A Corporate Stress Audit and Stress Management Training Package
Stress in the Workplace
More and more employees are experiencing stress at work. They may be coping with too much pressure, long hours or rapid change. The nature of employment has now changed, and the idea of a job for life has been replaced by an emphasis on performance. More mergers and acquisitions are taking place within the workplace. Such changes may include reorganisation, relocation, job-redesign and downsizing, all of which can contribute to stress.
Stress and the Risk of litigation
Stress is now recognised as a valid health and safety issue at work. Litigation is on the increase and employers need to be aware of their duties regarding current legislation, under which there have been successful claims. The Health and Safety Executive has established their stress management standards which companies are expected to reach in order to reduce workplace stress, and which make employer’s responsibilities explicit. More and more employers are turning to Stress Management Training to tackle these issues. Stress Management can enable people to improve their own response to stress and enable the organisation to reduce workplace stressors. Our training package addresses the problems of stress with the twofold approach of Stress Auditing and Stress Management Training.
The Stress Audit for the Organisation
We provide the information and materials to enable you to carry out a Stress Audit for the Organisation. The findings of the audit can be addressed in the Stress Management Training sessions. Master copies of all Stress Audit forms and questionnaires are provided,as is a CD with all these forms to enable your organisation to carry out regular audits if you so wish.
Organisational Stress Management
Organisational Stress Management comprises a package of skills which aim to enable the individual employee and the organisation to better manage stress. Our training presents the theory and practice of Organisational Stress Management in a logical and user-friendly way. The Stress Management sessions provide an opportunity to tackle major workplace stressors. All sessions include master copies of questionnaires, logs, handouts and forms for you to photocopy for your stress management groups, together with the same on CD
The Stress Audit
We provide you with the information and materials to carry out your own Stress Audits. The package is designed so that stressors uncovered by the audit are tacked in the Stress Management Training Sessions.
The Lectures
Each of the eight sessions includes a lecture on CD introducing aspects of stress and its treatment. Lectures last from five to ten minutes each and are suitable for direct use with staff as information giving exercises within the stress management training sessions.
The Relaxation Exercises
Each of the eight sessions includes a Relaxation Exercise on CD. These are for direct use with staff and last from fifteen to twenty minutes each. There is a script for each exercise, together with back-up information in the research notes, for those trainers who wish to
develop their skills in this area.
These are the exercises included in the package:
1. Passive Progressive Muscular Relaxation
2. Active Progressive Muscular Relaxation
3. Introducing Relaxed Breathing
4. Deep Physical and Mental Relaxation
5 . The Full Breath and Square Breathing Exercise
6. Autogenic Relaxation Training
7. Anchoring to Positive Thoughts and Feelings
8. Inner Peace and Health.
The Session Plans
Each session includes a session plan for running stress management training sessions. These give you a step-by-step guide to Stress Management Training within the organisation and include suggestions for discussion, methods of assessment, methods of measuring and recording, questionnaires, logs and handouts. We provide all these forms also on CD for you to print for further stress management sessions
The Research Notes
Each session includes research notes providing background knowledge to the skills and techniques and relevant issues in organisational stress and its management.
Related Trainings
Four additional training techniques for the treatment of organisational stress are presented in detail:
1. Problem Solving Therapy
2, Time Management
3. Self-esteem Building
4. Assertiveness Training.
The Content of the Training Package
Session One
We introduce the nature of stress and its management and discuss stress assessment procedures, teaching you to assess the risk of stress-related illness and the nature of the stress problem. We teach you to record your cases so that assessment of outcome is part of the treatment process. We introduce ‘therapeutic information giving’ as a treatment and teach you how to use relaxation training and guided fantasy in practice. We discuss the role of personality type in stress vulnerability. We also provide a structure for a stress audit based on the Health and Safety Executives' recommendations and Management Standards. There is a session plan for session one of your stress management training group together with all the handouts you will need and a relaxation exercise on passive muscular relaxation.
Session Two
We introduce muscular relaxation as a treatment for stress. Muscular tension contributes to chronic stress, which is a habit built up over years. We show you how to teach your staff habits of muscular relaxation. We also show you how to assess their strengths and
weaknesses in coping with stress and explore their individual approach to the stress problem. We cover practice issues in group work and games for groups. We discuss the causes of stress in the organisation and we provide a framework for managing meetings.
