Contents - CIPD

The role of the line managerThe line manager’s role is pivotal in organisational stress management. The line managerhas a responsibility to spot the signs and symptoms of stress, to intervene and take thenecessary preventative action before the individual becomes absent from work – andto manage in a way that reduces the likelihood of stress occurring in the first place. Tool15 provides guidelines for training line managers in this area. There is also a need toensure that line managers can access the information they need to manage effectivelyin this area in a user-friendly manner; this is covered by Tool 16.INTRODUCTIONStep 6: Evaluating the effectiveness of stress interventionsThe best way to measure the effectiveness of the interventions that you have implementedis to re-audit and examine any hard data you collect as an organisation, forexample absence data, performance figures. If commitment levels were sustainedthroughout the process and appropriate interventions were genuinely put in place,you can expect to see an improvement in your audit results from the first audit. It isimportant to leave enough time between the two audits for the interventions to takeeffect.Whether a re-audit is feasible or not, stress interventions should be evaluated in nearlyall cases. Tool 18 provides comprehensive guidance on evaluating stress interventions.This Toolkit is primarily aimed at SME businesses but is also likely to be useful forlarger organisations. Smaller businesses and organisations will not need to develop oradopt processes and practices that realistically can only be successfully implementedin larger organisations. However, they should use the Toolkit as an aid to ensuringthey do as much as they can to develop a successful proactive stress managementapproach, within their resource constraints.xviiA free sample chapter from Stress by Robertson Cooper. Published by the CIPD. © 2008 CIPD.All rights reserved; no part of this excerpt may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in anyform or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior writtenpermission of the publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by theCopyright Licensing Agency.If you would like to purchase this product please go to www.cipd.co.uk/bookstore