Occupational Stress Management

1. This policy statement sets out the University’s aims and objectives in relation to harmful stress at work.

2. The University of Bath, as an employer, places a high value on maintaining a healthy and safe working environment for all its employees. The University recognises that this duty of care extends to maintaining mental as well as physical well-being. Mental health problems have many causes, including stresses in the workplace and in the life of employees away from work. Whilst the University has no control over external factors it is committed to identifying sources of potentially harmful levels of stress in the workplace and taking action to eliminate or reduce them.

3. The University will encourage staff in practising good management techniques, and will seek to prevent harmful occupational stress by promoting:
   a) A general awareness of harmful workplace stress, its effects on staff, and methods to combat it;
   b) Action to combat harmful workplace stressors;
   c) The availability of relevant training for managing stress in others and in one’s self;
   d) The monitoring of the incidence of harmful stress; and
   e) Responsiveness to the need to adjust workloads or to redesign job specifications where necessary to reduce potentially harmful levels of stress.

4. It is the responsibility of those who manage or supervise staff to be aware of their duty of care to their staff, to be aware of and to recognise the symptoms of excessive stress in their staff, and to take the appropriate and reasonable action to prevent harm.

5. The University will provide support to staff shown to be suffering from the harmful effects of occupational stress through informal guidance, counselling, medical advice or treatment as appropriate.

6. The University will consult with the employee’s representatives on stress-related issues, will maintain and publicise its statement of policy on occupational stress management, and will evaluate the implementation of that policy as it seeks to enhance the well-being of its staff.

7. Whilst this policy aims to proactively prevent the occurrence of potentially harmful levels of stress there remains a responsibility on any member of staff who feels under undue pressure to seek such assistance or support as felt necessary. It must also be noted that the University has a number of formally agreed employment and disciplinary procedures that may be invoked as appropriate, and nothing in this policy should prevent or delay the operation of such procedures