Launching our Workplace Wellbeing Index in 2016 marked a significant achievement for Mind in our mission to support a million people to have good mental health at work by 2021.

Over the past few years, employee wellbeing has been rising up the agenda for employers in the UK. A key aspect of this is the mental health of staff. Organisations depend on having a healthy and productive workforce: we know that when employees feel their work is meaningful and they are valued and supported, they tend to have higher wellbeing levels, be more committed to the organisation’s goals and perform better.

What is work-related stress, and why do we need to tackle it?

There is a difference between stress and pressure. We all experience pressure on a daily basis and need it to motivate us and enable us to perform at our best. It’s when we experience too much pressure without the opportunity to recover that we start to experience stress. The HSE definition of stress is ‘the adverse reaction a person has to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed upon them’.

Teachers report the highest level of occupational stress in Australia, the United Kingdom and America (Bailey, 2013; Education, 2014; Milburn, 2011)