Through our experience of working with hundreds of employers we know that the number of individuals who are reporting to be stressed because of their work is on the increase. It is less clear if this is because of increased stress in the workplace, increased stress in life in general or just because doctors and employees are more willing to record stress on sick notes. We suspect that at the same time there has been an increase in sick notes saying ‘stress’ there has been a decline in sick notes saying ‘back pain’ or that famous catch all ‘URTI’. Nonetheless stress, whatever its source is a problem and stress caused by work is a serious potential liability for an employer if appropriate prevention or cure arrangements aren’t in place or followed.

As Health and Safety Executive research with Personnel Today Magazine recently showed, over 105 million days are lost to stress each year– costing UK employers £1.24 billion. The research based on responses from almost 700 senior HR practitioners and almost 2,000 employees also showed:

 

11% of absence is attributed to stress
52% say stress is increasing
60% claim stress is damaging staff retention
83% think stress is harming productivity

 

So what should an employer be doing? Almost certainly part of the answer is to offer staff access to an Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP). An EAP typically offers short-term solution-focused counselling to help employees identify the problem and develop a practical plan of action for resolving it. To facilitate this most EAP providers offer employees and their households immediate access to experienced counsellors over the phone, telephone access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the opportunity to talk in confidence from work or home and  face-to-face counselling services nationwide.

 

In addition employers who offer access to an EAP programme are recognised by employment tribunals and the courts as doing something positive and demonstrating their duty of care to employees.
 
Until recently these types of services have only been on offer at an economic price for larger employers. However, this is changing and there are a growing number of services available to smaller employers starting from around just £5 per employee per year.

 

We think we have cracked this by teaming up with specialist EAP broker Enlighten and having used them ourselves we are happy to have them as part of our partner team.

 

To find out more about how the Enlighten scheme operates and what Enlighten can do for you, call Lynne on 01494 451681 or e-mail her at lynne@hradvantage.co.uk. By approaching Enlighten through HR Advantage you will have the opportunity to make use of the special arrangements we have in place with them.