Stress advice offered to businesses

19th November 2010

Businesses have been advised to ensure employees are given the capacity and time to manage their workloads, as well as support in the working environment from colleagues, managers and the company itself to help reduce the prevalence of stress.

Neil Shah, director of the Stress Management Society, made these recommendations in response to the organisation's findings that one in five of the working population is affected by stress, which is now the single biggest cause of illness in the UK.

Indeed, more than 105 million days are lost to the condition each year, which costs employers £1.24 billion annually.

Mr Shah suggested "embedding the value of promoting wellbeing and reducing stress into the culture of the organisation" as there is a "financial cost to not dealing with stress".

Some of the symptoms of the condition that managers may wish to look out for include becoming argumentative, working late, loss of sense of humour and physical manifestations such as headaches.

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