The 5th November was our annual National Stress Awareness Day, but this year the date will be remembered for the far-reaching and innovative NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) Guidelines on Mental Well-Being in the Workplace. Whilst NICE has in the past developed guidelines for alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and the like as part of their public health remit, this is the first time it has focussed on how work can damage your health, particularly your mental health.
Their research estimated the cost of mental health issues to the UK economy at nearly 14 million days lost due to stress, absenteeism, presenteeism – all at a cost of around £28.3 billion. This equates to a cost of £1000 per employee for each individual employer! Prior to the recession we were the fourth leading economy in the world (the recession has meant a drop from that position) and even then we had fairly low per capita productivity levels. I believe this reflects the fact businesses have not been tackling the underlying sources of stress and depleted mental well-being.
The NICE Guidelines highlight the potentially negative effect of poor management, lack of autonomy experienced by many at work, long hours cultures and inflexible working arrangements – among a number of other issues. They calculated that if employers did regular health and well-being audits, trained and developed their managers more effectively and allowed more flexible working arrangements an average employer, of say 1000 employees, would save £250,000 a year as a minimum.
These are evidence-based guidelines, not some ‘touchy feely’ advice from ultra-liberal academics. We are entering an era when there will be fewer people at work, doing more and in circumstances of intrinsic job insecurity – it may well be time to fully embrace and ACTION the often heard HR mantra “the most valuable resource we have is our human resource”.
November 10, 2009 at 2:24 pm |
Hi Cary,
Thank you for this really informative article on stress and well-being.
I am always astounded by the figures as just to how stress is effecting everybody, including businesses.
Hopefully this new research will start to make businesses sit up and take note that stress needs to be dealt with and can be dealt with.
Wishing you well,
Piers
November 10, 2009 at 4:31 pm |
The 5th November was also Relate National’s AGM day and the significant events were the consideration of the Forward Strategy, discussion of relationship education practice, networking and the election of a new President. Congratulations on your appointment.
As a volunteer receptionist at Relate Lancashire and Cumbria I see individuals and couples in a high-degree of stress due to relationship issues. I’m also privileged to see the gratitude towards our excellent counsellors for their help in dealing with confidential matters.
I am approaching my first year of service as a Trustee and have built on a practical experience of the organisation; and our own charity as part of a wider Federation, to realise the challenges ahead. I have found it rewarding to get a feel of where the organisation is and what is ahead.
Relate has recently won an award for its evidence-based domestic violence and abuse counselling as I am sure you are aware of which Lancashire and Cumbria were part of the pilot. We are client focussed with shared social values which gives our centre a more comfortable working environment for counsellors doing a difficult job.
I watched your presentation to our conference with interest and look forward to you promoting our organisation, something I have tried to do as a local trustee. I’m sure you will of received an invitation to learn more about us and look forward to meeting you.