Preventing Workplace Stress

• A definition of stress at work, including the important distinction made between ‘pressure’ and ‘stress’.
• An overview of the main reasons why people can become stressed in the workplace.
• Why having a clear organisational strategy can help to manage workplace stress more effectively.
• Why line managers are often the cause of workplace stress for many employees.
• An overview of the ‘Positive Manager Behaviour’ framework outlined in the book and some of the key manager behaviours that are needed for the effective management of stress.
• Specific advice for managers on using the framework to inform and improve their behaviour when it comes to managing stress.
• Common barriers to behavioural change and tips for how these might be overcome.
• Practical advice for HR and L&D to drive effective strategic support for managers in the management of stress.

Transcript

Female interviewer: Managers have a key role to play in recognising and reducing stress in their employees.

In this interview, Emma Donaldson-Feilder, co author of the book "Preventing Stress in Organisations," talks about the importance of having a strategic joined up approach to managing stress and how organisations can support line managers to address stress more effectively.

The interview begins with the definition of workplace stress.

Emma Donaldson-Feilder: I tend to use the Health and Safety Executive definition, which is that stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demands placed on them. It’s quite a generic definition though it’s applicable to most workplaces and some of the key things about it are that it is making the distinction between stress, which is a problematic or adverse reaction, and pressure, which can be good. So provided that the pressure on you is not excessive, it is actually… you can deal with it and it may be stimulating, so we all need a bit of pressure, but what we don’t need is the adverse stress reaction. And even the stress reaction we can deal with in the short term but what we can’t deal with is chronic exposure and long term exposure to the stress reaction.

Female interviewer: So Emma, could you just talk me through some of the main reasons why people can get stressed at work?

Emma Donaldson-Feilder: It varies enormously because we are all individual and so what counts as excessive pressure for me would be very different to what counts as excessive pressure for you and it’s not just about quantity, so people think, you know, some people just can’t handle as much pressure, but it is actually not just about the amount of pressure, it’s about the type of pressure.

The Health and Safety Executive has a very helpful set of management standards which defines a series of, kind of, categories, if you like, of reasons why people might suffer from stress in the workplace and so that’s things like demand, so that would be both the quantity of work that you are being asked to do but whether that work is difficult and the type of work you are being asked to do.

Control is another area which is really important, how much, say, people have over how they do their work, how much autonomy they have in the workplace and whether they feel consulted and have a say over what happens in their working lives, if you like. Support or lack of support is a problem, so if people don’t feel supported by their colleagues and by their manager, by the organisation as a whole, then that can be, you know, potentially cause stress.

Relationships. I mean, I think, we all know, if you are in a relationship at work particularly where it is not going well, where perhaps there is conflict going on or, you know, even worse bullying or harassment of some kind, then that can be a big source of stress.

And there are stresses around roles, so things like if you are not clear what is expected of you, you don’t really know what your priorities and what your objectives are, that can be very stressful.

And of course at the moment, change is a big stresser, so big organisational change, perhaps redundancy programmes, budget cuts, those sorts of changes.

And particularly changes that might feel unfair, so injustice is another potential source of stress as is a lack of resources, so if you are being asked to do ever more with ever less, then that’s obviously very stressful as well.

So there is a huge range of different reasons and different people will respond to them differently.

Female interviewer: So given the kind of wide variety of stress triggers, if you like, that you have talked me through, why is it important then for organisations to have a kind of clear approach for how they are going to manage stress in the workplace?

Emma Donaldson-Feilder: Well, there are lots of reasons as an employer why you might want to look at stress and make sure that you are not causing stress and that you are minimising the risks, if you like, in the workplace.

I think one of the big ones would be that as an employer you actually have a duty of care, so there is a legal responsibility under Health and Safety legislation to take care of your employees. And not only is that sort of a legal duty in a statutory way, but there is also a risk of civil litigation. So if you cause stress to somebody and that leads to some kind of injury, i.e. a sort of health- related…stress-related health problem, then you could be sued by that individual for personal injury or for some employment-related case. So there is, sort of, a legal element to it.

I think the other big area that it is important to consider as an employer is actually the business case. There is quite a strong business case in terms of the cost, the potential cost of a stress- related problem. So, for example, the cost of sickness absence is the obvious one if people suffer from stress-related health problems they are likely to go off sick, but there is also the potential that they might have a stress-related health problem and come to work and be less productive. So presenteeism can also be an expensive… and there is some research that suggests that presenteeism is actually more expensive to employers than absence. So preventing those sorts of costs is important.

