Beating Stress will be a Winner

A new professional award scheme was launched last week to recognise the UK’s best organisations when it comes to beating stress in the workplace. The National Stress Management Awards, organised by ISMA (International Stress Management Association), were launched at this year’s Annual Stress Management Conference and will celebrate successful stress management policies and promote best practice in business.

With work related stress levels reaching new heights, and 17% of British workers last year reporting that their jobs were either very or extremely stressful, organisations must develop efficient methods for preventing stress. While some organisations do not have an effective policy, there are many organisations that manage stress in the workplace well, and it is this which will be recognised.

The purpose of the National Stress Management Awards is to recognise those organisations – public and private, commercial and not-for-profit, large and small – that make a positive contribution to protecting or improving the mental health of their workforce. The judging process will look for organisations that have implemented a successful stress management policy and judge the effectiveness and benefits of their action.

President of ISMA, Professor Carey Cooper launched The Awards which, in this inaugural year, will have one category: “The best stress management policy award”. There are three sub-categories to reflect the size of the organisation and a set of criteria to qualify for entry. The nine finalists will be invited to the 2011 Annual Conference where the winners will be announced.

ISMA is the leading UK professional body in stress management and exists to promote sound knowledge and best practice in the prevention and reduction of human stress and set professional standards for the benefit of organisations. Ann McCracken, Chair of ISMA, states: “We are currently developing the systems to regulate the training of stress managers and the launch of these national awards fits perfectly with this strategy. We are delighted to have Professor Cooper heading up the scheme and look forward to receiving entries which demonstrate best practice.”

The entry process will close towards mid November after which judging will take place. The winners will be announced at next years Annual Conference to be held in June 2011.

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Issued on behalf of ISMA by Kyrene Marketing Communications. For further information please call

Simon Lamb on 01376 513215 or email press@isma.org.uk

The recent budget was acknowledged as one of the toughest for many years and has the potential to increase levels of work related stress dramatically, for which HR staff and line management may be unprepared. In this worrying climate, staff across all sectors are fearing widespread redundancies, leading to excessive pressure on individuals and unseen levels of stress related absences in the UK. Now, more than ever, HR staff need the necessary stress management skills to help them fulfil their role.

The warning signs have been evident for a while and only now are people starting to realise the destructive pattern of stress in the workplace and the damage this can do to a business. A recent study has shown that we are working more hours than ever before, with one in five employees blaming pressure from bosses, or the fear of looking bad in front of colleagues for the longer days. Carey Cooper CBE, President of ISMA and professor of Organisational Psychology at Lancaster University states, “People are turning up to work earlier and staying later because they’re frightened to death that they could be vulnerable to job loss.”

This year’s Annual Stress Management Conference will concentrate on work related stress; educating on best practice and discrediting industry misconceptions. Organised by ISMA, the leading UK professional body in stress management, the conference will provide the opportunity to learn the best methods for beating stress in the workplace from the country’s leading experts in the field.

Ann McCracken, Chair of ISMA, said: “Delegates will leave the conference with a greater understanding of the latest up to date legislation regarding work related stress and the best methods of preventing stress in business. They will receive a template of an effective Stress Management Policy that can be tailored to suit their organisation and the information to enable the practical application of ideas.”

This year’s Annual Stress Management Conference will be held at the Institute of Child Health in Central London, on Tuesday 29th June 2010.

With the election in full swing, all the major political parties have suggested that there will be the need for significant cuts in public spending this year to begin to plug the massive deficit that exists in the economy. Whilst none of the parties are particularly clear about where the cuts will fall, it seems certain that job losses will result. David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, speaking on ITV’s This Morning, said: “We need to go further and faster in public spending [cuts]…we want to have £6bn lower public spending [in the current financial year].”

Job losses have been a factor of every recession to date and the levels of support given to those being made redundant has increased significantly in the last fifteen years. However, those left behind are likely to experience augmented workloads and greater responsibilities which may put them at risk from stress related illnesses if not managed correctly.

Some commercial organisations have already recognised this issue and have invested in stress management training for managers to understand better the relationship between pressure and stress. This enables them to function as efficiently as possible under the circumstances, and reduce presenteeism in the company. Presenteeism is the problem of individuals in the workplace not functioning effectively because of medical or behavioural conditions, for example stress. The situation can be costly to organisations because this mental state induces bad decision making and disruption in the working environment.

