Firms taking initiative on stress

Nearly half of the businesses in a survey have introduced stress-busting projects such as free counselling and subsidised gym memberships in the past year.

The survey of 100 businesses conducted by Working Well, a division of the Mental Health Foundation, found that 64 per cent of organisations were "doing well" at managing stress and fatigue, 23 per cent were doing a satisfactory job and 13 per cent were doing poorly.

Schemes to deal with workplace stress were introduced by 47 per cent of businesses last year.

Stress management training programmes were in place at 43 per cent of businesses.

The survey would be used as a benchmark, said Working Well manager Leanne Luxford.

She said the snapshot "looks really positive", particularly in terms of recent employer projects.

Many employers had introduced schemes since the amendment of Occupational Safety and Health legislation in May last year.

The amendment explicitly cited stress and fatigue as workplace hazards to be managed by employers.

"It seems a lot of employers have risen to the challenge and are doing some really exciting stuff," Luxford said.

Stress reduction efforts included free counselling, subsidised gym membership, flexible working hours, team building, introduction of monitoring systems and regular communication with staff.

"Most employers value the principles of a mentally healthy workplace and are actively working towards improving the quality of their employees' working lives," Luxford said.

Economic arguments for healthy workplaces - including reduced absenteeism and staff turnover - required more research, she added.

Improvements in the management of employee stress run contrary to increases experienced by business owners, as reported by the Herald last week.