Health and Safety Executive Management Standards for Work-related Stress Scott O’Brien Policy Advisor, HSE Stress Priority Programme Team

Health and Safety Executive Working within HSC’s strategy Sensible management of risk Offering advice and support Targeting resources on the biggest risks Communicating the strategy effectively

Health and Safety Executive Where will this take us? Towards self-regulating businesses who invest in health and safety as an marker of positive organisational performance Towards a workplace culture where the business, moral and ethical cases for health and safety is recognised and accepted

Health and Safety Executive Where is the stress programme now? Step 1: Inform Step 2: Educate Step 3: Enforce Step 4: Self-regulate HSE recognises that organisations will need help and support to do stress risk assessments – but they should now be doing them

Health and Safety Executive Where to start The Management Standards for work-related stress were launched on 3 November 2004 They will help organisations to undertake a risk assessment They combine with HSE’s existing guidance: Real solutions, real people; and Tackling work-related stress: a managers’ guide To form the Management Standards Approach

Health and Safety Executive The Management Standards Approach The approach is not about eliminating stress entirely. Rather it encourage organisations to take pragmatic steps towards improving their workplace The Management Standards approach is targeted principally at medium to large employers Employee engagement is critical to the success of the Management Standards approach Consultation with the workforce and their representatives is the key to developing effective solutions

Health and Safety Executive The Management Standards - Outline The Management Standards look at six areas of work: Demands, Control, Support, Relationships, Role and Change Each contains simple statements about what would be happening in an organisation achieving the Standards The Standards help organisations to prioritise areas of highest risk They are not designed to tackle individual responses or stress outside the workplace

Health and Safety Executive The Management Standards - Process Gaining organisational buy in: senior managers, trades unions, line managers and staff An initial indicator tool survey across the workforce Follow up focus groups to verify the results of the indicator tool and develop solutions Implementation/intervention phase Review and results

Health and Safety Executive Setting achieveable goals The current UK picture as reported by employees in the OMNIBUS Survey (ONS) in February/March 2004 Top 20%

Health and Safety Executive Achieving success Organisations are encouraged to move towards the reported success of the top twenty percent of employers as reported by their employees (2004) Top 20%

Health and Safety Executive The Management Standards - Next steps Wider implementation – a logical approach Targeting resources to support key sectors Providing information and guidance to all employers

Health and Safety Executive Coming up… New guidance for SMEs – a revised Work Positive pack developed in association with Health Scotland (HEBS) Upgraded online analysis tools Proactive support and guidance from HSE and partners

Health and Safety Executive Any questions? Scott O’Brien Policy Advisor, HSE Stress Priority Programme Team