Evaluation of the organisational stress health audit.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a number of initiatives aimed at addressing work-related stress and providing more comprehensive data on the scale of the problem. The results of the public consultation exercise on ‘Managing Stress at Work’ concluded that work-related stress is a serious problem and a health and safety issue, which can be tackled in part through legislation. The HSE plans to launch a campaign to promote work-related stress as a legitimate health and safety issue and provide practical advice to employers. HSE defines work-related stress as the adverse reaction that people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed upon them; it arises when they feel they cannot cope. HSE makes a clear distinction between external pressures or demands and stress itself. Objectives · To evaluate employers’ attitudes towards work-related stress as a legitimate health and safety issue; · To establish whether employers are taking action to reduce the risk of work-related stress; · To establish whether employers regularly review the actions they have taken. HSE’s definition of work-related stress was used throughout the study. Conduct of the study The survey involved a telephone interview with a random selection of small to large organisations across the range of industry sectors, using a structured computer based questionnaire. Follow-up telephone interviews were conducted with a sample of those organisations who had implemented or evaluated specific initiatives to address work related stress. Organisations were selected from national databases covering the main industry sectors. The industry sectors included Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Manufacturing, Construction, Retail, Financial Services, Transport, Emergency Services, Education, Health Care and Local Government. 1600 companies were contacted, aiming to select 160 from each of ten industry sectors and planned to include 1280 SMEs and 320 large organisations, comprising 64 small, 64 medium and 32 large companies from each sector. The targets were met for all sectors except Emergency Service organisations, for which it did not prove possible to identify sufficient small and medium enterprises. The response rate for the initial telephone survey was 46%. MORI were employed to conduct the telephone interviews, using a structured computerised questionnaire designed by the IOM team. The interview enquired about perceived levels of workplace stress, whether stress was considered a health and safety issue, and procedures to address work-related stress. Attitudes to work-related stress, awareness and willingness to use available resources to address workrelated stress were considered. Specific initiatives introduced to address stress in the workplace, and barriers to introducing such initiatives were also considered.