New HSE Tool designed to measure workers’ stress, mental health, and engagement levels

Originally released in 2017, it is a software-based tool that organisations can use to get feedback on how their employees feel about work – such as managing their workload and dealing with pressure.

All questions are underpinned by the HSE’s management standards approach for work-related stress.

The tool has been updated and expanded in collaboration with the University of Hull to take account of significant changes to working practices, including technological innovations that have altered the ways people work. The purpose of this development is to explore the stress risks that are of most relevance in the context of modern working practices, and to understand how these might be related to mental health outcomes and workforce engagement.

The HSE and University of Hull have partnered with Snap Surveys to create the latest version of the tool, which now includes:  

• Mental Health Outcome Questions (four items about depression and anxiety).
• Nine questions that measures employee engagement.
• A Net Promoter Score (NPS): Asking respondents how likely they are to recommend working at the organisation to a friend.
• A self-generated identification code (SGIC): Providing the option to track individual respondents each time they respond to a survey, without compromising anonymity.
• Remote working survey: an optional extra for organisations that employ remote workers. These questions specifically explore risk for remote and hybrid workers.
• The Stress Indicator Tool auto-report incorporates all the above, along with how your scores compare to the sector average.

Having access to this data helps organisations assess how they are performing against the key areas of work design that are known to cause work-related stress. Analysing the results will generate a better understanding, helping to channel resources into the areas that require it the most.

Furthermore, with many organisations continuing to work in a hybrid/remote-working model, this updated tool will prove essential in planning and monitoring that strategy.

Innovation award

Before its official release (January 2022 ), the Stress Indicator Tool was recognised with a local government award for Innovation in the Digital Impact Category of the LGC Awards 2021, held in the Grosvenor House, London, UK in November.

The tool was used as part of an online employee wellbeing project conducted by the University of Hull.

Dr Steve Jenkins, CEO at Snap Surveys, said: “We’re really delighted to bring the second version of the Stress Indicator Tool to market.

“We have built on what was already a successful solution to ensure it stays relevant during the pandemic and beyond. It will help organisations to develop an effective health and wellbeing strategy, which plays an important role in employee satisfaction and attrition rates as millennials and Gen Z make up more of the workforce.

“We have a long history of collaboration with the HSE and it’s been great to work with them, and The University of Hull, on the new version of the tool.

“The local government Innovation award is a great achievement, and we believe it shows how much the Stress Indicator Tool has to offer employers, especially now as work-from-home orders come back into play.”

Digital solutions

The Stress Indicator Tool is just one of many digital ready-to-run solutions from HSE that help businesses get feedback in key areas, such as customer satisfaction, health and safety, remote working and more.

To find out more, check out the Snap Surveys marketplace.