A report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, shows that a third of all employers reporting an increase in stress-related absence.
More than a third noted an increase in mental health problems such as anxiety and depression – a big rise on last year’s survey when one-fifth reported an increase. But only one-fifth of organisations had increased their focus on employee well-being and health promotion, suggesting more could be done.
The survey found that average absence was three days higher in the public sector than in private sector services, at 9.6 days per employee compared with 6.6 days.
Stress was the main cause of persistently high levels of long-term public sector absence, with three-quarters of public sector organisations putting stress among the top five causes of absence.
More than half of public sector employers rated organisational change and restructuring as one of the leading causes of work-related stress, compared with fewer than 40 per cent in other sectors.
The median cost of public sector absence was £889 per employee per year compared with £400 in manufacturing and £600 in private sector services.
As the public sector engage in change management and redundancies, some key points are reiterated:
1 The public sector has a worse problem than the private sector for stress management.
2. The forthcoming change managment programmes are likey to exacerbate the process. Organisational change and restructuring is cited more commonly by public sector employers than those in other sectors as a major cause of stress, which will only increase in the near future as a consequence of the recent comprehensive spending review.
3. Part of the solution lies in giving line managers have the people management and mediation skills to coach and develop their staff.
4 Organisations should introduce mediation into their organisation. A relatively small investment in a mediation ptrogramme will make key savings to stress cases, particularly those staff who have been off work for a long time. The primary reason is that trust, that intangible quality can be restored.
Justin Patten, Mediator