the issue of stress at work, the HSE is launching its stress audit code, piloted by FirstAssist, which outlines for employers new management standards for reducing stress. FirstAssist is welcoming the renewed focus on work-related stress, which is now the biggest cause of lost working days.

Demonstrating a commitment to supporting the Government in combating work- related stress, FirstAssist commenced the internal review of staff stress levels based on the HSEís pilot audit. The exercise began in August this year and was conducted within each of FirstAssistís six sites across the UK. The audit measured stress across a range of disciplines, including support, change, relationships, control, demand and role, in line with HSE guidelines. Overall, the results were extremely positive. However, they did reveal that management working within services available 24 hours a day, such as advice lines and assistance, were presented with more day-to-day challenges, such as ease of communication, and in turn, are more susceptible to stressors than their colleagues.

FirstAssist was quick to respond to the findings, implementing a Management Development Programme designed specifically to improve communication and motivational skills. FirstAssist is calling upon businesses to take a proactive approach to the assessing the risk of stress within their workforce. Over half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress at a level that they believe is making them ill*.

Tim Ablett, Chief Executive of FirstAssist, comments, Conducting an internal audit is not just about identifying existing stress in the workplace, but also plays a key role in highlighting potential problems. Our own audit was instrumental in helping us update FirstAssistís healthcare procedures, identifying areas that needed to be addressed before they became absenteeism issues. It has also helped us comply with the new guidelines.

The launch of the HSE code intends to help employers tackle work-related stress head on. The guidelines set six standards for improving the quality of life in the office and on the shop floor, including increasing support, reducing demands and giving staff more control over their work. In addition, employers will risk legal action if they ignore the code.

The HSEís new approach to managing sickness absence has six key elements:

Recording and analysing sickness absence
Keeping in contact with the sick employee
Planning workplace adjustment
Using professional advice
Agreeing and reviewing a return to work plan
Co-ordinating the process.

The healthcare market has been evolving to offer businesses a range of solutions designed to help them tackle these elements head on. FirstAssistís Positive Health helps identify the reasons for sickness absence in the first place, but goes on to monitor and manage ongoing employee absence as well create strategies to reduce the impact of long term illness on a business.

Ablett concludes, We applaud the HSEís move towards mandatory audits encouraging better management of stress in the workplace. This is an issue that employers continue to ignore and the sooner they are forced to address it, the better. A healthy and happy workforce is productive and motivated, which in turn is good for business. The healthcare industry is providing the support and advice that businesses need, offering a range of products to help them address each of the key elements identified in the HSEís new management code.

Employers should embrace stress audits; FirstAssistís audit results are proving vital in helping us create a positive working environment for our staff. National Stress Awareness Day should go a long way in prompting employers to review the conditions their staff work under - and take a positive step forward in stress management.

National Stress Awareness Day is organised by the International Stress Management Association (ISMA) and supported by the HSE.

If you are writing an article on stress or employee wellbeing, FirstAssist is available to provide expert commentary and advice on this and a range of employee and business healthcare issues. For further information please contact Madeleine Roles or Justine Russell on 0208 977 9132 or email justine@harrisonsadler.com

*Figures HSE website September 2004