DOCUMENT HISTORY/ EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT FORM

Transcription

1 DOCUMENT HISTORY/ EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT FORM TITLE Work Related Stress Policy REF BK1/HR/h/001 CREATED March 2001 TYPE Policy update BOOK Human Resources SECTION BK1 HR, 4h Stress PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR POLICY Mike Blackwell/Gill Evans REVIEWED BY Mike Blackwell/Gill Evans DATE REVIEWED NEXT REVIEW CHANGES Yes NO If YES record new version no. Feb 2017 Feb 2019 No 03 This P&P has an impact on: Impact Equality Impact Assessment Yes No form completed Yes Age If No comment: Disability Ethnicity Gender Religion or belief Se orientation Socio-economic BK1/HR/h/001 Page 1 of 5 Feb17/ver03

2 EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT FORM What is the main purpose or aims of the policy To provide guidance on managing staff with symptoms of stress, carrying out risk assessment, monitor and review Who will be the beneficiaries of this policy? All staff and stakeholders Has the policy been eplained to those it might affect directly or indirectly? This is an update to an eisting policy Have you consulted on this policy? n/a see above What are the epected outcomes of this policy? Clear guidance on supporting staff, identify stress hot spots Equality Target Group a) Positive Impact b) Negative Impact High Low High Low Reason/Comment BK1/HR/h/001 Page 2 of 5 Feb17/ver03

3 PROCEDURAL MANUAL POLICY REF: BK1/HR/h/001 POLICY STATEMENT: WORK RELATED STRESS Nugent recognises that all employees may suffer from work-related stress at some time during their employment and that they should also be part of any of the solutions identified. Therefore where we aim to manage the effects of stress within Nugent, we should identify, with employee s help, if any stress hazards are presented within each of our particular establishments and similarly by the associated work tasks carried out there. We can do this by evaluating several streams of information and to achieve this we should: Inform employees of our latest developments and plans. Consult employees, in the process of identifying the stress hot spots. Nugent already collates information from many sources to obtain an initial broad indication of whether stress is a problem. For eample by reviewing: High levels of sickness absence may indicate a potential problem area. Checking the reasons given for absence may help identify the cause. Our openness and honesty about stress, this helps to reduce the perceived stigma and improve the reliability of the reasons staff give for absence. High employee turnover, which could be an indication of high stress levels. Investigate why people are leaving conducting eit interviews is one way of doing this. Performance appraisals, this offers an opportunity to have a one-to-one discussion about work and to eplore whether people in each team are eperiencing ecessive pressure. Team meetings and focus groups, to help us assess current performance. Allowing Nugent to eplore issues in considerable depth, which is particularly useful in finding out what specific groups of our employees think about their work. Using the above eisting information is part of our overall strategy for identifying and reducing the effects of the stress hot spots affecting our charity and this indicates how we (Nugent) are measuring up, with regards to the levels of stress affecting our employees. As part of our overall strategy we will not rely on just one measure of information, but consider data from several sources. In particular, we will avoid using one source, i.e. the Nugent Stress Self-Assessment Questionnaire in isolation to attain the information on the stress hot spots affecting our undertaking. BK1/HR/h/001 Page 3 of 5 Feb17/ver03

4 Where none of the previously identified (bulleted) criteria indicate ecessive levels of stress within our establishments (when reviewed) it is acceptable for no action to be taken on the issue, as no risk is being presented or apparent. Hand Over and Consultation In our establishments, it may be more appropriate to eplore issues related to stress in small groups in the first instance. We already have arrangements in place for encouraging participation and consulting with employees. For eample, routine hand over, this is an opportune time to inquire about potentially stressful situations or issues with our workers directly and subsequently instigate a stress risk assessment process locally. Evaluating and Mitigating the Risk The net step for those Nugent Managers or employees identifying stressful situations or work tasks is to evaluate the level of risk being presented, this can be done using the Nugent Stress Self-Assessment Questionnaire or the standard Risk Assessment Form; this task should be undertaken in consultation with the member(s) of staff affected, as this will help to confirm any findings with those staff (whether the risk is high or low), to consult with them, to further eplore / identify the broader problems, and to work with them to develop effective and reasonably practicable solutions. A Stress Self-Assessment Questionnaire or Risk Assessment Form should only be completed where a risk hot spot, that presents significant risk, has been identified or where an employee or a medical practitioner has indicated that they believe a member of staff or themselves to be suffering from the symptoms of stress. The document should be retained on file at the individual workplace by the manager. Support Nugent offers a counselling service, to those employees who have been identified as suffering from stress related illness, and this service can be accessed, via referral, through HR or through the affected individual s Line Manager. Other Causes of Stress When assessing the causes of stress, in an individual employee, it is important that Managers understand that all sources of stress do not emanate from the work environment, but very often eternal stressors can be evident and affect employee performance, which can result in stress related illness. Eternal stressors can be caused by family disputes, financial pressures and bereavement and these are some eamples of sources of stress which can affect an individual s work performance. Nugent will endeavour to offer support to those staff suffering from these causes of stress and often issues of this nature can be eased or resolved by simply discussing the issue directly with either a Line Manager or a designated colleague. BK1/HR/h/001 Page 4 of 5 Feb17/ver03

5 Document History Policies are reviewed at least every 2 years. This document was created March 01 and amended April 09. Reviewed Feb 12, amended Aug 14, reviewed Feb 17. BK1/HR/h/001 Page 5 of 5 Feb17/ver03