Work-related stress, depression and anxiety are among the biggest causes of lost working days in the UK, accounting for millions of days each year according to Health and Safety Executive estimates. Just as importantly, employers have a legal duty to assess and control the risks arising from work-related stress — the same duty of care that applies to any other workplace hazard.
What causes work-related stress?
Stress at work rarely has a single cause. It usually arises from a combination of psychosocial factors, the most significant of which are well understood:
- Demands — workload, time pressure and the balance between work and home life.
- Control — how much say an individual has over the way they do their work.
- Support — the resources, encouragement and practical help provided by managers and colleagues.
- Role — whether people understand their responsibilities and have a clear, conflict-free role.
- Relationships and change — including how organisational change is managed and communicated, and how secure people feel.
A preventative approach
The most effective way to manage these risks is to get ahead of them. A structured Psychosocial Risk Assessment Programme identifies where pressure is building before it turns into ill health, allowing targeted, proportionate action rather than reactive crisis management.
We recommend aligning this work with the HSE Management Standards, which set out the six areas — demands, control, support, relationships, role and change — that organisations should manage to reduce the likelihood of work-related stress. The Standards give employers a recognised, evidence-based framework and a practical benchmark to measure against.
How COPE can help
Our occupational health psychologists work with organisations to embed the HSE Management Standards into everyday practice — from assessing psychosocial risk and interpreting the results, to designing interventions and supporting managers to have confident, constructive conversations. The goal is a workplace where pressure is kept at a healthy level and problems are caught early, protecting both wellbeing and performance.
