Making the Management Standards work

Drawing lessons from experience, the International Stress Management Association (ISAMA) found that:

Programmes were most successful if:

• decisions and policies were first tested on pilot groups;

• support was in place before introducing the stress management approach;

• initial benchmarking was carried out; and

• different methods of assessment were used.

Programmes are not very successful if:

• a survey is carried out without first educating managers about stress and the reason for tackling it; and

• without prior communication with staff.

Programmes were less successful if:

• there was no senior management commitment;

• the project group making the decisions did not understand stress and the issues involved;

• the results of surveys were not communicated effectively to staff; and

• solutions to problems were determined by senior management with no input from staff.

They were also not successful if attention was only paid to educating the individual.