Over 50% of companies believe staff absenteeism and turnover are major threats to their business, according to a Marsh survey.
But most companies are failing to properly analyse and tackle the problem, the survey said.
Marsh surveyed 950 companies in Western Europe, with 52% of respondents identifying staff absenteeism and turnover as "significant risks" to their business.
A recent EU study said between 50% and 60% of absenteeism is due to work-related stress.
"Stress related absenteeism could indicate that an employer is exposed to a wide range of risks associated with employee health, wellbeing and morale," Marsh said.
The broker identified three key factors which cause stress in the workplace.
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."
Humphrey added that companies were largely unsuccessful in their attempts to address the problem of stress in the workplace.
"Most companies fail to analyse and understand the issues behind workplace stress before devising responses", Humphrey said.
"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."
