🧠Act in April to prevent work-related stress
- HRNews
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
What is it?
Stress Awareness Month is an annual event observed in the UK every April since 1992, dedicated to increasing public awareness about the causes, effects and management of stress. For employers, it's a useful prompt to take meaningful steps to reduce stress in the workplace.
What you need to know
Employers are legally obligated to manage work-related stress. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advises that stress should be treated like any other workplace hazard, which means:
Identifying stressors and their impact on the workforce
Identifying employees at higher risk, such as those facing heavy workloads or significant change
Taking practical steps to reduce stress where possible
The HSE is clear that stress management must be embedded in workplace culture, not just addressed reactively. The scale of the problem is significant. In 2024/25, nearly one million workers reported stress, depression or anxiety related to their jobs, resulting in 22.1 million working days lost due to stress. 50% of all work-related ill health is attributed to stress.
The HSE argues that Stress Awareness Month is an ideal time for employers to:
Update their stress risk assessment
Ensure managers are trained to confidently address stress within their teams
Review workloads and support systems to reduce stress factors
There's plenty of practical support out there to help:
👉 Stress Talking Toolkits (https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/assets/docs/stress-talking-toolkit.pdf), with more resources available through its Working Minds campaign.
👉 Stress Awareness Month 2026 (https://www.stress.org.uk/stress-awareness-month-2026/).
👉 Stress Awareness Month Resources (https://www.matesinmind.org/news/stress-awareness-month-2026)
What it means for your business
Work-related stress isn't just a wellbeing issue, it's a legal one. With 22.1 million working days lost and stress accounting for half of all work-related ill health, ignoring it carries real operational, financial and legal risk.
April is a natural moment to refresh your approach: dust off your stress risk assessment, check in on how your managers are spotting and supporting stressed team members, and take an honest look at workloads. Getting ahead of stress, rather than waiting for it to show up as sickness absence, grievance or worse, is far easier and cheaper in the long run.
How Lansbury HR can help
We can help you with stress risk assessments, reviewing your wellbeing and absence policies, training managers to spot and support employees showing signs of stress, and working through any individual cases where stress has become a concern. Get in touch to find out more.
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