Workplace stress cannot be solved with ‘way of life perks and posters’, employers want to deal with actual points, warn occupational well being watchdog

Employers should cease utilizing ‘wellbeing add-ons’ as an alternative choice to tackling the foundation causes of office stress, consultants have warned. 

A newly printed report from The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) checked out employee experiences from 22 nations – together with the UK – and located {that a} widespread theme: workforces are underneath extra stress than ever earlier than. 

They additionally discovered that companies proceed to depend on reactive advantages similar to way of life perks and one‑off incentives whereas leaving basic points similar to job design, workload, working hours, organisational tradition and psychosocial hazards largely unaddressed. 

The IOSH likened it to employers ‘papering over cracks’ with wellbeing perks which finally don’t defend their employees’s psychological well being from avoidable hurt. 

Ruth Wilkinson, IOSH’s head of coverage, mentioned: ‘Too many organisations nonetheless lean on reactive measures or wellbeing “add‑ons”, whereas the true points driving hurt go unaddressed. 

‘Prevention should be embedded into the programs, tradition and management of each organisation.

‘That means robust, seen dedication from the highest, clear communication, and creating workplaces the place folks really feel psychologically secure to boost considerations. 

‘Only then can we shift away from firefighting and construct genuinely wholesome, secure, sustainable and resilient working environments

Employers want to deal with the foundation reason behind office stress, warns a brand new report

‘Our findings make one message unmistakable: the way forward for office well being and wellbeing can’t be constructed on perks, posters or token initiatives.’

Mental well being points similar to stress, anxiousness and despair have been mentioned to be the commonest problem going through their workers.

The report exposes a pointy world rise in office well being and wellbeing challenges and a widening gulf between good intentions and real affect. 

Ms Wilkinson added: ‘These findings inform us that employers are dedicated to investing in employee well being and wellbeing, but issues are nonetheless occurring.

‘It means the motion and funding up to now is just not having the specified affect – it isn’t attending to the foundation trigger and stopping the hurt from occurring.

‘For this motive, employers must take a proactive strategy and this begins with prevention.’ 

Being pressured at work can have vastly damaging longterm results which reverberate lengthy after you’ve got signed off for the day. 

Prolonged stress can set off a launch of hormones that dramatically increase the danger of coronary heart assault and weight achieve – which may result in obesity-related illnesses. 

In 2024/25, 964,000 employees skilled work-related stress, despair, or anxiousness

Physically, the commonest indicators of persistent stress are chest pains, complications and muscle aches.

This is as a result of stress causes the physique to launch an excessive amount of of the hormone cortisol, which is produced by the adrenal glands that sit on the highest of the kidneys.

It regulates a variety of bodily processes together with blood stress, metabolism, fertility and sleep-wake cycles.

As nicely as cortisol, the physique releases a surge of adrenaline — a rise in each hormones is a results of the ‘combat or flight’ response that is triggered after we’re underneath menace.

Together, these hormones trigger the blood vessels to constrict, which makes our coronary heart must work more durable to pump blood across the physique.

This can result in coronary heart palpitations and chest pains, in addition to hypertension and pains within the muscle tissues and head.

Workplace stress additionally has a knock-on value for employers, too.  

Figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the nationwide impartial regulator for office well being, security, and sickness, estimated that in 2024/25,  964,000 employees in Great Britain skilled work-related stress, despair, or anxiousness. 

The figures additionally revealed that psychological well being situations have been behind a good portion of the 40.1 million working days misplaced. 

Last yr, Wes Streeting instructed GPs to cease issuing sick letters for folks combating their psychological well being and as a substitute refer sufferers to the gymnasium or a job centre, a transfer which prompted well being leaders to warn that it may trigger folks to change into very unwell. 

Healthcare employees at St John Ambulance mentioned this ‘stress to maintain going’ runs the danger of minimising the very actual results of burnout, which might simply snowball into extra critical well being points similar to anxiousness or despair. 

Burnout, which is recognised by the World Health Organisation, is characterised by a state of ‘bodily, psychological, and emotional exhaustion’.

Lisa Sharman, head of schooling and coaching on the ambulance service, mentioned: ‘When public language suggests individuals are exaggerating or being written off, it may make some people really feel even much less secure to talk up.’

She mentioned: ‘It’s not all the time burnout, per se, however it’s exhaustion, emotional overload, or feeling unable to manage.

‘And these are actually actual experiences, they don’t seem to be simply buzzwords, so we won’t dismiss them as such.

‘Burnout is commonly an early warning signal that one thing is improper, but when it is recognised and addressed early, folks can and can recuperate sooner.’

Union leaders have additionally backed up the IOSH’s report. 

Unison’s nationwide officer for well being and security Joe Donnelly mentioned: ‘Prompt intervention may cease lots of of 1000’s of individuals leaving the workforce every year for fully avoidable well being causes.

‘All too typically employers worsen pay and situations, overwork employees and undermine security requirements, then supply ‘mindfulness’ lessons as an answer.

‘Work-related stress is not self-imposed. While wellbeing schemes will help, they do not sort out the causes.’

Dan Shears, GMB well being and security director, mentioned: ‘The report confirms what now we have identified for a while – that employers must do rather more to stop work-related stress, and that doing so advantages employees and employers.

‘GMB believes the report strengthens the case for major laws on this space – a Mental Health at Work Act – and we hope that the UK Government can be open-minded in its coverage issues.

‘Tackling the foundation causes of stress is in everybody’s pursuits, and Government will should be imaginative and radical in strengthening the safety afforded to employees.’