Also people may just get fed up and leave. So there is a cost related to staff turnover that could be caused by stress, if you like, and thing like grievances and, you know, interpersonal conflict in the workplace are all very costly in terms of people’s performance and the ability to actually deliver what’s expected of them.

And then I suppose, finally, there is also what you might call the moral case, you know, it is ethical and it is a corporate social responsibility to look after the wellbeing of staff, you know, you can’t present yourself as an ethical employer if you are causing harm to those that you employ and so I think it is important to look at it from all different angles.

Female interviewer: So in your book you point out that managers have really got a key role to play in the effective management and prevention of stress as well, but that sometimes they are actually often the cause of stress. Can you outline for me why this is the case?

Emma Donaldson-Feilder: I think if we think of anybody who has been employed and can think about how their manager behaved and recognise the direct link between what your manager does and how you, as their employeem feels, so for example, if the manager is very unclear in terms of what your objectives are and what they expect of you, that immediately sets up a, sort of, sense of uncertainty which can be quite stressful, so there is a, sort of, direct impact. Whereas, if your manager is very clear about what they expect and they give you very positive feedback and they really support you, then that can have a very positive impact. So there is a case to be made for managers actually enhancing wellbeing, where the reverse of that is that direct impact could be a negative one if the manager is behaving poorly and at worst, of course, it could be a case where the manager might be actually bullying. So I think there is a whole significance around that direct relationship, if you like.

There is also something important about the role of the line manager in the organisation so it is often said, isn’t it, that individuals often, they don’t leave their employer, they leave their manager. So if you get really fed up with your manager, you are likely to leave the organisation, and I think that points to how as a manager, often you are a gatekeeper, you’re a… how the individuals in your team see the organisation is determined by how you as a manager treat them. So you act almost as a falter or a gatekeeper for what the organisation is doing and how that affects the individuals in your team.

Female interviewer: Now, a key part of your book is the Positive Manager Behaviour Framework. Could you give me an overview of some of the really key behaviours that you have identified as important for managers and how these came to be part of the framework itself?

Emma Donaldson-Feilder: Well, there were four broad themes that came out of the data. So the first broad theme is called 'Respectful and responsible: managing emotions and having integrity'. So that covers things like treating people with respect, being honest, not saying one thing and doing something else, not talking about people behind their backs, a whole lot of things around integrity. There is something about managing emotions, so being able to act calmly even in pressured situations. Something about not being unpredictable, not passing your stress on and those sorts of things. And then there is the considerate approach, so not creating unrealistic deadlines, making sure that you give positive feedback, not just negative feedback. So there is a whole range of things just in that first theme.

The second theme is around managing and communicating existing and future work. So that’s much more about the specifics of the work programme, if you like. So it is things like being proactive around managing work, communicating job objectives and developing action plans, working proactively and those sorts of things. So that one is sort of broadly about the hands on management of the work and supporting individuals and empowering them to do a good job.

Then there is something about managing the individual within the team, so recognising that individuals are different and not, you know, flexing your management style, being accessible so that you speak personally to people rather than just being a very distant manager. Returning emails and calls promptly, being available and being willing to be a bit sociable at work and willing to have a laugh and willing to talk to people in a more individual way. But also being empathetic, encouraging employee input, listening when people ask for help. So that’s the third theme.

And then the fourth theme is around reasoning and managing difficult situations, which is slightly different. So whereas the other three are about general day-to-day management skills, the fourth one is specifically about when difficult situations arise, particularly conflict. So there is a whole bit around how does a line manager manage conflict within their team, how do they mediate, how do they make sure that squabbles don’t become big arguments, those sorts of things. And to make conflicts, making sure that things do get resolved and not just assuming that it has all gone away.

So it is quite a rich range of different behaviours in there.

Female interviewer: How can managers actually use this framework to start to, kind of, change their behaviour and improve the way that they manage stress in their teams?

