Tackling mental stress can pay off

At any one time, some 12 per cent of the workforce is suffering from mental stress of some form or another. The Health and Safety Authority now officially recognises stress as a workplace hazard.

And companies that look after their workers' mental well-being have lower absenteeism, lower staff turnover, fewer accidents and less compensation claims than those which don't. That's according to Mr Colman Dunne, who believes that all too few Irish companies - especially in the IT sector - have employee assistance programmes in place for their workers. These programmes EAPs are a proactive resource, with counselling available on a self-referral basis to workers who don't even have to use the company as a point of reference. The company pays for the facility. Mr Dunne says the Confederation of British Industry found in 1998 that companies with such a programme saved £4 (€5) for every £1 spent. In the US, three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies have such programmes and Mr Dunne says they save $7 (€7.55) for every $1 spent.

Any personal issue can affect people and their performance, be it bereavement, relationship difficulties, depression or anxiety. Single parenthood, childcare problems, separation, substance abuse or corporate issues such as the pressures of downsizing, contract or shift work, or staff shortages can take their toll. "That 12 per cent would be a generally accepted statistic that applies across the board for any population," he says.

There is no suggestion that as many as 12 per cent are suffering from work-originating stress. But Mr Dunne believes that close to that percentage of workers in the IT sector could suffer from work-related stress, given that its pressures and rewards can be "huge" and that "vulnerable people are coming under pressure sooner".

None of the 12 per cent will be performing at their best at work. If they are in a work environment where there are "huge expectations, huge pressures, huge rewards", they are going to come under even greater pressure, he says.

Quite a number of Irish companies have now moved towards such employee-assistance programmes and support-type services for their staff. "But the IT sector hasn't. Obviously, because they're in such new start-up positions, they haven't started looking at what we call the `softer' employee benefits.

"They're looking at the `hard' employee benefits in terms of reward, share options and bonuses. Other employee benefits, like employee-assistance programmes, they're not yet being considered."

These programmes are confidential. The company does not know which members of staff avail of its counselling services. Indeed, companies have to trust that the programme invoices are correct.

"We do usage reports. We will identify the company, the number of people that are using the programme and the number of visits that have taken place. And they're invoiced for that. But the people are not identified."

Companies can plan how much it might cost them by using the 12 per cent baseline statistic. Of these, perhaps only 40 per cent will avail of programme services in any given year, he says.

"So you can predict reasonably in advance that probably two or three of each 100 employees will use it in a given year. So you're able to give the company a reasonably good steer as to how much it's going to cost them."

It used to be that employee-assistance programmes "picked up the casualties that were identified by management. But at that stage, your potential to retrieve the individual was quite limited".

By casualties, he refers to "people who don't take the pressure, the people who just don't cope for one reason or another. It's not necessarily because of the pressures of the workplace. It's usually a combination of personal pressures and the workplace demands. And the demands on the individual that the individual has put on themselves to cover up what's going on."

Recovery rates among people identified with personal problems by management and referred onwards in the past were relatively low, he says.

"Employee-assistance programmes as they're implemented now are quite different." When they're introduced into a workforce, there's a very high profile level of seminar activity, teaching people about how personal issues impact on performance.