Employers warned they are ill-equipped to handle stress

HR specialist William M Mercer says employers must do better when it comes to handling stress issues.

"Recent test cases have highlighted employers' responsibility for the psychological, as well as the physical, welfare of employees," notes occupational health expert Christine Owen. "Few organisations are equipped to recognise and deal with psychological illness, such as stress.

"The right level of stress can actually help employees achieve optimum performance," she adds. "What many companies lack is a process for recognising when that level gets out of control."

Owen warns against relying on one-off audits of workplace conditions. Far more helpful results can be achieved through ongoing monitoring of 'hard' factors - staff turnover, absence rates, customer complaints - and 'soft' factors - behaviours, attitudes and perceptions. To get at the latter group, Owen advocates regular performance appraisals and opinion surveys.

"Stress is seldom caused by a single factor," Christine Owen says. "There is also a temptation to address the symptom and not the cause." Any monitoring programme needs to be broad enough to cover all relevant issues and backed up with a commitment to get to the bottom of problem areas.

Elliott Chase