The police force holds one of Australia's highest concentration of stressed workers. In addition to the inherent stress of fighting crime, various reports over the years have documented on-the-job difficulties such as staff shortages, low worker morale and strained personal relationships.

When RTW Matters spoke with Safety Strategy Manager of Victoria Police, Debra Maiden, she gave good advice about how stress in the force is being targeted. Here’s a summary of tips:

• Train leaders. In both group briefings and in one-on-one training, supervisors and managers can be trained to recognise the signs of stress and overwork in their employees - and learn how to respond to those signs with early action.
• Work together. Keep other managers and supervisors, as well as all staff, informed and up-to-date with what you’re aiming towards: lower stress levels. Staff are more likely to be on side if they’re well informed about action in their workplace. Let them know you're taking action to reduce the impact of stress on them. This sort of communication will help overcome any distrust or suspicion in a workplace, and encourage further input from all staff.
• Review policies and procedures. This is important even when policies for stress prevention and reduction are achieving positive results. Analyse why results are positive - or why they're not - to ensure policies can adapt to employees’ changing needs and a workplace's new challenges. Know where things have failed in the past so you can try different approaches in the future.
• Promote your flexibility. Let people know you’re flexible in providing suitable duties and alternate arrangements in the workplace that help make live easier for staff. Studies show the more flexible managers can be towards staff, the more loyal staff is likely to be in return.
• Be available. Let people know you’re available for a chat and encourage them to speak to you about their concerns at work.
• Start change from the top. Change has to start at the top – when action is driven by people in positions of leadership that attitude can filter down to all staff members in a directed and organised way.

We know police officers are experiencing stress in droves. And we know they’re not alone. Lifeline Australia tells us that 91% of Australians experience stress in their life - work is a major cause of this stress.

Address the issue in your workplace because, like most problems, ignoring it will NOT make it go away. Let us know if you need more information about how to deal with stress in your workplace or return to work issues involving employees experiencing stress, and we’ll write about it.