The end of International Stress Awareness Week shouldn’t be the end of the conversation.
Indeed, the urgent need to enhance employee wellbeing remains, especially with data showing just how prolific stress, depression, and anxiety are. But what are the strategic stress management interventions that move beyond short-term fixes?
Read our latest article to learn the steps your company can take right now.
Work-related stress at crisis levels
The time to act is now.
Data from the HSE, the UK’s health and safety regulator, continues to show elevated rates of work-related stress:
- In the most recent period (2023/24), 776,000 workers reported suffering from work-related stress, depression, or anxiety. This figure represents nearly half of all self-reported, work-related ill health.
- The resulting productivity loss is stark. Work-related stress, depression, or anxiety caused an estimated 16.4 million lost working days over the same period.
Global rates of work-related stress
Nor is the UK alone. Work-related stress represents a truly a global crisis:
United States
According to OSHA, a staggering 83% of workers in the US suffer from work-related stress. More than half report that work stress affects their home life. And between 2019 and 2021, almost two-thirds of surveyed US employees characterized work as being a very significant or somewhat significant source of stress.
Australia & New Zealand
In Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, the region had the second-highest levels of stress globally, with rates of employee burnout effectively doubling.
The essential first step: The stress risk assessment
Given these figures, how should employers strategically combat workplace stress?
One of the best places to start is conducting a stress risk assessment. As with other safety risk assessments, employers will evaluate the risk of stress to their workers as well as the impact of stress on employee mental and physical ill-health.
Stress risk assessments aren’t just strategic stress management interventions, though. In jurisdictions like the UK, they’re also mandatory under the terms of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Further strategic stress management interventions: Implementing WHO guidance
But beyond simply assessing stress, employers also have a responsibility to take reasonably practicable steps to prevent stress-related harm from occurring.
How to do so?
Well, the World Health Organization, for one, offers a robust set of strategic stress management interventions that safety leaders can implement to boost mental health outcomes. Interestingly, one of the WHO’s core findings is that interventions focused on job content/task design and job/task rotation demonstrate positive effects on stress and burnout.
Therefore, here at the key factors your strategic stress management interventions must address:
Workload and hours
High workload increases the risk of symptoms of mental health conditions. Long working hours (more than 49 to 55 hours) are also associated with symptoms of depression and increased likelihood of risky alcohol use.
Job control
Low authority in decision-making is associated with symptoms of mental health conditions as well as increased odds of absence related to mental health diagnosis. Conversely, higher decision latitude and job control are protective against depressive symptoms and emotional exhaustion.
Job strain
Combining low decision latitude and high demands is associated with depressive symptoms.
Organizational justice
Low organizational justice (i.e., perceived fairness in decisions and treatment) is associated with sub-threshold mental health symptoms.
Social environment
Low co-worker and supervisor support increase the risk of subthreshold symptoms. Workplace bullying and violence are also associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.
Role clarity and security
Role ambiguity (i.e., unclear expectations) and role conflict are associated with depression outcomes. Job insecurity is also related to higher risk of depressive symptoms.
Effort-reward imbalance
The effort–reward imbalance (i.e., combining high efforts at work and low rewards in terms of wages, promotion prospects, job security, appreciation, and respect) is associated with increased risk of depressive disorders.
Work-life balance
Increased work–family conflict is associated with greater use of psychotropic medications.
How to develop a mentally healthy workplace
Of course, employers can’t implement these interventions haphazardly. To be viable, they must be a part of a comprehensive, data-backed wellbeing management program, equipped with advanced safety management software with dedicated wellbeing management capabilities, focused on building a mentally healthy workplace.
How to develop such a workplace? Check out our best-practice Guide to Developing a Mentally Healthy Workplace to find out.
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