Framework

The APMR Framework for managing stress risks in organizations

APMR is a best-practice framework for managing stress risks at work, which can be applied organizationally to look at culture change and policy development, but also to management training and development. When I started to do progressively more work in this area, I started to consider some fundamental questions such as: "What do managers need to know and do to manage the risks linked with stress and mental health at work?" These risks included:

Health risks - risks to mental and physical health, which are often comorbid, especially when stress has become a chronic problem
Business risks - costs from high levels of stress and poor mental wellbeing such as presenteeism and stress-related absence; reputational risks, both internal and external
Legal risks - risks linked to breach of duty of care; inadequate stress risk assessments; failure to make reasonable adjustments in cases of stress-related or mental health disability, and; failure to protect employees from reasonably foreseeable risks to mental wellbeing.

When I looked at all the evidence surrounding these risk management challenges, it occurred to me that stress management best practice boiled down to 4 key areas: Awareness, Prevention, Monitoring and Responding:

Awareness - of signs and indicators of stress and poor mental wellbeing in employees; of support structures in the organization; of the different broad categories of risks (health, business, legal), and; the known risk factors for work-related stress (covered by HSE's Management Standards).
Prevention - proactive management of stress risks at work, across the organization, in areas or divisions, for local managers and teams, in individuals; having or developing a culture of trust and openness, and; developing managers so they have the right competencies (skills and behaviours) to prevent and reduce stress.
Monitoring (by which I mean Monitoring with consent) - managers working cooperatively with teams and employees to establish whether there is cause for concern about stress or mental ill-health; having the right routines in place for monitoring by consent; informal and formal communications, and; looking at relevant data sources to help spot problems early (not surveillance or snooping).
Responding - having sensitive conversations when there is a concern; building up a picture of how the employee sees the situation they are in; looking at support options and signposting support; tackling work issues identified as causes of stress, developing agreed plans, and; evaluating / reviewing what's been done.

APMR is a simple, but powerful framework that covers all bases in stress risk management. I've found that my organizational clients get it and that line managers get it. They can see that it makes sense and where what they do fits. Simple solutions are good solutions. They are much more likely to be adopted.

Where do the SSPPT tools fit?
The tools help most with the practicalities of managing stress risks, around Prevention, Monitoring and Responding. For example:

You can use them proactively with teams to identify stress issues affecting that team and develop plans to minimize risks to wellbeing. That is getting to the essence of the risk management process - it's a Preventive approach.
They help with Monitoring because they provide a set of good questions, which can reveal how people see the situation they are in. These simple questions may highlight that people have significant concerns and are beginning to struggle.
But they are also highly effective working with Responding where there already is a concern. This might be where a manager has a concern about an employee's mental wellbeing or when someone has been off work with a stress-related illness. The manager can work with the individual to understand better what's causing stress (which may or may not be work-related), what issues are most important, and the impact that this is having on their wellbeing. From there, the manager can agree plans to look at what can be done about work issues or signpost to appropriate support for non-work issues.

What support is available to implement APMR?
I can help with training (virtual face-to-face, online learning, blended learning or train-the-trainer). This can be management training on APMR or specific training to use and apply the tools. I can also help with consultancy, for example to integrate APMR into your organizational approach, help with culture change, or use as a framework for policy development and implementation. Alan can help too with benchmarking your approach to managing stress and mental health. Or you may wish to utilise this approach with your own clients, in which case, partnering is the way to go.

Is there a cost to using APMR?
No, you can use this framework freely as this IP has a Creative Commons License as do the tools. I do ask for a commitment to undertake training, so that the framework can be used appropriately. It will also help enormously to know who is using this and where so we can build up a picture of what's happening where and who is using this approach and methodology.

Please contact me with any queries you have about using the APMR framework.