Today is National Stress Awareness Day and the ideal time to talk about our improved workplace stress team assessments.
The staff wellbeing team launched their Address the Stress campaign in April to build awareness of the impact of stress on our health and how to manage it.
The staff wellbeing team has now launched an improved process for workplace stress team assessments, which is easier, more accessible and responds to the feedback raised by staff. The new process is also digital, so it allows the staff wellbeing team to better support teams to address their stress.
Managers have a responsibility to complete a workplace stress assessment with their team or you can approach your line manager to ensure that your team has one. They can then use this information to take action to reduce the causes of stress in the workplace. Protecting staff from stress at work is both a legal duty and written in our mental health policy.
Stress impacts how we feel physically and emotionally and how we think. If it happens often, it can become difficult to cope with and can impact you at work and personally. According to survey data from Ciphr, 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.
With little to no rest from stress, it can harm our mental and physical health, which is why we have a legal duty of care to assess and manage workplace stress.
Workplace stress training and support
With the simplified process, many can complete our workplace stress team assessments without training, but the University is here to support you with resources that you might find helpful should you need it.
We have a dedicated stress SharePoint page to find advice on stress and workplace stress training provided by the University’s staff wellbeing team.
All our training has been updated to reflect the improved process. If you do feel like you need training on the workplace stress team assessment, sessions are available on Teams in December. All upcoming training sessions are listed here.