Survey of HR experts representing 88,000 UK workers reveals significant HR knowledge gap and compliance concerns around stress risk assessments.
Research undertaken by Occupational Health Assessment Ltd reveals that employer awareness, understanding and compliance with HSE stress risk assessment requirements is worryingly low.
The survey, undertaken just three weeks ago, highlights that four out of every ten employers (41%) are unaware that a formal stress risk assessment is legally required to be completed by any organisation with five or more employees.
The research also revealed that a quarter (25%) of all employers surveyed had never undertaken a stress risk assessment.
A further one in every three organisations (29%) had failed to complete such an assessment in the last three years despite regular reviews of existing plans being a central component of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Regulations in this area.
Magnus Kauders, Managing Director of Occupational Health Assessment Ltd, commented;
“Stress has been identified as a key component of employee absence in the 2020s, with the HSE estimating that stress, depression and anxiety are a contributory factor in around half of all working days lost to ill health.
Yet our research suggests that employers are still not actively tackling this important issue and many are not even aware of the minimum legal compliance levels required of them.”
Occupational Health Assessment Ltd point to the recent investigation of The University of Birmingham as a warning to other employers. The University allegedly failed to implement adequate procedures to prevent and minimise workplace stress. And the new research suggests that many other employers may also struggle to meet these objectives. Steve Herbert, Brand Ambassador at Occupational Health Assessment Ltd, added;
“More than half of our respondents (52%) were worried about creating a stress risk assessment. Yet in reality this is not a particularly complex exercise, albeit it does require a regular and persistent focus to yield positive results.
Occupational Health Assessment Ltd would strongly encourage more employers to take the HSE regulations seriously.”
Occupational Health Assessment Ltd point to two free resources that are available to help employers undertake this process in a compliant manner:
- The latest HSE guidance, tools and online learning kit are available via this link: HSE provides free online learning to help employers tackle work-related stress – HSE Media Centre
- The Occupational Health Assessment Ltd guide to Managing Stress at Work is available via this link: Guide to managing stress at work | Occupational Health Assessment
