Employee stress big worry for European managers

But, while four out of five European managers rank workplace stress as of some or of major concern only a third of them still have a formal procedure in place to try and deal with the problem, found the survey. The European Union-backed European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) reported that four out of five European managers are seriously worried about stress in the workplace, during the mid-term review conference of the Community Strategy for Health and Safety at Work held last week. The survey was conducted in spring 2009 and covers 31 European countries, including all 27 EU Member States, Croatia, Turkey, Norway and Switzerland. 36,000 interviews with managers and health and safety officers were carried out. It included interviews with managers in establishments with 10 or more employees from both private and public organisations across all sectors (except for agriculture, forestry and fishing).hideThe ‘European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks’ survey (ESENER) found that 7% of those managers surveyed rank stress at work as important as workplace accidents. The problem is particularly acute in the health and social work sector in which the survey found 91% of companies ranked it as of some or major concern. The education sector was another sector that believes it faces severe stress problems with 84% of managers ranking it as of some or major concern. “With the financial crisis in full swing, 79% of European managers voiced their concern about stress at work, which is already recognised as an important burden on European productivity”, said EU-OSHA Director Jukka Takala during the conference in Barcelona. “But despite the high levels of concern, it is clearly worrying that only 26% of EU organisations have procedures in place to deal with stress. The ESENER survey highlights the importance of providing effective support for enterprises to tackle stress, which will be crucial in ensuring we have the healthy productive workforce needed to boost European economic performance and competitiveness,” continued Mr. Takala. The survey found that 42% of management surveyed believe that it is more difficult to tackle psychosocial risks, compared with other safety and health issues. The sensitivity of the issue and lack of awareness are the main barriers for dealing effectively with psychosocial issues, according to the findings. EU-OHSA said that this underlines again the simple fact that workers’ involvement is a key factor in good health and safety management. The body said that the survey showed that workplaces with employee participation are much more likely to see successful health and safety measures implemented. This is particularly the case for smaller workplaces where it is an important trigger for effective management of psychosocial risks, said the body. EU-OHSA reported that some 84% of companies surveyed that have formal on-site employee representation also have an occupational safety and health (OSH) policy or action plan. This compares with only 71% of companies without formal representation. Practical measures designed to deal with psychosocial risks such as violence, stress and bullying are applied about twice as frequently by enterprises that consult their employees than by those that design their measures without employee involvement, said EU-OHSA. One key finding from the survey is that a smaller-sized company need not be an obstacle to effective risk management. The ESENER survey found that the main barriers that prevent positive action on health and safety matters are lack of resources (36%) such as time, staff or money and lack of awareness (26%). The survey found, however, that smaller companies are able to carry out in-house risk assessment. But they need support in the form of expertise, guidance and tools to manage their risk management process effectively and to design and implement successful preventive measures, stated EU-OHSA. The body is therefore working to raise awareness on workplace hazards and promote comprehensive and integrated risk management, it said. To help realise this goal EU-OSHA offers a number of products to simplify the process, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This includes a new ‘Risk Assessment Tools Database’ that brings together checklists, handbooks, brochures, questionnaires and interactive tools from across Europe, and is available from the EU-OHSA website. The body is also currently developing an ‘Online interactive Risk Assessment tool’ (OiRA) that it hopes will encourage and help thousands of European SMEs across all sectors to carry out risk assessments. The full ESENER report and a summary in 22 languages are available from the EU-OHSA website and the results can be viewed online with the interactive mapping tool at www.esener.eu.

Employee stress big worry for European managers

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