Work-related stress: what UK employers have to do
UK employers must assess and manage the risk of work-related stress. The legal duties, HSE’s six Management Standards, and how to do a stress risk assessment.
- Employers must assess the risk of work-related stress and act on it, the same as any other health and safety risk.
- HSE’s six Management Standards are the recognised framework: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
- You have to consult your staff, and with five or more employees you must write down the significant findings.
The legal duty
There is no separate "stress law". The duty comes from general health and safety law, which covers mental health as well as physical safety:
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2: a general duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees, so far as is reasonably practicable.
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3: a duty to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks to health, which includes work-related stress.
- Consultation: employers must consult employees or their representatives on health and safety, under the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 and, where there is a recognised union, the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977.
HSE treats stress as a health and safety issue like any other, and has said it expects employers to manage stress, workload and burnout as seriously as physical risks.
HSE’s six Management Standards
The Management Standards describe six areas of work design that, if not managed well, are linked to poor health. They are the clearest map of what to look at:
| Area | What it covers | A question to ask your team |
|---|---|---|
| Demands | Workload, work patterns and the work environment. | Is your workload manageable this week? |
| Control | How much say people have in the way they do their work. | Do you have enough say in how you do your work? |
| Support | Encouragement and resources from managers and colleagues. | Do you get the help you need when you need it? |
| Relationships | Promoting positive working, and dealing with conflict and unacceptable behaviour. | How are things with the people you work with? |
| Role | Whether people understand their role and don’t have conflicting ones. | Is it clear what’s expected of you? |
| Change | How change, large or small, is managed and communicated. | Do you understand what’s changing and why? |
Doing a stress risk assessment
A stress risk assessment follows the same steps as any risk assessment:
- Identify the risks. Use the six areas above. Talk to people, look at sickness absence, turnover and overtime, and ask the team directly.
- Decide who might be harmed and how. Some roles and teams carry more pressure than others.
- Evaluate the risk and act. Agree what you will change, who owns it and by when.
- Record your findings. Required if you have five or more employees.
- Review it. Check whether the changes worked, and update the assessment when things change.
The hard part is step 1. People rarely volunteer that they are struggling, especially to the person who manages them. An assessment built only on what managers think is going on will miss most of it.
Early signs to watch for
- more sickness absence, lateness or overtime
- people leaving, or more people talking about leaving
- arguments, complaints and grievances
- a drop in quality, or more mistakes
- people going quiet in meetings, or no longer raising problems
By the time these show up, the problem has usually been building for weeks.
Listening to your team
An annual survey tells you how people felt months ago. A short, regular, anonymous question shows you how things are changing while there is still time to act, and the record of what people said and what you did becomes part of your risk assessment and your evidence of consultation.
Keep it simple: ask how work is going, let people say why, and tell them what you are doing about it. When people can see their answers lead to changes, they keep answering.
Questions
Is there a legal duty to manage stress at work?
Yes. Employers have a general duty to protect the health of their employees under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. Health includes mental health, so that covers work-related stress.
Do I have to write the stress risk assessment down?
If you have five or more employees, you must record the significant findings of your risk assessment. Below that, you still have to assess the risk, but writing it down is good practice.
What are the HSE Management Standards?
They are six areas of work that, if not properly managed, are linked to poor health and lower productivity: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. HSE uses them as the framework for managing work-related stress.
Do I have to consult employees about stress?
Yes. Employers must consult employees, or their representatives, on health and safety matters. Asking staff about the pressures they face is part of that, and it is the only reliable way to find out.
Sources
- HSE: Work-related stress and how to manage it
- HSE: What are the Management Standards?
- HSE: Risk assessment
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- Shepherd and Wedderburn: Workplace stress, employers’ obligations
This guide is general information about the law in England, Wales and Scotland as we understand it on the date above. It isn’t legal advice. Speak to an employment lawyer about your situation.