Emma Donaldson-Feilder: Well, I think the first thing is really to understand what the framework covers, so perhaps, you know, have a look at the different behaviours in more depth and really think about how that would apply to their own management situation. And then the next step I think would be to identify, as a manager, what are you already doing and what we found is that most managers are doing some of these things really well already so they don’t need to make any changes around that, but very often there will be a few things that they are not doing and that they haven’t thought about doing or that are, you know, just not in their current management style, if you like, and so it is important to recognise both strengths and areas where changes might be needed. And one of the things that we found from our research is that if you can, as a manager, if you can get feedback so that you see how other people see it, or hear how other people see you, that can make a real difference, because often it is difficult, I mean, you know, anybody… it is difficult to know quite how you are coming across to other people and I think that is particularly true in a management position. So if you can get feedback, perhaps through a confidential questionnaire type 360 feedback process on what you are doing well, what you are not doing so well, that can really help you define a sort of development process, if you like, or identify what your development needs are. And there is a questionnaire available on the HSE website that you can use to do that.

Female interviewer: In the book you mention that some managers can face certain barriers when it comes to changing their behaviour. Can you explain what these might be and offer some advice to managers about how they could go about overcoming them?

Emma Donaldson-Feilder: There are quite a lot of specific types of barrier. So we found in our research that there were four key categories of barrier that managers came across. The first was personal barriers, so that was things like a manager’s own stress or lack of confidence and skills or perhaps non-work pressures on the manager themselves. So it is important to deal with those sorts of things and find ways of managing your own stress as a manager and looking after yourself so that you are in a position to be able to look after your staff and to be able to manage the interpersonal piece of people management well and also to get development, to get training or coaching, whatever, to support you in that process.

The second category was job or work barriers. So, where a manager had a high workload of their own or was working to tight deadlines, had lots of conflicting priorities or not enough resource. And there again there is some about being able to learn to manage pressures as well as possible, but there is also important skills around saying no and pushing back when things are being put upon you or finding ways of delegating effectively and so on.

The third category is around teams and relationships where individuals within the team were not performing or where senior managers were making things hard. And again, I think support is very important in that and being able to deal with poor performers in your own team and find ways of tackling those sorts of issues.

And then the final category were things that were much more organisational, wider types of barriers. It might be processes or IT problems or being given information but told you can’t share it or legislative things. And there again, getting some support to deal with these sorts of barriers is important.

Female interviewer: What specific steps can organisations take to really support the development of these core behaviours that are needed to drive effective management of stress?

Emma Donaldson-Feilder: Well, I suppose the top one would probably be learning and development and so helping managers develop their management skills, if possible, giving them feedback, particularly feedback in a, kind of, confidential way about how their management style is perceived by those who work for them. And then not just giving them training but ideally giving them ongoing support, perhaps coaching or mentoring, to help them change behaviour in whichever ways they need to.

I think allied to that, an ideal way of organisations making these types of shifts is to actually get to managers very early in their management career. So at the point at which somebody takes on people management responsibilities, actually giving them some management development and helping them right from the beginning develop a positive management approach because it is much harder to change behaviour when you have been doing it a particular way for years and years, whereas if you can… somebody had never done any people management before, they are, you know, they can take on ways of… positive ways of managing right from the beginning. So I think that can be really powerful.

I think there is something important about getting senior managers to role model these kinds of behaviours and ways of managing because that does set the tone for the whole organisation. So, in an ideal world, what you want is your top managers, your very senior people, actually treating the people who work for them in these ways and so that is then cascaded down.

And then I think there are things like performance management systems and the way managers are appraised and the way they… so if you have an annual appraisal or more regular feedback on performance, actually building this kind of how are you doing, are you showing these positive manager behaviours, and building that into the appraisal process.

And of course, looking at your selection processes. So when you recruit somebody either from outside or you promote somebody from within into a role that has people management responsibilities, are you looking at how they actually do the people management piece because so often people are promoted into a management role because they are good at the technical job that they have been doing, you know the day job, and so because you are good at that, you deserve promotion and with promotion comes people management responsibility, but just because you are good at your job, doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be good at managing people. So there is something about thinking about that people management piece and thinking about a manager’s interpersonal skills at the point of which you make those kind of recruitment and selection choices.

Female interviewer: Thank you for listening to this interview with Emma Donaldson-Feilder on her book "Preventing Stress in Organisations."

If you are interested in finding out more about this topic, why not search for other related resources in your toolkit? You can also refer to the Health and Safety Executive website and Emma’s Consultancy, Affinity Health at Work.