Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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the second most common reason for short-term sickness absence among
non-manual workers. In addition, the HSE (2009) reported figures from
the Labour Force Survey (LFS) that self-reported work stress, depression or
anxiety accounted for an estimated 11.4 million lost working days in
2008/2009.
Should an individual become overly stressed at work then intention
to leave, and eventually staff turnover, will increase. High rates of
employee turnover can be expensive to a company because it raises
costs, reduces overall efficiency, and disrupts other workers (CIPDb,
2011). The importance of selection and retention of new employees is
also apparent; four hundred and twenty two human resource professionals
surveyed (75% of those asked) in the USA identified selection and
retention of new employees as one of their top five priorities (International
Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists, 2007).
Organisations are increasingly being held responsible for employee
stress due to the belief that they are doing too little to cut down on the
stressful aspects of many jobs, possibly helping to explain the growth in
corporate health and stress management programmes in the UK, USA and
elsewhere. In the UK the number of employee stress compensation claims
has been increasing. There are now hundreds of cases in the courts each
year and those that were settled in and around the year 2000 resulted in
compensation of an average of £250,000 each (Arnold, 2005).
To conclude, organisational stress has the potential to add both
overt and covert costs to the running of any organisation. These costs
come from a variety of areas, from litigation taken by employees against
the organisation and absenteeism costs, to healthcare outlays and the
money it takes to recruit new individuals. These costs are obviously
detrimental to the running of any organisation, and in order to reduce
these costs it is of obvious importance to the organisation that recognising
the potential stressors could help in saving money. The next section of
this literature review therefore explains some of the stressors that have
been identified by researchers.