'Working Positive' in ESB Customer Supply

Every job creates a certain amount of pressure and sometimes it is this pressure that motivates us to do well. Stress is our body's reaction to excessive pressure. Stress in itself is not an illness. However, if we are under excessive pressure or stress for a long time this may lead to physical or mental ill health such as depression or heart disease.

The Health and Safety Authority have developed 'Work Positive', a risk assessment tool that enables organisations to identify the potential causes of work-related stress and to prioritise actions to reduce them. It is based on a set of Management Standards developed by the UK Health and Safety Executive.

Proactive Risk Assessment

The standards help employers measure their performance at managing workplace stress and meet their legal obligations. These standards have identified the following potential causes of stress at work and a company is deemed to be managing stress successfully if its staff indicate the following in relation to each stressor:

Demands - ability to cope with work demands.
Control - have reasonable control over their work.
Support - receive support from colleagues and managers.
Relationships - are not subjected to unacceptable behaviours.
Role - their role is understood.
Change - engaged about change.
Support is readily available in each of the above areas.

Demands, Control and Support are considered the most reliable indicators whereas Relationships, Role and Change also feature in many stress cases.

The risk assessment takes the form of a questionnaire, respondents are anonymous and confidentiality is guaranteed. There are thirty five statements relating to the management standards. An analysis package produces a report indicating the current state of stress management for the group of respondents.

ESB Customer Supply Programme - to date
'Work Positive' has been chosen by ESB Customer Supply as a stress risk assessment tool. A Steering Group consisting of the ESB Customer Supply Safety Committee has been established to oversee the programme implementation.

The Health & Safety Authority (HSA) has agreed to partner ESB Customer Supply in delivery of the programme. The steering group suggested that staff would benefit from a short seminar on workrelated stress prior to completing the Work Positive questionnaire. As a result, all ESB Customer Supply staff were invited to attend one of the 40 minute seminars on 'Work Positive' held in the major reporting centres.

The seminars were hosted by Patricia Murray, a HSA Organisational Psychologist, and Jerry Kelly, First HRD, who defined stress and how to recognise it. It also gave some useful tips on coping skills for short term relief and management strategies for future prevention. At the end of the seminar each attendee was invited to complete the 'Work Positive' Risk Assessment questionnaire.

A total of 300 completed questionnaires representing 55% of ESB Customer Supply's staff were posted to a third party research organisation who analysed the assessments and produced a report.

The report was presented by Patricia Murray to the Customer Supply Senior Management Team and Steering Group. Using a system of coloured flags it highlights areas of positive feedback and priority areas for improvement. General feedback on the results was presented to staff by Patricia Murray and Jerry Kelly.

Next steps
A more detailed breakdown of the results by business area will be communicated to staff by respective line management as the results can be different depending on business area, location or position.

Interventions aimed at priority areas for improvement will be advanced by the Customer Supply Partnership groups.

The main priority areas will be documented and an action plan developed for implementation of the solutions.

The Senior Management Team and Steering Group will continue to monitor the process to encourage and measure continuous improvement.

A formal review will be conducted in 12 months to test the effectiveness of the programme.
EM