A
new guide from the Employers Organisation for Local Government (EO) hopes to
cut the £120m that local authorities lose every year through stress.
Addressing
Stress at Work aims to reduce the 34.6 per cent of sickness absence caused by
work-related stress.
The
guide provides specific guidance to councils on the strategic and operational
interventions that authorities can use to prevent stress or manage existing
issues.
It
offers advice on sensitive issues such as stress and disciplinary proceedings
and dismissal due to stress-related absence.
Tracey
Connage, assistant director of best practice at the EO, said effective stress
management meant tackling the root causes of stress.
"Inflexible
work patterns and arrangements, bad job design, poor communications,
interpersonal conflicts, inappropriate recruitment and selection decisions and
hostile work cultures should be addressed," she said.
Tackling
this area directly contributes to progress towards the Government’s
‘Revitalising Health and Safety and Securing Health Together’ targets.
