Why stress prevention belongs in your health and safety plan

The latest TUC and HSE statistics point to work-related stress becoming a bigger workplace hazard, putting clearer numbers behind what many businesses are already managing day to day.

According to the TUC’s latest survey of more than 2,700 union safety representatives, 79% said stress is a major workplace hazard. That’s higher than slips, trips and falls or manual handling.

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) data backs this up, reporting that nearly one million workers are affected by work-related stress, anxiety or depression, with over 22 million working days lost in 2024 – 25.

When stress is being driven by work, it needs tackling at work. Here’s what you can do to spot pressure earlier, reduce risks at their source and meet your health and safety duties.

Why employers and managers need to pay attention

In a lot of organisations, stress gets treated as a wellbeing topic. That’s understandable, but it can also be a way of keeping it at arm’s length. A wellbeing response often focuses on helping the individual cope, whereas health and safety law asks a different question. Is work causing harm, and if it is, what are you doing to reduce that risk?

Under health and safety law, employers must manage stress like any other health and safety risk. This means carrying out a risk assessment to assess the risk of stress and its impact on mental and physical health. Action should then be taken to control the risks.

The risk assessment should focus on the main sources of pressure, what impact they could have and what will change as a result. This assessment will help managers understand the risks and reduce them.

• If an employer has five or more employees, the risk assessment must be written down.
• If an employer has fewer than five, it does not have to be written down but recording it is still good practice.

Stress doesn’t come from people, it comes from work

Stress is rarely about someone being ‘not resilient enough’. It’s usually driven by very practical issues, many of which sit within day-to-day management.

The most common causes are:

• Too much work and not enough time or people
• Unclear priorities or roles, people unsure what really matters
• Poorly handled change (restructures, new systems, constant change)
• Little control over how work is done
• Ongoing conflict, bullying or difficult relationships

If several of these are present at once, stress levels will rise quickly.

What you’re expected to do

You don’t need to be a health and safety expert, but there are three things that really matter. Most of this is about noticing what’s changed, having a couple of honest conversations and being prepared to adjust plans accordingly.

Spot pressure early

Stress risk is often clearest when someone’s behaviour shifts. That doesn’t just mean the odd bad day here or there, but a consistent pattern of behaviour. That could include a shorter fuse, withdrawal, increased errors, more time online (or offline), more conflict or more silence.

If you treat those signals as personal weakness, people learn to hide them. If you treat them as information about the work, you can intervene earlier.

Get specific about what’s doable

Ask yourself:

• Is the workload actually doable?
• Are priorities clear, or does everything feel urgent?
• Have things been added without anything being taken away?

If work cannot be done safely in the time available, that’s a risk issue and it needs escalating.

Deal with problems at their source

Support tools help, but they don’t fix the cause. Practical steps might include:

• Resetting priorities or deadlines
• Pausing non‑essential work
• Redistributing work during busy periods
• Tackling conflict early instead of letting it fester
• Giving people clarity during change, even when answers aren’t perfect