Managers told, don't get stressed

By KEVIN TAYLOR

The Occupational Safety and Health Service has advice for employers thinking of hiring stress consultants to help them with upcoming law changes - don't.

Several organisations have approached the Herald seeking publicity for their stress management systems since Parliament amended the 10-year-old Health and Safety in Employment Act in December.

The changes explicitly make stress and fatigue workplace hazards from May 5, and require employers to make systematic efforts to reduce or eliminate them.

Some of the companies seeking publicity have gone to OSH trying to sell their systems, says its senior health policy adviser, Frank Darby.

But he does not put much store in them, especially those claiming to be stress-management systems.

"We recommend that organisations develop their own programme, using their own expertise and resources, wherever possible."

But he says consultants can help in designing and analysing stress questionnaires, providing specific advice to individuals, and training for specific management techniques.

Two consultant groups that have approached the Herald deny that OSH's advice applies to them.

Linley Watson, co-owner of Auckland training company Peak Performance, says her firm is about to launch a holistic training programme called Calm at Work.

She claims the programme, developed with Australian author and businessman Paul Wilson, does not focus on stress.

"We don't focus on managing stress, we focus on being calm - quite a difference."

She says OSH gives good advice in telling firms not to hire stress consultants.

Darby says any system - like Calm - may be expected to help some, but leave others cold, or perhaps to have a short-term benefit.

Generally, systems focus on teaching people how to cope better, he says, but there is little evidence in scientific literature that this works.

"If they are offering 'stress management' then that will be unlikely, on average, to assist people much."

Darby says a paper by Gary Cooper of the Manchester University Institute of Science and Technology concluded that the evidence in scientific literature supported the idea that "stress management" may result in a short-term increase in reports of personal well-being, but no reports of increased job satisfaction or performance.

Paul Hannay, who is bringing the "MindStore" system to New Zealand, agrees with OSH that any system claiming to screen out stress-prone workers is unlikely to be of value.

MindStore promotes "personal and organisational development" by offering techniques to manage stress, set and achieve huge goals, and become more focused and positive.

Hannay says two of the most common stress factors at work are poor communication and conflict resolution between workers and employers, and people having minimal input into decisions that affect their responsibilities.

"Both these issues can be improved upon with the help of skilled external expertise."

Paul Jarvie, manager of occupational health and safety for the Employers and Manufacturers Association northern branch, fears that New Zealand is going the same way as Australia with a burgeoning stress industry.





Jarvie has already been bombarded with "40 different products, from bangles to crystals to stress audits - the whole nine yards".

"Bringing in stress counselling and stress audits for a normal workplace is overkill."

He says employers should be wary of hiring stress consultants, and also thinks OSH is right in pushing the prevention message.

"Stress is far more subjective - it's like trying to catch a cloud."

But Watson says hiring someone who can inspire productivity improvements is "simply good business sense".

She asks how OSH can expect organisations to manage stress without bringing in outside help.