Broker Marsh urged senior risk managers must lead from the front when it comes to dealing with stress at work.
According to a recent Marsh survey of 950 companies in Western Europe, 52% of respondents said staff absenteeism and turnover was a significant threat to their business, but that they were not confident about how to deal with the problem.
According to research from the EU, between 50% and 60% of absenteeism is connected to work-related stress. Marsh warned that this could leave an employer open to a range of risks associated with employee health, wellbeing and morale.
Marsh human capital risk specialist John Humphrey said: “Employees typically experience stress in three key areas: the increasing demands and pressures companies put on their employees; the growing pace of change; and the lack of control employees feel they have over their work.
“Most companies fail to analyse and understand the issues behind workplace stress before devising responses. As a consequence, the solutions simply patch over the symptoms. Support services such as alternative therapies and consulting services may seem beneficial but the real solution lies in rigorous analysis of the underlying causes.
He added: “We have to accept that for many of us the way we do business has dramatically changed. The rise in stress levels may be partly attributable, for example, to changes in the working environment over the last fifty years with the growth of service-based industry.
“Advances in communications technology, particularly email, and cost cutting programmes and recruitment freezes have resulted in increased workloads and added pressure for those remaining in employment.
“The risks associated with these changes are manageable, but those companies who successfully address them will do so from the point of view of both employer and employee.
“They will not only address employee symptoms, but also measure and incentivise senior managers in terms of their effectiveness in dealing with the causes of workplace stress.”
