What is Work Positive

Work Positive resource was developed to support employers in carrying out a stress risk assessment and action planning. It was revised in 2004 with funding from HSE, to align it with the HSE Management Standards.

Using the Work Positive resource as the basis for stress risk assessment allows organisations to benchmark themselves against HSE date. It is suitable for small, medium and large workplaces and can be applied in any industry sector, public, private or voluntary.

Work Positive is a comprehensive risk management process that incorporates a risk assessment covering the known causes of workplace stress.

Work Positive is a step by step process, as follows:

Step 1 Look at the Hazards
Step 2 Identify who might be harmed and how
Step 3 Evaluate the risk
Step 4 Take action and record the findings
Step 5 Monitor and review
Step 6 Support to implement the Work Positive Process

Getting started and Step 1: Look at the hazards

The importance of planning

Provide senior managers with the facts and ensure they are committed to the process.
Set up a steering group, with representatives from across the organisation who will manage the implementation of the process.
Identify a lead co-ordinator.
Provide information for employees – see Information for participants.
Ensure that systems are in place and employees are aware of the support that is available if they are already experiencing stress or suffering from stress related ill-health.

Look at the hazards

The steering group can familiarise themselves with the HSE Standards and review the organisation’s policies, systems and procedures using the benchmark exercise provided.

This should be a short exercise, perhaps conducted at the initial steering group meeting.

Gather baseline data e.g. sickness absence data, productivity data, employee turnover, exit interviews, performance appraisal, return-to-work interviews. This information will help you consider the current impact of stress on the organisation, highlight those most at risk and may provide an initial indication of the possible causes of stress.

Consider setting targets for improvement.

Benchmarking: assessing the current situation

The benchmark is designed as a simple, stand-alone exercise to be completed by the steering group established to co-ordinate the work positive process. The aims of the benchmark are to:

Prepare the group for the Work Positive process by ensuring that they are thinking about stress from an organisational perspective and the systems that control the stressors within the organisation.
Establish the group's views of the current state of the systems in the organisation that control these causes of stress.
Indicate what is required to improve these systems.

Once the risk assessment is completed, the group may wish to review the benchmark in light of the responses from the employees. In particular, they may wish to consider:

Was the original benchmark assessment a good reflection of the current state of the systems?
Are the systems that are in place well managed and communicated or are employees perceptions suggesting otherwise?
How they can improve the existing systems and move towards best practice i.e. up the benchmark ladders. Therefore controlling the potential causes of workplace stress.

Benchmarking tool

The benchmarking tool is available on the Healthy Working Lives Resources page.

Step 2: Identify who might be harmed and how

Establish who you are going to include in the risk assessment. Remember all staff groups can be affected by stress at work and that something that is a source of stress for one individual may not be for another.

Consider whether you will pilot in a known ‘high risk’ group or whether you will assess the whole workforce.

Decide how the organisation or ‘target group’ will be categorised to provide meaningful information. The analysis tool allows you to use two categories e.g. by role and department. You can have an infinite number of groups within these categories e.g. for role you might have manager, supervisor, employee; for department you might have finance, marketing, administration.

Remember that tackling work-related stress at source requires a partnership approach based on openness, honesty and trust.

Ensure that groupings are not too small and you can protect staff’s anonymity so that they are honest and open in responding to the questionnaire.

And remember, each of the case studies shows how other organisations have tackled the five Work Positive steps, including this stage of benchmarking.

Step 3: Evaluate the risk and take action

Use the Work Positive risk assessment questionnaire to identify the main sources of pressure for staff. The Work Positive Questionnaire can be managed on-line by sending out paper copies to staff. To access the on-line facility and get a link to the survey to circulate to staff in an email you will need to contact your [underline]local adviser[end underline] on telephone number (0800) 019 2211 who will set up the survey for you. The on-line resource reduces workload for your organisation as there is no separate data entry required. However, some staff may not have access to a computer with internet connection and will therefore need to complete a paper based copy of the questionnaire. An electronic copy of the questionnaire for printing and distributing to staff as a paper-based questionnaire is available in the resources page

You will need to:

Produce a covering letter or email to accompany the questionnaire that you send to staff. A template covering letter and email is provided in the resources section.
Send out reminders (email, internal main, posters, team meeting brief).
Enter the results you receive from paper based responses onto the Work Positive Analysis tool. If you use the online facility your results will automatically be downloaded into the analysis tool and your adviser will send these results to you.
Analyse the data that you get back and identify priority areas for improvement.
Feedback the results to staff.
Plan and facilitate focus groups to discuss the outcomes in more detail with staff and develop an action plan. (See next Section take action and record the findings).

Analyse the questionnaire using the analysis tool provided. There is also a tutorial to support the use of the analysis tool and a manual for interpreting the results.

Identify those risks that are common across all groups and those that are isolated to one or two groups.

Agree which are the priority issues. Revisit the benchmark to consider what systems you already have and to identify those that you may require.

Provide feedback to employees on the outcomes of the risk assessment and next steps.

And remember, each of the case studies shows how other organisations have tackled the five Work Positive steps, including this stage of identifying the causes and assessing the risks.

Step 4: Take action and record the findings

Run focus groups around the main issues. Ensure that a representative group of employees are invited to tease out the issues and develop solutions.

Ensure individual concerns are addressed.

It is essential that you develop ways for employees to raise their concerns. These could include the following:

Create an environment where employees are encouraged to talk, both formally and informally, to their manager or another person in their management chain.
• Remind employees of alternative routes to raise concerns e.g. trade union representatives, health and safety representatives, human resources personnel or occupational health.
• Encourage employees to talk to someone in the organisation or seek advice from occupational health advisors, or from their GP if they are concerned about their health.
• Introduce mentoring and other forms of co-worker support.
• Provide employee assistance (counselling) services.

Develop an action plan for implementation of the solutions. A good action plan should include the issue to be addressed, the solution, timescales for implementation, a lead person responsible for implementation and a review date. An action plan template is provided. Share the action plan with employees and keep them informed of progress.

Record the outcomes of the assessment and priority areas for each group.

And remember, each of the case studies shows how other organisations have tackled the five Work Positive steps, including avoiding and reducing any risks identified.

Step 5: Monitor and review

Convene the steering group on a regular basis to review the action plan and make sure that actions have been satisfactorily completed. Revisit the ‘states to be achieved’ in the benchmark and consider whether progress is being made.

Evaluate (or decide how you are going to evaluate) the effectiveness of the actions you have put in place. Ask employees for feedback.

Ensure that senior managers, employees and their representatives are receiving updates on progress and have the opportunity to feed back.

Consider reassessing the risks using the risk assessment questionnaire at suitable time intervals.

Consider repeating questions 62 to 67 more regularly e.g. include in annual staff opinion survey or as a separate mini-assessment in order to measure outcomes and assess improvement.

And remember, each of the case studies shows how other organisations have tackled the five Work Positive steps, including this stage of reviewing the situation.

Step 6 Support to Implement the Work Positive Process

Support on how to implement the Work Positive Process is available through your local adviser on telephone number (0800) 019 2211 or through regular training courses provided at a range of venues across Scotland.

Publications

Team Level Work Positive Stress Risk Assessment

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