The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has published three new guides to help line managers and HR professionals combat work related stress.

Ben Willmott, CIPD employee relations adviser, says: “Workplace stress is the most common cause of long-term absence and also damages employee morale and productivity and leads to high staff turnover.  Employers that fail to manage stress are also vulnerable to litigation and potentially high compensation payouts.

“Good people management can help to prevent most of the problems causing stress at work, such as lack of control over workload. If managers set clear goals, communicate with clarity, consult, provide feedback and recognition and develop and coach their teams, stress is much less likely to become a problem.”

The new guidance draws on 19 key management behaviours that play a vital role in preventing, identifying, and tackling stress effectively. The behaviours have been used to create a framework enabling line managers to work on the skills required to reduce and prevent stress at work.