Case Study
Stress Management - 11% Improvement in Stress Sickness Absence
The Client
ScottishPower Energy Retail is an international energy
company focused on growth, safety and service. It is one of
the UK's top customer service suppliers of gas and electricity with
around 5.2 million customers.
The Problem
ScottishPower Energy Retail is taking a dynamic and systematic
approach to reducing work-related stress, as advocated by the
Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Work-related stress is a major
factor in occupational ill health and the chief cause of absence in
many industries. Scottish Power recognised the numerous business
benefits of tackling work related stress. The business benefits
include:
- Reduced sickness absence
- Reduced turnover
- Increased productivity
- Improved staff morale and job satisfaction
- Improved management practices
- Ensuring compliance to Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- Positive company image
What We Did
HSL worked in partnership with
ScottishPower to implement the HSE Management Standards. HSL
ensured a service tailored to their organisational needs and
requirements, with flexibility to allow ScottishPower to make an
informed decision about the available options that best suited
their timescales, resources and aims.
HSL put forward a team of competent professionals, who work to a
recognised professional code of conduct and within ethical
guidelines. The team consisted of experts who helped HSE to develop
the Stress Management Standards. They fully understand the issues
of work-related stress, and have experience in all stages of
implementing the process, including data collection and focus group
facilitation. Using this team ensured ScottishPower had access to
the latest knowledge and information from HSE on this issue and
approach.
The Management Standards is a framework for managing stress and
the associated risk assessment and provides a step-by-step approach
that helped ScottishPower to identify the levels of stress in the
departments reviewed and to devise interventions to reduce stress
among employees across ScottishPower Energy.
Key HSL activities included:
- Educating and training the steering group on the Management
Standards Approach
- Provision of 4500 electronic questionnaires hosted on HSL
secure site
- Analysing results of questionnaires
- Facilitating 40 focus groups and analysing the resulting
data
- Presenting to senior management on each step
- Producing recommendations for a practical action plan
- Prioritising interventions as appropriate
- Monitoring and reviewing action plans to assess
effectiveness
Outcome/Benefits
- Improvements will be long term, but since the start of
implementing the Management Standards Scottish Power have reported
an 11% improvement in stress sickness absence.
- Development of a practical strategy for future improvements to
managing work-related stress
- Progress towards taking proactive steps to tackle work related
stress at an organisational level
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