A Staff Survey Is Not the Whole Stress Risk Assessment

A staff survey can be a useful way to gather employee feedback and identify areas where people may be experiencing harmful pressure at work.

However, collecting responses is not the same as completing a stress risk assessment. Employers still need to consider what the findings mean, identify the workplace factors that may be creating risk and decide what action is appropriate.

Actions should be recorded, responsibilities assigned and progress reviewed. Employers should also consider other relevant information, such as changes in workload, absence patterns, employee concerns, incidents or operational changes.

A survey is therefore a useful source of evidence, but it should sit within a wider and structured risk assessment process rather than being treated as the assessment itself.