Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Employers have a legal duty to assess and manage risks to employee health and safety, including risks arising from work-related stress.

Yes. All employers have a duty to assess and manage risks to employee health, including work-related stress. The size of the business may affect how formal the process is, but not the responsibility itself.

There is no separate law called a stress risk assessment, but employers are required under health and safety law to assess and manage risks to employee health, including stress.

A stress risk assessment usually involves identifying potential causes of workplace stress, gathering employee feedback, reviewing working conditions, deciding what action may be needed, and reviewing whether improvements are working over time. This may include surveys, discussions with employees, reviewing absence trends, identifying pressure points, and documenting actions taken.

Employers should consider factors that may contribute to work-related stress, including workload and demands, control over work, support, workplace relationships, role clarity, communication, and how organisational change is managed.

Failing to assess and manage stress risks can lead to increased absence, employee complaints, regulatory attention, and potential legal claims. Employers are expected to show that risks have been considered and addressed.

Yes. Employers are expected to understand how work may be affecting employees in practice. This often involves gathering feedback through conversations, surveys, reviews, or ongoing communication. Without employee insight, it can be difficult to identify workplace stress risks properly.

It does not need to be complicated, but it does need to be meaningful.

The goal is not simply to complete paperwork. Employers are expected to understand workplace stress risks, take reasonable action where needed, and review whether those actions are helping. A structured process makes this much easier to manage and evidence over time.

Psychosocial risks are the risks to employee health and wellbeing that can arise from workplace factors such as excessive workload, poor communication, lack of support, unclear roles, workplace conflict, or poorly managed organisational change. These workplace factors are often referred to as psychosocial hazards. The level of risk depends on factors such as the severity of the issue, how long it continues, who may be affected, and what controls are in place. Psychosocial hazards and risks are commonly assessed as part of a workplace stress risk assessment.

Employers should be able to demonstrate how risks were identified, what action was taken, and how effectiveness has been reviewed. This may include employee feedback, surveys, action plans, communications, meeting notes, and ongoing monitoring.

There is no fixed timeframe for reviewing a stress risk assessment. However, it should be reviewed regularly and whenever there are significant workplace changes, emerging concerns, or incidents that may affect stress-related risks. Examples include increased workloads, organisational change, restructuring, staffing shortages, or concerns raised by employees.

Templates and policies can be useful starting points, but on their own they do not demonstrate that stress risks have been identified, assessed, and managed.

Employers should be able to show what has been reviewed, what action has been taken, and whether those actions have been effective.

You can visit the HSE website for guidance, templates, and further information on managing work-related stress. Mente also provides practical templates, resources, and structured tools to help employers begin identifying, assessing, and managing workplace stress risks.

Stress risk assessments should focus on workplace hazards and risks rather than collecting unnecessary personal medical information. Where employee feedback is gathered, employers should handle information appropriately, respect confidentiality where possible, and comply with data protection requirements.

Compliance First is a workplace stress risk management platform from Mente. It helps employers gather employee insight, assess workplace stress risks, record actions, monitor progress and maintain evidence in one secure system.