Pressure can be positive - but stress is rarely good for us. It’s what happens when the pressure on us becomes too much to deal with. 74% of adults have felt so stressed at some point over the past year that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.

When stress is caused, or made worse, by work, it becomes a health and safety issue. 79% of people say they frequently experience work-related stress, but only 32% of working adults say their organisation has plans in place to spot the signs and prevent stress at work.

Stress can have a serious impact on individuals - physically, mentally and emotionally. It also reduces work performance and productivity, causes relationship issues and results in people leaving their jobs. Companies can face significant legal challenges and financial penalties if they don’t assess the risks and put reasonable controls in place.

Creating a positive, respectful and safe workplace culture is a great way to reduce employee stress but doesn't remove the risk entirely. As a manager, it's vital for you to understand what stress looks like, how to prevent it within a work context, and how to support someone experiencing work-related stress. That’s where this workshop can help. We’ll talk through:

• What stress is and how it impacts us
• How to identify the signs of stress within colleagues and team members
• The Health & Safety Executive Management Standards and how to apply them 
• What the risk factors are for stress and how to assess the level of risk to your own staff
• Common preventative measures and ideas for protecting your staff
• Coping strategies to help you manage your own stress
• What to do if someone in your team is experiencing work-related stress
• How to conduct an individual stress risk assessment

It’s a practical workshop and you’ll not just gain knowledge, but will come out of it with the following documents adapted for use within your own organisation:

• Team-level stress risk assessment
• Action plan for additional steps to prevent work-related stress
• Individual stress risk assessment template

We’ll then meet with you on a one-to-one basis to support you to finalise the documents for your context and help you communicate them to your team.

This isn’t just a training course - it’s a way for you to learn while also getting the practical work done to protect your staff from work-related stress.