Employers must take measures to try and combat workplace stress, says expert

An Insurance expert has said that employers need to make sure they try and alleviate stress in the workplace, according to wsandb.co.uk.

Paul Avis, marketing director at Canada Life Group, said that workers must feel supported by their employers when navigating through uncertainty that stress and anxiety causes. It comes after his company conducted research that showed 48 per cent of workers feels stress impacts their work negatively.

A further 26 per cent said that they felt overworked and had a poor work-life balance, while 61 per cent said that they found 2012 more stressful that 2011, according to the data, which questioned 1,613 UK employees.

Talking about the results, Avis told employeebenefits.co.uk: "It is worrying that problems within the workplace were a major cause of anxiety [in 2012]. These statistics clearly demonstrate it is in an employer's interest to take issues involving stress seriously."

The data also found that 22 per cent of those questioned who had experienced stress in the workplace last year were too embarrassed to ask for help, whilst 10 per cent had to take time off work due to stress.

Avis added: "An employee should never feel too embarrassed to let their boss know the damaging effect stress is having on their life. Now is the time for employers to reassess how they support their workers in terms of stress, making sure that access to employee assistance programmes is well publicised and without stigma."