As we kick off a New Year, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have launched a new mental health campaign webpage to help employers tackle workplace stress.
Forming part of the HSE’s long-term Working Minds campaign, the new webpage provides employers with essential information about how workplace stress develops and why it’s important to prevent it.
The webpage, Understanding the impact of stress at work, explains the impact that workplace stress has on worker health, absence rates and workplace productivity.
Britain’s health and safety watchdog want to highlight workplace stress is preventable and how good work design can play a pivotal role in this.
Workplace stress results in millions of lost working days
It follows publication in November 2025 of the HSE’s latest workplace health and safety statistics, which showed that work-related stress, depression and anxiety accounted for over half of all cases of work-related ill-health last year (51%).
The annual statistics on work-related ill health and workplace injuries for 2024/25 revealed that 964,000 workers experienced stress, depression or anxiety caused or made worse by their work.
An estimated 22.1 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety, accounting for almost two thirds of all working days lost due to work-related ill-health in 2024-25 (62% of 35.7 million).
To change this for 2026, the HSE advises employers to be “proactive” and take decisive action early on. They advise that by “supporting your workforce, promoting open conversations, and implementing practical changes, you can reduce stress and improve mental health at work.”
Employers have a legal duty to manage workplace stress
It’s important to remember in the first instance that employers have legal duty to protect their employees from stress at work.
This means that employers are legally required to assess the risks of workplace stress, including identifying potential stressors and who may be impacted. They must then take effective action to reduce those risks as far as possible. This may include implementing practical control measures, such as adjusting employee workloads, improving communication channels and offering additional support.
The HSE offers a Stress Risk Assessment template to help employers get started.
Britain’s health and safety watchdog has also developed the HSE Management Standards, which represent the six key areas of work design that can impact stress levels. They are:
- Demands – workload, work patterns and the work environment
- Control – the degree of control workers have over their work
- Support – the support workers receive from their managers and colleagues
- Relationships – promoting positive relationships within the workplace
- Role – understanding of job role and responsibilities
- Change – managing and communicating any changes effectively
Employers need to ensure they recognise and actively manage these. This will help them to better understand and reduce workplace stress.
Workplace stress is ‘manageable’ and ‘preventable’
The key steps to managing the risks of workplace stress include:
- Carry out a stress risk assessment to identify the causes of workplace stress and the actions to reduce them
- Implement practical and timely changes. These could include clearer roles, manageable workloads, better communication or flexible working arrangements
- Promote open conversations about workplace stress and encourage workers to discuss concerns, highlighting the support and resources available to them
- Monitor and review your control measures and your workers’ experiences to ensure changes are working effectively. Stress management should remain an integral part of everyday management practices
Following the above steps can help ensure a healthier, happier and more productive workforce.
HSE’s key message is that workplace stress is manageable and that following advice, guidance and defined standards can help all employers to improve mental health at work.
They also offer a Stress Talking Toolkit as additional support for employers.
The HSE’s well-established Working Minds campaign helps employers and workers prevent work-related stress. It includes free resources such as posters, a podcast and an app. There’s also advice and guidance for employers and different sectors, help for workers and information about supporting the campaign and becoming a Working Minds Champion.
Training in stress and mental health at work
First Response Training (FRT) is one of the UK’s largest and leading national training providers.
They deliver a wide and diverse range of training for businesses and organisations across all industry sectors and throughout the UK. Their course range includes training in the fields of health and safety, first aid, fire safety, manual handling, mental health, food safety, health and social care and more.
An accredited Mindful Employer themselves, FRT’s specialist mental health training courses include Understanding Mental Health, Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace, Managing Stress, Anxiety and Phobias Awareness, Self-Harm Awareness and Suicide Awareness.
They can also provide qualified, approved trainers to deliver accredited Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training courses, including the Adult, Youth and Lite versions.
A trainer from FRT says:
“We believe in creating safer working environments with people who care. This is our vision and central to our services. It means providing training that helps to protect people’s physical and mental health, safety and welfare.
“While stress is not recognised as a diagnosable mental health condition, it can lead to more serious mental health problems such as depression and anxiety and can also have physiological effects.
“It’s important to ensure that we regularly undergo essential training in health, safety and welfare across all organisations and industries. This should include specific training in mental health and managing stress.”
Helpful resources to support health, safety and welfare at work
A brief summary of our mental health training can now be downloaded as an infographic.
We also have several other free infographics available to download which provide simple tips for helping to manage your mental and emotional wellbeing and proactively manage your stress levels. These include:
- Managing Stress at Work
- Manage Your Stress at Work
- Manage Your Stress
- Support Your Mental Health
- Connect With Nature
- Work Well From Home
You can download our free Guide to Mental Health Training from our website.
We also offer a guide to promoting positive mental health at work, a guide to creating a happy and inclusive work environment and lots of other free guides and resources.
For more information on the training that FRT can provide, please call them today on freephone 0800 310 2300 or send an e-mail to info@firstresponsetraining.com.