Preventing work-related stress: the leading cause of illness at work
Matthew Pinto-Chilcott of Consensus HR comments: “Following our numerous previous Health & Safety (H&S)j Emails, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) have produced some more great user friendly tools in relation to two more key H&S areas, Preventing stress at work and ensuring you know the COSHH essentials. Businesses always need to ensure that they are at the forefront of HR and People Welfare and their duty under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and these free H&S tools are a way to achieve this. Details and links for all these can be seen below and on the HSE website.
Preventing work-related stress: the leading cause of illness at work
Stress, anxiety and depression is the biggest cause of work-related illness in Great Britain and numbers continue to rise.
According to the latest statistics (PDF) there were 914,000 workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or
anxiety in 2021/22. 17 million working days were lost due to stress in this period.
HSE’s stress website has plenty of advice and includes examples of stress risk assessments tailored to different business sizes, as well as case studies and much more. The stress talking toolkit shows how line managers can have simple, practical conversations with employees to help prevent stress at work.
Our Working Minds campaign aims to prevent work-related stress and encourage good mental health.
Make sure you know your COSHH essentials
A variety of harmful substances are found in our working environments. Knowing how to control these safely is key to safety and protection from harm.
If you work with hazardous substances, our COSHH website can help you understand the actions you should take to stay healthy.
Our publication Working with substances hazardous to health: A brief guide to COSHH is available to download. It explains how to control exposure and comply with the Regulations.
HSE’s COSHH Safe Handling Chemicals poster also provides crucial guidance on how to handle chemicals safely in your workplace, including Do’s and Don’ts and a useful hazardous signs check.
