Firms believe stress is biggest threat to employee health
14-09-2006
The vast majority of senior HR professionals believe that stress is the biggest threat to the health of Britain's workforce, new research has found.
The study from Personnel Today and healthcare plan provider HSA found that a significant 97 per cent of organisations thought that failing to manage stress was the most serious threat to the future health of their staff.
Also seen as serious threats to future health were working longer hours (88 per cent) and not taking enough holiday (79 per cent).
Employees broadly agreed with this, with 39 per cent of them saying that managing stress more effectively was the most important thing they could do to manage their health at work.
"Considering the focus on stress management it would seem to make sense to offer individuals access to advice, information and counselling in the form of Employee Assistance Programmes," the report concluded.
Research from the CBI shows that sickness from work costs the UK around £13 billion per year.