Does Your Enterprise Want a Stress and Wellbeing Coverage?
By David Baynton, Partner & Head of Employment, Bristol and Lydia Cammiade, Associate, Bristol-Ince.
Increasing awareness of mental health and wellbeing is bringing employers a better understanding of the effects of stress in the workplace and a drive to increase mental health support for workers.
The World Health Organization defines stress as “the negative reactions people have to excessive pressure or other kinds of demands placed on them”. Workplace stress can be caused and exacerbated by specific roles or tasks, lack of support or difficulties with managers and colleagues. This can cause harm to health as the 2016 CIPD absence management survey found that stress and mental health are among the most common causes of long-term absence from work.
What Are The Benefits Of Promoting Positive Mental Health?
The benefits of promoting positive mental health are enormous. Communication, productivity, and retention are likely to improve in a workplace that promotes mental wellbeing and challenges the mental health stigma.
What is a stress and well-being policy and why is it important for your company?
A stress and wellbeing policy enables employers to demonstrate their commitment to mental wellbeing and to promote the mental health of staff.
The document will be an important resource for all employees as it should outline how the organization will identify and eliminate sources of work-related stress and provide information on how to support employees in promoting mental wellbeing.
What can you include in your stress and wellbeing policy?
- Appointing mental health champions to raise awareness and challenge the stigma surrounding mental health issues;
- Information on how the employer seeks to improve the physical environment and management structure for the benefit of workers’ wellbeing;
- Access to confidential advice or counseling services;
- Arrangements for monitoring the mental health and wellbeing of employees through supervisors or employee surveys; and
- A mechanism for workloads, responsibilities and hours of work that may need to be reviewed.
How can our employment team help?
If you would like to create a stress and well-being policy for your company, our employment team will be happy to help. For more information and advice, please contact a member of the team:
Email David Baynton at [email protected]or Lydia Cammiade [email protected].
The above information is not intended to be legal advice and should not be construed as legal advice. You should not take or fail to take action based on this information.
If you need any help on any of the above, please contact the details above.
