There’s often a significant amount of emphasis placed on physical health and safety in the workplace – with good reason, of course.
But it’s important not to neglect mental and emotional health and wellbeing either, as it can have a significant impact on your business, everything from affecting productivity as a result of increased sick days being taken to loss of business reputation, which could make it harder to attract and retain the top talent in your field.
Health and Safety Executive figures for 2023/2024 show that there were an estimated 33.7 million working days lost as a result of work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries.
The majority of days lost were down to stress, depression, anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders, with each person taking approximately 15.5 days off work on average. The longest period of absenteeism was for stress, depression and anxiety, at 21.1 days.
How to manage workplace stress
Awareness and training is one of the most effective ways of managing workplace stress and ensuring that members of staff don’t burn out.
The NEBOSH HSE certificate in managing stress at work has been designed for those responsible for managing and reducing work-related stress, including occupational health workers, HR staff and health and safety professionals.
It aims to help people understand the key principles of this kind of stress and how their approach can be improved where mental health is concerned to help create a healthier work environment.
Once completed, those on the course will be able to make a strong business case for addressing workplace stress and mental health, have a stronger understanding of the legal requirements, roles and responsibilities for stress management, be able to recognise the signs and impacts of workplace stress and develop the appropriate interventions to reduce it.
For employers, gaining the NEBOSH stress management certificate will help you feel more confident that you’re doing all you can to manage and control workplace stress, helping to create a healthier and safer work environment for all.
The course itself takes around seven hours of study to complete, with six hours of taught lessons and one hour for assessment. The efficiency of this one-day course is invaluable, making it possible for you to upskill your teams quickly and drive potentially significant changes at work more immediately.
However, you may feel that the one-day course isn’t enough to give you the depth of understanding that you’re looking for.
In this case, you could consider taking your training further and opting for other complementary courses such as the NEBOSH Working with Wellbeing course. This would equip you with knowledge of the most important aspects of occupational wellbeing, helping you to positively influence employee mental and emotional health.
If you’d like to build your health and safety knowledge further, our NEBOSH General Certificate course is a great place to start. It’s designed for anyone looking to develop practical skills and gain a respected qualification in workplace safety. To find out more, get in touch with the ACT team today.
