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In the United Kingdom, debates about psychosocial risks in the workplace are led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the national regulator for health and safety in the workplace. In consultation with others, including the social partners, the HSE has developed an organisational approach to psychosocial risks at work that focuses on collective issues related to the nature and design of work rather than on the behaviour and practices of individual workers.

Psychosocial risks were already high on the HSE’s agenda before the conclusion of the European Framework Agreement on Work-related Stress in 2004. Immediately following its adoption, the UK social partners convened a working group, facilitated by the then Department for Trade and Industry, to oversee the implementation of the agreement in the UK. Within months, the HSE launched a strategy called the Management Standards for work-related stress (HSE, 2013), which is designed to help employers meet their general obligations to assess and manage physical and mental health risks, as required by both UK law and the framework agreement.

The Management Standards approach to tackling work- related stress includes tools to identify whether there is an organisational issue with work-related stress and guidance about what steps can be taken to try to tackle the problem. All these are made freely available to any organisation wishing to use them, and they have also been adopted by others outside the UK and the EU. These standards are not legally enforceable, and employers are free to take other equivalent action, but if they do follow the guidance they will normally be doing enough to comply with the law.

The Management Standards place a strong emphasis on employers, employees and their representatives working in partnership to develop effective and practical solutions relevant to their particular organisation and stressors. They also encourage organisations to pursue continuous improvement in recognition of the business and health benefits of tackling stress effectively. In practice, unions and professional associations now use the system not only as a basis for negotiation with employers and a way of educating line managers, but also as an access point to address diverse psychosocial factors in establishments. In the absence of specific legislation, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) acknowledges that the HSE’s stress management standards are the most effective way of dealing with stress. However, they underline the importance of involving unions in the introduction of the standards at every stage.

At sector level, the HSE, with the support of the social partners, embarked upon a stress priority programme, which sought to concentrate efforts in five sectors that exhibited the highest levels of stress (central government, local government, health services, finance and education). This programme included

However, the data presented in this report demonstrate that, given the challenge of psychosocial risks in workplaces, further measures and initiatives are necessary to support companies in implementing effective prevention policies.

The European Framework Agreement on Work-related Stress represented a key milestone in encouraging initiatives by social partners at national level and in raising awareness among the stakeholders responsible for developing prevention policies and actions. The role of social partners is important, both to influence legislation and to develop instruments for the implementation of psychosocial risk prevention procedures at company level. However, social partners’ involvement and activities vary immensely between countries. This can be explained, first, by the differences in the development of social dialogue structures, second, by their tradition of involvement in OSH in general and, finally, by the prominence given to psychosocial risks in the country concerned.

The examples presented highlight ways of implementing policies to deal with psychosocial risk at Member State level, by legislation or inspection, by providing practical tools, or by means of social partner involvement. They also indicate that to some extent psychosocial risks are recognised in several countries as not only an important factor for the health and well-being of workers, but also a factor that can contribute to a company’s performance.

Companies and countries with a significant proportion of workers exposed to psychosocial risks will probably have more difficulty in making work sustainable in future, and therefore will have more problems developing and maintaining a healthy and productive workforce, especially if measures to protect workers from those risks are not developed. In this regard, there is a need to actively tackle psychosocial risks on every level: within Europe, at Member State level and in all companies and establishments. In this context, the next chapter will present key aspects for the development of interventions in organisations in order to prevent psychosocial risks.

actions such as a dedicated helpline, guidance on the HSE website and ministerial events. The Health and well-being

report (NHS, 2009) and the Health, work and well-being in local authorities report (Local Government Group, 2010) both recommended the involvement of the social partners and the adoption of the HSE Management Standards in their respective sectors.

More recently, work has focused on improving the people management competencies of managers. The HSE, in association with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Investors in People (IiP), has designed a series of tools to allow managers to assess whether they currently have the behaviours identified as effective for preventing and reducing stress at work. These tools are intended to help managers reflect on their behaviour and management style, and to gather evidence from their staff (‘180-degree feedback’) or their staff, peers and managers (‘360-degree feedback’). In addition, the HSE has been working with a consortium based at Nottingham University that seeks to promote policy and practice at national and enterprise level, and includes both social partners and expert organisations. Their work has placed special emphasis on high-risk worker groups and occupational sectors, and has addressed gender and implementation issues, particularly in the context of different types of enterprise such as SMEs. Based on this work, a new British Standard has been developed: PAS 1010 (Guidance on the management of psychosocial risks in the workplace). Although not legally enforceable, British Standards provide a consensus-led benchmark of good practice. Organisations can show evidence of compliance with these normative standards by advertising the name and number of the standard or by displaying a certification mark such as the BSI Kitemark.

Summary

National legislative and social dialogue initiatives addressing psychosocial risks have been developed in several EU countries.

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Organisational