Guidance Published on Line Management Behaviour and Stress at Work

A new programme has been launched to help identify the management behaviours that will help organisations reduce stress at work. The initiative is being jointly funded by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Investors in People (IIP) and will be a four year project. In essence, the CIPD is offering the free guidance to employers who are tackling increasing work-related stress during the recession.

The guidance programme is called Line Management Behaviour and Stress at Work and has been put together from in-depth research involving interviews and surveys with hundreds of managers and employees, as well as an evaluation of manager training in stress management competencies across 17 organisations. It sets out the key management behaviours for managing stress at work.

The research identified four key management competencies needed for managing stress at work. They are grouped under the headings: managing and communicating existing and future work, reasoning/managing difficult situations, managing the individual within the team and managing emotions and having integrity. With ill-health relating to stress at work doubling between1990 and 2007, stress is now the second biggest cause of employee absence behind musculoskeletal conditions.

The CIPD say this is likely to worsen as a result of the recession, with the World Health Organisation predicting soaring levels of stress and other mental health problems in the next few years. Indeed, a CIPD survey of 3,000 employees published in May 2009 shows that about half have seen an increase in stress at work as a result of the downturn. The guidance may be downloaded from: CIPD Guides