On 7-8 May 2019, HSE, our UK member, hosted an information-sharing workshop on Work-related stress.
At Buxton, researchers from 10 PEROSH member institutes met and shared their latest research. Sometimes very practical approaches regarding work-related stress in their respective countries were shown.
Mary Trainor and Phoebe Smith were our hosts and Phoebe was the very active and inspiring moderator of this meeting. She is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society with over 25 years experience of applying human factors to improve health and safety in the workplace. She is now contributing to the development of HSE’s programme of research for mental health.
Some highlights
In The Netherlands, 17,3% of the workers are at risk to develop burnout. This percentage is increasing slowly. Sectors most prominently at risk are education, information and communication. Risk factors comprise decreasing autonomy, increasing job demands, information overload. 45% of Dutch workers indicate a lack of organizational measures.
TNO presents a model for work-related stress; based on that TNO develops a work stress dashboard allowing to compare sectors/organisations. A stepwise approach for work-related stress is offered to large and small companies in a tool called the Workstress Signpost (Werkdruk Wegwijzer in Dutch).
AUVA, our Austrian PEROSH member, published a new manual EVALOG; which is a risk assessment tool for individuals. Mental satiation is hardly considered an effect of work stress; mental satiation, monotony, mental fatigue can be consequences of robotization.
CIOP-PIB, our Polish member institute, is involved in INCLUSIVE (H2020 project) where CIOP-PIB focuses on the measurement and analysis of psychological stress and cognitive strain indicators, next to employee satisfaction. They are also involved in Ageing@Work, another H2020 project striving for active, healthy, productive ageing with enhanced workability. In this project, CIOP-PIB focuses on workability, productivity and quality-of-life related factors.
FIOH, the Finnish PEROSH member, develops a mental health policy for 2030. Moreover, a practical toolkit for supervisors was designed: the Mentally Healthy Workplace.
NFA, the Danish PEROSH member, is active in the Job&Mind project. The goal is to make a catalogue of recommendations to workplaces to increase inclusiveness. Moreover, they did a comparison of guidelines on workplace health and developed a website with categories of recommendations on work-related stress.
INRS, our French member, is performing research on new forms of work and employment. Whereas, BAuA, our German member, performed research on mental health at the workplace which resulted in adapted standards; ISO 10075-1:2017 and ISO 10075-2. HSE developed a stress indicator tool available for download, next to other useful documents.
The group of researchers will stay in touch and decide on future collaboration.
Contact: Phoebe Smith, Phoebe.Smith@hse.gov.uk
