Questionnaire Sections

Section 1: Culture

Organisational culture is key in determining how successful you will be in managing work-related stress. Organisational culture is often very strong, rooted in history, and difficult to change. A healthy organisational culture will be one where communication, support, and mutual respect are the norm. An organisation has a positive culture when:

• work-related stress and health issues are treated seriously and the organisation responds positively to any concerns
• there is good, open, communication between employees and between employees and management
• staff are consulted and, where possible, able to participate in decisions that may affect them
• staff are supported emotionally and practically
• staff ’buy into’ their work, ie they are undertaking the tasks because they understand what they are trying to achieve and are proud of their achievements for personal and organisational reasons.
• problems are recognised and solved promptly
• working long hours is not encouraged
• staff are not encouraged to take work home

Section 2: Demands

Demands on the individual are often quoted as the main cause of work-related stress. The following list shows some of the issues that fall under this heading:

• Work overload - when an individual is allocated a great deal of work, but insufficient resources to cope with it.
• Capability and capacity - "When allocating work to employees, employers should ensure that the demands of the job do not exceed the employees’ ability to carry out the work without risk to themselves or others...Employers should review their employees’ capabilities to carry out their work as necessary".
• Work underload - the problem here lies with the employee not being sufficiently challenged by work.
• Physical environment - aspects of physical environment that can affect employees include noise, vibration, temperature, ventilation, humidity, lighting and hygiene.
• Psychosocial environment - "Any incident in which an employee is abused, threatened or assaulted by a member of the public in circumstances arising out of the course of his or her employment".

Section 3: Control

Control is the amount of say the individual has in how their work is carried out.

Section 4: Relationships

We define ’Relationships’ to be how well you get on with the people around you, particularly those at work. Other people can be important sources of support, but they can also be sources of stress.

There are two extreme aspects of relationships that could lead to work-related stress:

• Bullying - persistent unacceptable behaviour (or a single, grossly unacceptable, act) by one or more individual working in the organisation against one or more individual employees.
• Harassment - unwanted conduct based on sex, race, colour, religion, nationality, ethnic or national origin or disability that affects the dignity of people at work.
• Bullying and harassment are two forms of behaviour that are unacceptable in organisations and almost inevitably generate stress and can lead to stress-related illnesses.

Section 5: Change

Many organisations have undergone significant change in the last decade or so. They have had to adapt the way they work to accommodate, for example, new technology, competition and changing marking conditions. Often their response has included restructuring, downsizing and adopting entirely new ways of working. Poor management of change can lead to individual feeling anxious about the employment status, and reporting work-related stress.

Section 6: Role

You can help reduce stress by ensuring that a person’s role in the organisation is clearly defined and understood, and that the expectations placed on them do not conflict. There are two potentially stressful areas associated with a person’s role in an organisation:

Role conflict - when an individual is torn by conflicting job demands or by doing things he or she does not really want to do, or things which the individual does not believe are part of their job.

Role ambiguity - when individuals do not have a clear picture about their work objectives, their co-workers’ expectations of them, and the scope and responsibilities of their job

Section 7: Support, training and factors unique to the individual

HSE recommends that every employer should provide adequate health and safety training, and it is clear that members of staff should receive sufficient training to undertake the core functions of their jobs. Staff need to be competent and feel comfortable doing their jobs. You should provide training to equip staff (either in-house or externally) with the skill they need.

If you are recruiting new members of staff make sure, as far as you can, that they are matched to the job (in terms of skills, ability, and commitment), receive an induction, and are aware of your policy on work-related stress. The way you support new and existing staff is key to reducing, or moderating, work-related stress. Social support is also important

Even when the work has not been completed to the standard you required, you should attempt to provide constructive, supportive advice. Remember to focus on the changes you would like to see to make sure things are better in the future. As your staff what you could do to help.

Finally, you need to take account of the ’make-up’ of your team. For example some members may thrive on working to tight deadlines, others may like to plan their work so that they know what they have to do and when. Try as far as possible, to cater for these individual differences by talking to your staff as a team.

Section 8 and 9: Effects

This section of the questionnaire is about the relationship between the health of your employees and the effects that workplace pressure has on their health.

Section 10: Summary Section

This section is designed to provide a brief summary of how you cope with workplace pressures.

Section 11: The need for change

In this section we ask for the views of your employees on how important it is for the organisation to take steps to reduce the risks associated with workplace stress.

Section 12: Suggestions for improvement

In the final section, we ask for employee suggestions on any actions they think the organisation could take to reduce the risks associated with workplace stress.