Improve the level of awareness of stress:
- its symptoms; and
- causes.
Ensure that supervisors and managers:
- are able to recognise problems of stress in the workplace; and
- take some responsibility for dealing with it.
To help them, use:
- training seminars; and
- booklets, etc..
Consider using stress indicators to see whether there are symptoms of stress in the organisation, such as high absenteeism, staff turnover, poor time-keeping, productivity and performance, motivation, low morale, increase in complaints, accident, incident and ill-health reports.
Note - occupational stress indicators are questionnaires or systematic interviews that provide a structured analysis of a job and ask about problems outside work. They are useful to provide a baseline once an organisation has become aware of stress issues. However, they can be of limited value and may not be useful as a ‘first step’ when developing a strategy for stress at work.