A recent survey by private medical insurer HSA has highlighted that HR professionals do not consider stress to be a particularly significant issue.
HSA surveyed 129 attendees at seminars last year. The HR professionals cited compliance with health and safety legislation and employee wellbeing as the most important issue, while relegating stress to last place.
Suzanne Clarkson, head of corporate marketing at HSA, said this is surprising, given that "stress is estimated to cause over 13 million sick days each year, and costs employers a staggering £3.7bn. Despite this, it appears that the issue has still not moved up the HR agenda."
HSA is attempting to combat this lack of understanding by mailing 35,000 HR professionals during February and March.
"Our research also found that only 32% of those surveyed offered any form of employee assistance programme and only 42% provided face to face counselling as a way of managing stress," Clarkson added. "We hope this mailing will help inform companies about the importance of this issue."
