11 October 2022
Today HSE launches a new qualification that it has developed in
collaboration with NEBOSH to help employers take action on
preventing the biggest cause of occupational ill-health in the UK:
work-related stress.
Statistics published by HSE covering the 2020/21 period, show of
the 1.7 million workers suffering from a work-related illness,
822,000 were due to stress, depression or anxiety and a report by the global management consultancy firm
Deloitte estimates that the total annual cost of poor mental
health to employers has increased by 25% since 2019, costing UK
employers up to £56 billion a year.
The moral and financial case to take action to reduce cases of
work-related stress has never been so compelling, but employers
also have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by
doing a risk assessment and acting on it.
However many who are tasked with managing work-related stress do
not understand their legal obligations, know what to do or where to
start.
Recognising this issue, HSE has collaborated with NEBOSH to
develop a new one-day qualification to give organisations a solid
foundation from which to work.
The NEBOSH HSE Certificate in Managing Stress at Work will help
learners to understand the factors which can cause stress and help
them to establish a framework to manage and address stress in their
workplace. It will also teach them to identify early warning signs
and how to provide support to individuals. By understanding the
strategic interventions organisations can make to address the root
causes of stress, learners will be equipped with the knowledge to
create a positive workplace and significantly reduce the causes and
effects of workplace stress.
The course has been developed with the expertise of HSE's
organisational psychologists. Commenting why it makes sense to
invest in training those responsible for managing work-related
stress, Jen Webster, Occupational Psychologist at HSE said:
"Organisations that take
action to reduce work-related stress before it becomes a problem
have reported improvements in productivity, staff retention and a
reduction in sickness absence. It's more than that though. It's
about creating the right work environment for people to thrive and
if you don't look at what you are doing at the organisational
level, everything else is just a sticking plaster."
In addition to developing the course content, as a NEBOSH Gold
Learning Partner, HSE will be delivering this course direct to
delegates either as an open course or as an in-company
solution.
Organisations choosing to learn with HSE will benefit from
access to the experts who developed the course content, fully
understand the issues of work-related stress and have experience in
all stages of implementing the Management Standards approach.
Delegates will therefore have confidence that when they put their
learning into action, they will do so in a way that is consistent
with HSE's current thinking.
Visit
HSE's Training and Events page to find out more, including current
dates for open courses and to enquire about HSE delivering this
course in-company.