High Anxiety - True Cost of Stress in the Workplace

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03 February 2017 | Updated 01 January 1970

The Stress Summit 2017 is set to take place on March 16 at London's QEII Centre.

Half a million workers across Britain are suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety. Forty two percent of self-reported cases were new in 2015/16 according to the Labour Force Survey. In every workplace, the employer has a duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the people they employ. The ethos of health and safety legislation is prevention – stopping a person being injured or made unwell by their work makes better financial sense for the employer.

Estimates of how much work-related stress costs Great Britain each year range from £3billion to £100billion. Basic costs of the 11.7 million working days lost may account for the lower estimate. But if you start to add up the costs of lost production (including the reduced productivity) to those in work who may experience physical symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, the cost of replacement staff and the medical treatment for sufferers, you can see how the bill starts to mount up.

There is a hierarchy of steps for tackling risks that can’t be avoided. They need to be assessed and dealt with initially by ‘combating the risks at source’. HSE developed the Management Standards approach which allows an employer to assess the risk to employees from work-related stress.

Picture: London's QEII Centre

Article written by Cathryn Ellis | Published 03 February 2017

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