Resources and tools related to the costs of work-related stress
Work-related stress is hugely expensive. There are of course the costs to organizations including stress-related absence, presenteeism, staff turnover and damage to the organization's reputation. But there are also wider costs to society and our economy from ill-health, reduced productivity and the cost of benefits. It's no surprise therefore that many groups are interested in these costs and the potential benefits from actions to tackle stress.
Researchers around the world have been looking at these costs and finding ways to quantify them, especially costs to organizations. The resources below include all sorts of useful data and tables, and importantly they include some methods for calculating different stress-related costs.
Researchers around the world have been looking at these costs and finding ways to quantify them, especially costs to organizations. The resources below include all sorts of useful data and tables, and importantly they include some methods for calculating different stress-related costs.
The recently published (2014) report below entitled Calculating the cost of work-related stress and psychosocial risks was produced for the European Risk Observatory, part of EU-OSHA, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. It's has information on a wide variety of costs in many different countries, not just in Europe but around the world. Usefully, the ways some costs can be calculated are included, especially the organizational costs of stress, such as stress-related absenteeism, presenteeism and staff turnover.
| cost-of-work-related-stress.pdf |
Stress Costs and ROI Tool (excel)
Below is a spreadsheet tool you can use to calculate the costs of mental ill health and stress and the likely savings (using UK stats) if your organization takes positive action. It needs to be a more recent version of excel for it to work and you might need to enable macros. Essentially you can plug in some key stats from your organization and the tool does the rest - a useful and persuasive tool. This tool is also in the tools section of this website, where I've written some more about how it works.
Below is a spreadsheet tool you can use to calculate the costs of mental ill health and stress and the likely savings (using UK stats) if your organization takes positive action. It needs to be a more recent version of excel for it to work and you might need to enable macros. Essentially you can plug in some key stats from your organization and the tool does the rest - a useful and persuasive tool. This tool is also in the tools section of this website, where I've written some more about how it works.
| ph22_promoting_mental_wellbeing_business_case_tool.xls |
The spreadsheet resource above comes from a set of resources that were released by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK. These resources relate to the business case for tackling stress and promoting mental wellbeing at work. You can access these resources and others related to the business case on our Business Case Resources page.