Management Standards plus - how to collect data on mental health at work.

According to the 2009/10 absence management survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the most common causes of stress at work were:

• Workload;
• Relationships;
• Organisational change;
• Management style.

All organisations are required to assess the risk of stress from work. The Management Standards define the characteristics, or culture, of an organisation where those risks are being effectively managed and controlled. They are the product of ten years of Health and Safety Executive research and were introduced in 2004.

The Management Standards cover six key areas of work design:

• Change – how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation.
• Control – how much say the person has in the way they do their work.
• Demands - this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment.
• Relationships – this includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour.
• Role – whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles.
• Support – this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues.

If not properly managed any of these areas can lead to stress-related poor health and wellbeing, lower productivity and increased sickness absence.

Stress risk assessments using the same five step approach as for any other workplace hazard. This involves assessing what might cause stress in a particular workplace and collecting data on absence levels associated with mental ill health.

In carrying out a risk assessment, best practice is to follow the framework of the Management Standards. This involves obtaining feedback from employees on how work is affecting them.

In all but the smallest organisations, the most effective way of doing this is through the HSE Management Standards tool. This is a short survey in which employees score their responses to statements about the six areas of work design identified as potential causes of stress.

For example six statements relating to Control include:

• I have a say in my own work speed:
• I have a choice in deciding how I do my work.

The responses are collected and the organisation is rated between urgent and very good against a workplace where the risk of stress from control issues is being managed well. In general the more employees respond well to an area of work the higher is the rating.

A recent analysis of the survey tool found higher ratings 'are associated with increased job satisfaction, decreased job-related anxiety and depression and lower witnessed errors/nears misses. These findings lend further credibility to the use of the HSE MS Indicator Tool to help organizations manage potential sources of work-related stress.'

However, assessing what causes stress at work is only part of the story. Organisations also have to measure the level of sickness caused by mental ill health, whether at work or at home.

The traditional way of doing this is to look to the absence records. However there are a number of problems with this approach.

Research has shown that there are many more people at work with mental ill health than there are at home. If organisations measure the extent of the problem only through sickness levels they will perceive a false image of the health of their workforce.

This is compounded by what the sickness data tells us. On the one hand, mental ill health is often perceived as a weakness and not something to reveal to employers, while the view in the other direction is that  'stress' is an overused excuse for any number of reasons not to come to work.

So whether under or over reported, the absence figures are unreliable, and this is further muddied by the fact that most organisations do not maintain comprehensive sickness records in the first place.

The information is critical however, because mental ill health is a combination of factors caused by work and home environments, a fact not picked up by the Management Standards. Additionally, without reasonably reliable data on mental health it is all but impossible to understand whether the problem is getting worse or better.

One way of addressing the problem is to encourage open communication and positive signals on mental health issues. Developing a specific stress policy or signing up to the Mindful Employer Charter for Employers who are Positive about Mental Health is one example.

Organisations should also consider using the kind of mental health tools used in research and clinical settings to identify symptoms of common problems such as stress, anxiety and depression.

The advantage of these over sickness records or surveys that ask employees to self-report stress is that they more accurately reflect the underlying level of wellbeing at work, even where employees themselves are reluctant to accept they might be unwell.

While mental health surveys might seem a new and perhaps unwelcome addition to the risk assessment process, stress-related illnesses have now risen to the top of the workplace health list. Carried out in a confidential and sensitive way, most employees would welcome the interest shown in their welfare, while organisations gain another tool to help boost performance in very difficult times.