EAPs may not be the best way to tackle stress

A landmark ruling on stress has sparked new interest in employee assistance programmes, but many employers would be better advised to implement risk assessments to tackle the problem.

In Sutherland v Hatton, the Court of Appeal ruled that an employer providing an individual employee assistance programme (EAP) was 'unlikely' to be found in breach of its duty of care. The ruling struck a new balance between an employer's statutory duty to tackle occupational stress through a workplace risk assessment and the common law duty of care towards individual employees.

How have organisations responded to the Court's ruling? And how are they fulfilling their duty to tackle the root causes of occupational stress through risk assessments? A joint survey from IRS and Personnel Today examines these two key issues.

  • Stress risk assessments and employee assistance programmes   Read the full findings of the survey.

  • Draft stress management standards  A key element in the HSE's strategy to tackle work-related stress is creating management standards to help organisations. The HSE's Elizabeth Gyngell explains.

    Also

    Flouting stress rules will land you in court   Personnel Today's Ben Willmott reports.

    How to prevent claims of workplace stress   HR & Compliance Centre's How to service provides step-by-step guidance on working to protect employees from extreme or prolonged workplace stress.

    Armed forces use scorecard to tackle trauma stress in front-line troops   IRS Employment Review reports.


    Waging war on stress   Writing in Occupational Health, Nic Paton looks at what can be learnt from the stress management strategies developed by the Army.

    Managing incapacity   What is the best process for dealing with stressed employees taking increasing amounts of time off work? By Karen Seward & Rachel C Smith, writing in Occupational Health.

    Tackling work stress in Northern Ireland's schools   Nearly half of teachers in Northern Ireland find their jobs very or extremely stressful, and a joint strategy group has been formed to tackle the sources of this work stress.

    DWP leading the way in stress management   Providing counselling for stress may now have been recognised as a legal defence for companies, but as Sarah-Jane North learns, the Department for Work and Pensions was already leading the way.

    Court of Appeal guidelines for stress at work cases    IRS Employment Review summarises the landmark stress judgment in Sutherland v Hatton.

    Tackling stress at BP and City of York Council   HR teams at BP and City of York Council have won awards for the management of stress in the workplace. IRS Employment Review examines the two schemes.

    Stress management at Cummins Engineering   Creating the 'right environment' and an increasing commitment to teamwork underpin how Cummins, the engineering company, tackles work-related stress.

    Employers fear being sued by stressed staff   More than 80% of UK employers feel vulnerable to being sued by workers who have suffered workplace stress, discrimination, or bullying. Personnel Today has more.

    Tackling the drivers of stress   Despite being given 61 billion reasons to be cheerful, public services are seen as the home of workplace stress. Mike Broad reports on the culture shift needed to put the sector back on its feet.

    Ten minute tutorial - stress   Simon Kent takes a whistlestop tour of the symptoms and causes of stress.

    • From all sides now   HR practitioners are increasingly looking for a preventative approach to stress claims rather than a reactive and purely legal one. Here, analysts from three different disciplines strive to come up with holistic solutions.

    Search engine: stress management websites    Whether it is you, your workforce, your department or all three that needs to de-stress, these websites should offer a helping hand with stress management.