The recession has forced many commercial companies to restructure and make significant savings which inevitably leads to job losses. Francis McGinty, from ISMA comments: “Some managers are aware that redundancies place extra pressure on the remaining members of staff and have come to us for advice on minimising the effects of stress in the workplace. We guided them through the development of a stress management policy and also trained key managers. They were delighted by the reaction from all their staff but, much more than that, were surprised by the fact that they actually reduced absenteeism and increased productivity as a result.”

ISMA (The International Stress Management Association) is the leading UK Professional Body in the specialist field of stress management. Chair of ISMA, Ann McCracken, says: “In this economic climate it is essential that organisations in both the Public and Private sectors implement methods of dealing with pressure in the workplace and preventing work related stress. Many companies underestimate the negative effects of work related stress and the benefits that are gained from stress training within their business.”

Birmingham City hospital's payout to stressed health worker Sep 28 2009 by Alison Dayani, A Birmingham hospital has been forced to pay a health worker £370,550 plus a further £24,000 every year of his life after he claimed working in the NHS caused him stress.
The retired manager, who was mainly office-based at City Hospital, in Winson Green, filed an injury claim following his retirement and has won his lengthy battle.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust chiefs have fought against making the payment for years but have now been ordered to do so by the Department of Health.
The senior officer at City Hospital, in Winson Green, retired in 1996 but later filed a claim over what is believed to be a stress psychologically-related injury from the NHS Injury Benefit Scheme, which gives compensation to members of staff who suffered permanent incapacity or an injury mainly caused by their duties.
Lawyer Iain Shoolbred, workplace illness specialist at Birmingham law firm Irwin Mitchell, said the sum was a large payout for suffering stress at work.
“Working in the public sector does seem to be stressful and two-thirds of the stress at work cases I get are from jobs in the council or NHS,” said Mr Shoolbred. “The NHS benefit scheme is probably more generous than court settlements as the court payments are still not as high as they should be.
“Generally, stress injuries are becoming more common as legislation is more protective of an employee, there are longer working hours and some unscrupulous companies that make life difficult for workers to force them out.”
The high price of legal claims is taking its toll on the NHS. More than £48 million was paid out on behalf of West Midlands hospitals and primary care trusts in the 2008-09 year by the NHS Litigation Authority, following clinical negligence cases bought by patients.
Of this only £31 million went to patients themselves, with £17 million spent on legal fees.
Ministers have expressed concern about the amount of NHS money going to the legal profession and are set to publish proposals to change the law.

Welcome to August's stress e-bulletin.

In this issue: be one of the first to test some new management tools and read about changes to a HSE stress leaflet.

GET INVOLVED - TEST SOME NEW TOOLS

HSE is working with colleagues at CIPD and IiP to design a new set of Management Competency tools. Now is your chance to get involved and test them out.
Log on to HSE's stress website to find out more: http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/volunteer.htm?ebul=stress/aug09&cr=01

CHANGES TO HSE LEAFLET

We are in the process of updating one of our leaflets, 'Making the stress Management Standards work'.
Read the old leaflet at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/misc714.pdf?ebul=stress/aug09&cr=02
And have a look at our proposed changes here:
http://webcommunities.hse.gov.uk/inovem/inovem.ti/stress_solutions/view?objectId=124080

EVENTS

REDUCING ABSENCE IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Capita's 10th National Conference
Friday 25th September 2009 - Central London Innovative solutions and effective management techniques to reduce the impact of sickness absence on your organisation's productivity and budgets. More info:
http://www.capitaconferences.co.uk/OurConferences/Health/Reducing+Absence+in+the+Public+Sector.htm

STAFF PROTECTION AND WELLBEING '09
19 October, London
The Commonsense Approach to Health & Safety in the Public Sector.
Staff Protection & Wellbeing 09 will take place at QEII Conference Centre, London, 19 October on the first day of the 2009 European Health and Safety Week. The event will bring together public-sector organisations to share good practice, common health and safety concerns, aims and objectives. There will also be a range of exhibition stands and Judith Hackitt CBE, Chair of HSE will also be present. More info:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/events/protwell.htm?ebul=stress/aug09&cr=03


THAT'S ALL FOR THIS MONTH, THANKS FOR READING.

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Would you like to save money? Be able to buy things that you previously couldn't afford? Have more spending money on your holidays?Howden and ISMA UK have come together to offer ISMA members significant discounts on a wide range of item including holiday travel, cosmetics, cars, gym membership etc etc. Have a look through the on line brochure and see where you could make savings. If there is something you would like which isn't there, then let the Administrator know and Howden will be informed. You do not have to be a Howden customer to get the discounts, however they have special rates for ISMA members and their non discounted rates compare very favourably with others in the market

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