There is a session plan for session two of your stress management training group, together with all the handouts you will need and a relaxation exercise on active muscular relaxation.
Session Three
We introduce relaxed breathing and provide you with a means to measure faulty breathing patterns. The very word ‘anxiety’ means to press tight or to strangle and good breathing habits are very important in the management of stress. The major symptoms of stress are
discussed and we introduce strategic interventions at the organisational level. We teach you a method of organisational change management and discuss goal setting within the organisation. There is a session plan for session three of your stress management training group, together with all the handouts you will need and a relaxation exercise introducing relaxed breathing.
Session Four
We introduce Cognitive Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy which argue that stress may be caused by negative thinking. Habits. If we distort a situation in our minds, our emotional response is in line with the distortion, not the facts. We introduce a
method for uncovering negative thinking and show you how to assess depression. We introduce Problem Solving Therapy as a treatment and provide a model for its use. We provide a model for managing presentations and we discuss the risk of litigation. There is a
session plan for session four of your stress management training group, together with all the handouts you will need and a relaxation exercise on deep relaxation.
Session Five
We continue the issue of breathing, which is the one important function of our bodies, closely connected with our emotions, which we can consciously control. We look at the problem of hyperventilation and introduce you to breath control techniques. We discuss
the use of 'triggers' as a treatment and explore the social costs and causes of stress. We introduce personal time management as a treatment and provide a model for its use. We also provide a model for organisational time management, together with an assessment of
organisational time wasters. There is a session plan for session five of your stress management training group, together with all the handouts you will need and a relaxation exercise teaching deep breathing and breath control.
Session Six
We introduce a method to challenge both negative thinking and negative behaviour patterns and explore the possibilities of replacing them with more positive thoughts and behaviours. We teach you how to build individual self-esteem. We discuss gender issues in the work place and we provide an outline for management delegation and provide a model for the treatment of low client self-esteem. There is a session plan for session six of your stress management training group, together with all the handouts you will need and a relaxation exercise based on autogenic training.
Session Seven
We introduce positive thinking and the development of positive behaviour, based on higher self-esteem. We look at the role of flexible working schedules in stress reduction and introduce anchoring techniques as a treatment for stress. We discuss the relationship
between stress and addictions and a model for the treatment of addictions is presented. There is a session plan for session seven of your stress management training group, together with all the handouts you will need and a relaxation exercise on anchoring to
positive thoughts and feelings.
Session Eight
We introduce issues of diet and exercise and the role that stress plays in the development of eating disorders and the use of dietary supplements in treating stress and cover the problems of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. We introduce Assertiveness
Training as a treatment for stress and provide a model for its use. We further discuss the better management of telephone calls in the work place. We teach you how to assess the measures of stress used in the training and provide methods of assessing changes in the
individual employee. A method of evaluating the training for employees is also provided. There is a session plan for session eight of your stress management training group, together with all the handouts you will need and a relaxation exercise on inner peace and health.
Options within the Training Package
The training package is designed to be flexible allowing customers to choose the option which best suits their individual and professional needs. The following options are available.
1. The training can be used as a training package.
The training may easily be used, as it stands, as a training package for stress audit and stress management training within the Organisation so that the skills we teach can rapidly be put to use. Training Departments, Personnel Departments, Human Resources and Health and Safety Departments in many organisations use our training package.
2. The Diploma in Organisational Stress Management Organisations buying this package may enter a member of their staff for the Diploma in Organisational Stress Management. Individuals buying this package may also enter for the Diploma. The Diploma in Organisational Stress Management Training is an award made by The Stress Management Institute. It is awarded on the submission of three set essays of 1,000 words each. Essays to be submitted within 18 months of enrolment and to be to the required standard. In the event of failure, resubmission under tutorial advice is possible. Successful trainees may use the form ‘Dip. Stress Management Training’ after their names
You may begin the course at any time and work at your own pace. You have 18 months to complete the Diploma but may complete in less time. There is no minimum time limit and some trainees do complete in two or three months.