How do the Management Competencies relate to HSE’s Management Standards?
The Management Standards, launched by HSE in 2004, provide guidance on best practice for employers in managing work-related stress. The overall aim of these standards is to bring about a reduction in the number of employees who go off sick or who cannot perform well at work because of stress.
The Management Standards are designed to simplify risk assessments for stress and encourage collaboration at all levels of the organization to address work-related stress. They provide a yardstick or ‘benchmark’ against which organizations can assess their stress management performance.
Historically, because of the focus on risk assessment and risk management, the implementation of the Management Standards has largely been largely driven by Health and Safety. There has been an acknowledgement by HSE and others that this has limited the scope and effectiveness of the Standards in achieving real and lasting changes to organizational and management behaviour.
Although stress risk assessments are vitally important, much of the responsibility for implementation of the Management Standards in fact falls on HR professionals and line managers. It became apparent some years ago that research was needed to develop effective tools that could help HR support their line managers.
Therefore the focus of the Stress Management Competencies is more specifically on line managers, with the aim of improving line managers’ skills, abilities and behaviours in order to prevent and reduce stress at work. A Stress Management Competency Framework along with associated assessment and feedback tools has been developed, along with a management development intervention to achieve this.
The Management Competencies are not meant to take the place of the Management Standards. Organizations still need to carry out risk assessments for work-related stress. However, the Management Competencies provide a framework, tools and interventions to up-skill line managers generally. This will improve management performance in managing stress risks and especially with regard to stress prevention.
A series of Roadshow events have been organised to raise awareness of the Stress Management Competencies. For details, please see our stress events page.
The Management Standards are designed to simplify risk assessments for stress and encourage collaboration at all levels of the organization to address work-related stress. They provide a yardstick or ‘benchmark’ against which organizations can assess their stress management performance.
Historically, because of the focus on risk assessment and risk management, the implementation of the Management Standards has largely been largely driven by Health and Safety. There has been an acknowledgement by HSE and others that this has limited the scope and effectiveness of the Standards in achieving real and lasting changes to organizational and management behaviour.
Although stress risk assessments are vitally important, much of the responsibility for implementation of the Management Standards in fact falls on HR professionals and line managers. It became apparent some years ago that research was needed to develop effective tools that could help HR support their line managers.
Therefore the focus of the Stress Management Competencies is more specifically on line managers, with the aim of improving line managers’ skills, abilities and behaviours in order to prevent and reduce stress at work. A Stress Management Competency Framework along with associated assessment and feedback tools has been developed, along with a management development intervention to achieve this.
The Management Competencies are not meant to take the place of the Management Standards. Organizations still need to carry out risk assessments for work-related stress. However, the Management Competencies provide a framework, tools and interventions to up-skill line managers generally. This will improve management performance in managing stress risks and especially with regard to stress prevention.
A series of Roadshow events have been organised to raise awareness of the Stress Management Competencies. For details, please see our stress events page.