Consultancy services to manage stress risks across the organization
Consultancy by its very nature is a bespoke service. It depends a lot on what kinds of expert advice and support a client organization needs.
In my experience, which has mainly been with consulting with large organizations, there are already often a range of internal experts and consultants like HR and / or Health, Safety and Wellbeing Managers. There may also be specialists and technical experts, It's important to respect that expertise. They know better than a consultant ever could how their specialty does things, and they have internal knowledge and expertise about the organization and its culture.
What I've found though is that internal consultants often work in silos and that approaches to managing stress risks at work aren't therefore aligned, nor are they integrated. People in silos don't necessarily speak to each other or work in a coordinated way. Where someone like me can help is to provide a vision, framework and toolkit to knit everything together for the benefit of the whole organization. As an independent expert, I can also facilitate conversations, which would be otherwise be awkward and more difficult internally.
Two areas of consultancy I typically get involved in are policy development and stress risk assessment, but I can also help with transforming organizational performance through culture change, improving wellbeing and preventing stress. Such transformation also tackles business risks and makes a huge financial difference. I discuss a case study related to that on another page, related to my work as Deputy Chair of a social care charity, William Simpsons.
Policy development and implementation
Policy is important because it provides guidance about consistent behaviours at work that minimize risks. It states what the organization will do to prevent stress, but also what wil be done to support employees who are experiencing stress and / or other common mental health problems. It's really important to get right. Often, policies are ineffective or way out of date. They don't reflect the current realities of hybrid and remote working. And in any case they don't reflect what most often happens, culturally, on the ground, to manage stress-related situations at work.
Managers are key to this of course, and frequently, an HR policy on a shelf somewhere, does not reflect the current reality of management practice. Managers aren't acting proactively. They're not conducting stress risk assessments with teams. Neither are they consistently monitoring wellbeing in teams (with consent) to pick up on problems at an early. And some aren't responsive when there are concerns about vulnerabilty.
As a consultant, I help with this, providing advice on policy development and implementation, and on how best to align that with management practice. That often requires management training, so that managers can implement organizational policy on managing stress and mental health more consistently. It won't be perfect, just better. I'm able to provide a framework for policy development and a set of tools than can provide the basis of what to do, when, to manage stress risks at work. Typically my clients haven't copied my templates - they've skilfully adapted my approaches to fit with what will work for them.
Stress risk assessment consultancy
People often think stress risk assessment is conducting a survey (and yes, sometimes that helps), but it's so much more than that. Sometimes conducting yet another survey is the last thing you should do. Survey fatigue is common. Worse, a new survey can increase cynicism internally and actually block progress in identifying and managing risks.
I help clients look at the data sources they already have, including pre-existing survey data, to build a picture or profile of stress risks across the organization. Existing data sources (quatitative and qualitative) can be very revealing about: the current stress issues, which of those is most important, what sort of issues they are, and the extent to which they are having negative impacts on staff wellbeing. Existing data sources may also reveal where in the organization people are struggling the most and why.
I help internal consultants, like HR and Health & Safety, look at those data sources and interpret what that indicates in terms of stress risks. Once an organizational profile is produced, I can facilitate discussions about what to do:
This gets to the nub of things. Where stress risk assessments most often go wrong is in the dissemination from the organizational to the local. Very often, it just doesn't happen, so managers and teams aren't involved and don't therefore have any sense of ownership. That's a very big mistake. A stress risk assessment without local involvement and ownership is neither 'suitable nor sufficient', so it can never meet your legal obligations in terms of conducting risks assessments.
Of course, there are links between policy development and stress risk assessment. For example, the policy should make clear what will be done by whom, when, to assess and manage risks. And a particularly important aspect is organizational policy on the local management of stress risks. That's what's most often missing in my experience. Stress risk management stays in silos and doesn't reach the people most affected, on the ground. Addressing that makes a huge difference and lowers risks.
If you'd like to discuss these or other aspects of consultancy, please contact me or get in touch by email.
