Businesses are encouraged to sign-up to the free-to-use interactive tool, designed by the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Working Minds campaign, to understand what they need to do to comply with the law.
The tool provides the simple and effective guidance employers need to take action to meet their legal duties and begin to understand how to include stress in their workplace risk assessments.
Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, the law requires all employers to carry out a stress risk assessment and act upon the findings to prevent work related stress and support good mental health in the workplace.
Since 2019, the total annual cost of poor mental health has increased by 25%, costing UK employers up to £56 billion a year. Over half of working days are lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety. Stress, depression and anxiety are the number one reasons for work-related illness in the UK and figures continue to rise.
Created as part of HSE’s Working Minds campaign, which promotes good mental health in the workplace, the new tool is made up of six short modules. These take employers through relatable, everyday scenarios, such as how to recognise the signs of stress in individuals and teams like regular lateness to work, being withdrawn and higher staff turnover.
Working Minds helps employers to follow five simple steps based on risk assessment. They are to:
Reach out and have conversations,
Recognise the signs and causes of stress,
Respond to any risks you’ve identified,
Reflect on actions you’ve agreed and taken, and make it Routine.
It needs to become the norm to talk about stress and how people are feeling and coping at work.
It can be found here: HSE Workplace Stress (focusgames.com).
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