According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), many organisations address workplace stress by providing resources like resilience training, mindfulness apps, or Employee Assistance Programmes, but often these actions place the responsibility on individuals to manage their own stress rather than encouraging open conversations and proactive support from employers.
But here's the problem with that approach. If your office had a dodgy staircase that people kept tripping on, you wouldn't send everyone on a "how to walk more carefully" course. You'd fix the staircase.
Workplace stress works the same way. And yet, time after time, organisations focus on fixing the person instead of examining what's actually causing the problem.
The "Tough It Out" Myth
There's a stubborn belief in many workplaces that stress is simply part of the deal, that good employees should be able to handle whatever's thrown at them. This thinking puts the entire burden on individuals and lets poorly designed work off the hook.
It also doesn't hold up legally. Under UK health and safety law, employers have a duty to assess and manage risks to their employees' health, including psychological health. The Health and Safety Executive is clear: work-related stress is a health and safety issue, not a personal failing. (Work-related stress and how to manage it - HSE, 2024)
So if your current stress strategy begins and ends with telling people to be more resilient, it's time for a rethink.
Think Like a Risk Assessor
If you're already familiar with how your organisation manages physical risks – slips, trips, manual handling – then you already understand the basic framework for tackling stress. The principle is identical: identify the hazard, assess who might be harmed, and put sensible controls in place.
The difference is that with stress, the hazards aren't loose cables or wet floors. They're psychosocial factors such as unmanageable workloads, lack of autonomy, poor communication during change, or strained working relationships. These are the conditions that, left unchecked, wear people down over time.
And just like physical hazards, they can be identified, measured, and managed if you know where to look.
The Six HSE Management Standards: A Practical Framework
The HSE developed six Management Standards specifically to help employers get to grips with the common causes of work-related stress. (What are the Management Standards?, 2024) They're not abstract theory; they're a practical lens for looking at how work is designed and where it might be causing harm.
Here's a brief overview of each one:
- Demands: Are workloads realistic? Do people have the skills and resources to do what's being asked of them? Are deadlines achievable, or is everyone quietly drowning?
- Control: Do employees have a say in how they do their work? Can they influence their pace, their priorities, their working patterns? A lack of control is one of the strongest predictors of work-related stress. (Work-related stress and how to manage it, 2024)
- Support: Are managers checking in regularly and meaningfully? Do people know where to go when they're struggling? Is support available before things reach a crisis point?
- Relationships: Is the workplace free from bullying, conflict, and unacceptable behaviour? Are difficult dynamics being addressed, or swept under the carpet?
- Role: Do people understand what's expected of them? Are there conflicting demands from different managers or unclear responsibilities creating confusion?
- Change: When the organisation goes through change (restructures, new systems, shifting priorities), are employees consulted and kept informed? Or does change just happen to them?
None of these are complicated. But they do require honest conversations about what's actually happening, not what leadership assumes is happening.
From Assessment to Action
Identifying stress risks is only useful if it leads to action. This is where many organisations stall. They run a staff survey, read the results, and then... nothing changes.
A genuine risk assessment approach means sitting down with your teams and asking practical questions: What's making your job harder than it needs to be? Where do you feel unsupported? What would help?
The answers won't always be comfortable, but they will be useful. And crucially, the solutions don't have to be expensive or dramatic. Sometimes it's as straightforward as clarifying who's responsible for what, adjusting a rota, improving how information is shared during a restructure, or simply making sure managers have regular, meaningful one-to-ones with their teams.
The key is co-creation. When employees are involved in identifying problems and shaping solutions, you get controls that actually work in practice, not policies that look good on paper but change nothing on the ground.
Why This Matters More Than You Think
Getting stress management right isn't just about compliance (though that matters). It's about building a workplace where people can do their best work without burning out.
When you design work well, when demands are reasonable, people have some autonomy, support is genuine, relationships are healthy, roles are clear, and change is managed thoughtfully – you don't just reduce stress. You improve retention, reduce absence, boost productivity, and create a culture where people genuinely want to stay.
Poor mental health costs UK employers an estimated £53–56 billion per year. That's roughly £3,600 per employee. (Poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion a year for employees, 2024) The business case for getting this right is overwhelming – but more importantly, it's simply the right thing to do for your people.
Where Do You Start?
If you're reading this and thinking, "We haven't really looked at stress through a risk assessment lens before," you're not alone. Many organisations haven't. But the good news is, you don't have to figure it out on your own.
Start by having honest conversations with your teams about what's working and what isn't. Use the six Management Standards as a framework – not a tick-box exercise, but a genuine guide for understanding where the pressure points are.
And if you want expert support to take this further, that's exactly what we're here for.
Ready to Start Redesigning Work, Not Fixing People?
At Mental Health in Business, we help organisations move beyond sticking-plaster stress solutions and towards real, lasting change.
Our webinars are a brilliant way to open up the conversation across your organisation – helping your people understand what stress actually is, how it shows up, and why it's a shared responsibility, not just an individual one. They're practical, evidence-based, and designed to spark meaningful dialogue about everyday stressors.
Our workshops go deeper, equipping managers with the skills to identify psychosocial hazards in their teams and co-create realistic, workable controls using the HSE Management Standards framework. These aren't lecture-style sessions – they're interactive, grounded in real workplace scenarios, and designed to leave your managers feeling confident, not overwhelmed.
With 40+ evidence-based topics available – from stress management and burnout prevention to resilience, difficult conversations, and psychological safety – we can tailor a programme that fits your organisation's needs and priorities.
Download our workshops and webinars brochure to explore the full range of topics, or email us at info@mhib.co.uk to talk through what would work best for your team.
Because the most effective stress strategy isn't teaching people to cope with bad work design – it's designing better work in the first place.