In my experience, which has mainly been with consulting with large organizations, there are already often a range of internal experts and consultants like HR and / or Health, Safety and Wellbeing Managers. There may also be specialists and technical experts, It's important to respect that expertise. They know better than a consultant ever could how their specialty does things, and they have internal knowledge and expertise about the organization and its culture.
What I've found though is that internal consultants often work in silos and that approaches to managing stress risks at work aren't therefore aligned, nor are they integrated. People in silos don't necessarily speak to each other or work in a coordinated way. Where someone like me can help is to provide a vision, framework and toolkit to knit everything together for the benefit of the whole organization. As an independent expert, I can also facilitate conversations, which would be otherwise be awkward and more difficult internally.
Two areas of consultancy I typically get involved in are policy development and stress risk assessment, but I can also help with transforming organizational performance through culture change, improving wellbeing and preventing stress. Such transformation also tackles business risks and makes a huge financial difference. I discuss a case study related to that on another page, related to my work as Deputy Chair of a social care charity, William Simpsons.
Policy development and implementation
Policy is important because it provides guidance about consistent behaviours at work that minimize risks. It states what the organization will do to prevent stress, but also what wil be done to support employees who are experiencing stress and / or other common mental health problems. It's really important to get right. Often, policies are ineffective or way out of date. They don't reflect the current realities of hybrid and remote working. And in any case they don't reflect what most often happens, culturally, on the ground, to manage stress-related situations at work.
Managers are key to this of course, and frequently, an HR policy on a shelf somewhere, does not reflect the current reality of management practice. Managers aren't acting proactively. They're not conducting stress risk assessments with teams. Neither are they consistently monitoring wellbeing in teams (with consent) to pick up on problems at an early. And some aren't responsive when there are concerns about vulnerabilty.
As a consultant, I help with this, providing advice on policy development and implementation, and on how best to align that with management practice. That often requires management training, so that managers can implement organizational policy on managing stress and mental health more consistently. It won't be perfect, just better. I'm able to provide a framework for policy development and a set of tools than can provide the basis of what to do, when, to manage stress risks at work. Typically my clients haven't copied my templates - they've skilfully adapted my approaches to fit with what will work for them.
Stress risk assessment consultancy
People often think stress risk assessment is conducting a survey (and yes, sometimes that helps), but it's so much more than that. Sometimes conducting yet another survey is the last thing you should do. Survey fatigue is common. Worse, a new survey can increase cynicism internally and actually block progress in identifying and managing risks.
I help clients look at the data sources they already have, including pre-existing survey data, to build a picture or profile of stress risks across the organization. Existing data sources (quatitative and qualitative) can be very revealing about: the current stress issues, which of those is most important, what sort of issues they are, and the extent to which they are having negative impacts on staff wellbeing. Existing data sources may also reveal where in the organization people are struggling the most and why.
I help internal consultants, like HR and Health & Safety, look at those data sources and interpret what that indicates in terms of stress risks. Once an organizational profile is produced, I can facilitate discussions about what to do:
- At the level of the organization
- In parts of the organization where things are more difficult (hot spots)
- About tackling stress problems locally at the level of the line manager - managers working with teams and individuals
This gets to the nub of things. Where stress risk assessments most often go wrong is in the dissemination from the organizational to the local. Very often, it just doesn't happen, so managers and teams aren't involved and don't therefore have any sense of ownership. That's a very big mistake. A stress risk assessment without local involvement and ownership is neither 'suitable nor sufficient', so it can never meet your legal obligations in terms of conducting risks assessments.
Of course, there are links between policy development and stress risk assessment. For example, the policy should make clear what will be done by whom, when, to assess and manage risks. And a particularly important aspect is organizational policy on the local management of stress risks. That's what's most often missing in my experience. Stress risk management stays in silos and doesn't reach the people most affected, on the ground. Addressing that makes a huge difference and lowers risks.
If you'd like to discuss these or other aspects of consultancy, please contact me or get in touch by email.