Train to Gain is the national skills service that supports employers of all sizes and in all sectors to improve the skills of their employees as a route to improving their business performance.Train to Gain is a joint investment – you and the Government working together to boost your business by improving the skills of your individual staff members.

To find out if your company is eligible for a grant of £1,000 towards team building or training and development just answer the following questions:

• Are you in the private/franchise/public or voluntary sectors?
• Does your company employ between 5-249 employees?
• Is your head office in England?
• Do you have an annual turnover of less than £29 Million?
• Has your company received no Leadership and Management funding since April 2006?
• Has your company received less than 500,000 Euros of State Aid over the past three years?

If you answered yes to all of the above then your company is in for a good chance of gaining £1000 towards team building.

Click here for more information.

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Five Minute Angels, which specialises in Indian Head Massage for employees and events, has been tasked with providing the UK’s most recommended bank, first direct, with its services.

Five Minute Angels will be providing first direct offices with professional Indian Head masseuses on a regular basis as part of the company’s policy to maximise employee well-being.

first direct’s People Experience Analyst Angela Parkes says: “first direct is renowned for its mission to pioneer amazing service for its customers and good employee engagement and motivation is key to that mission.

“Five Minute Angels’ Indian Head Massages have helped with that, with employees commenting that they feel much more refreshed and energised after only a few minutes without the need to disrupt their busy schedule”.

The entrepreneur behind the business says he is not surprised that the business is taking off well.

He says: “Having worked previously for large multinationals, I recognised that stress and sitting for a long time in front of a computer had a significant negative impact on people’s well-being and performance. Our service provides a cost effective way to increase employee morale which helps companies to retain their best talent by making employees feel truly valued”.

“It’s not just about our Angels giving exceptional massages – our unique focus ensures that the whole interaction is exciting, invigorating and most importantly, fun. We can also work miracles at corporate and social events, treating staff and guests to a ‘touch of heaven’ that cannot fail to impress”.

For more information on Five Minute Angels freephone 0800 288 8673 or visit www.5minuteangels.com

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The issue of stress at work is a business-critical one. If it is not managed properly stress will cause employee health and absence problems, and reduce individual and organisational productivity.

However, too few employers understand what stress is, how it affects people, or how to identify and manage it.  The following article by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development looks at the negative impact stress can cause organisations and the benefits associated with an effective corporate health & well-being strategy.

CIPD – Building the Business Case for Managing Stress in the Workplace

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Onsite Massage

Modern day Seated Acupressure, also referred to as onsite massage, is a hybrid of the ancient Oriental massage arts of Anma and Shiatsu. Seated Acupressure is a meridian based therapy in which thumb, finger, elbow and knuckle pressures are used to stimulate many of the acupressure points on the 12 major meridians accessible on the back, arms, hands, neck, head and legs. This press and release technique helps to stimulate and balance the flow of energy or life-force throughout the body. In turn this stimulates the circulatory, muscular, nervous, immune and lymphatic systems and promotes the release of endorphins and important mood-regulating neurotransmitters, leaving the client feeling good in a relaxed, but energised and clearly focused frame of mind.

Traditionally, the basic sequence that is taught today lasts no more than 20 minutes, which makes onsite massage the ideal modality for the busy workplace environment where employees benefit from this quick, dynamic de-stressing therapy and can return to their desks buzzing with energy.

The clever, ergonomic design of an easily portable chair completely supports the client’s body in total comfort, allowing the practitioner easy access to the client’s acupressure points without removal of clothing or the use of oils. As a result, in many of today’s busiest environments such as airports, shopping centres, spas and fitness centres, seated acupressure practitioners can be found practising their fluid, choreographed sequence or ‘kata’ on a grateful and willing public. Throughout the last decade, increasing numbers of people have benefited from this amazingly effective therapy which is arguably, one of the fastest growing in the Complementary Therapy Industry.

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Workplace Stress

Policy

Damages awards in stress claims are often high damages of £175,000 were awarded in the landmark case Walker v Northumberland County Council.

Other out-of-court settlements have ranged from £25,000 to £230,000.

If employers do not have the appropriate structure in place to deal with workplace stress, they are subject to a high risk of claims. As a result you should consider reviewing your stress policy, or if you don’t have one, create one as soon as possible.

Why have a stress policy?

It is in both the interests of the employee and employer to follow a clear policy to minimise the likelihood of work-related stress.

There are a number of laws dealing with work-related stress, including health and safety legislation imposing a duty of care on employers not to harm their employees. To comply with this duty, employers are expected to perform an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees.

A stress policy indicates the employer’s commitment to the wellbeing of its employees and provides employees with comfort that consistent procedures will be followed when handling stress. Also, the existence of and adherence to a comprehensive stress policy is likely to be one of the relevant factors that a tribunal and/or court may consider when determining the employer’s liability for a stress claim.

Many high-profile cases are founded on work-induced stress such as excessive workload or working hours, lack of training, discrimination or bullying.

In Hartman v South Essex Mental Health and Community Care NHS Trust, a prison officer suffered psychiatric injury after having to dispose of the bodies of deceased prison inmates who had committed suicide. In this case the employer tried to argue it was not reasonably foreseeable that the prison officer would suffer such an illness.

The court referred to the guidelines given by the Court of Appeal in the landmark case Sutherland v Hatton. It was held that the employer was found to be in breach of its duties of care, because it failed to ensure the employee was offered access to adequate post-incident care, such as counselling.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advises employers, in its guidance Management standards for work-related stress, to consult employees by conducting stress audits and regular performance interviews to identify the problem areas. Once aware of the potential stressors, you should then be able to commit to addressing the problems.

This may be by asking the employee how best to alleviate or remove the stress, for example through redistributing the workload, counselling or offering sabbaticals.

Signs of stress

It is not uncommon for management to ignore obvious signs of stress. This can be for many reasons, including an inability to appreciate the susceptibility to stress of an individual, which is different in each case. Without training in this area management may not be operating the policy properly.Regular staff training, along with monitoring employees with known health risks, are important issues to address and take into account when handling complaints. If formal disciplinary action is necessary, then fair and appropriate procedures must be followed.

Make sure that the stress policy does not form part of the employment contract. This will reduce the risk of being sued for breach of contract should the policy not be followed to the letter.

A careful review of the existing terms and conditions of the employment contract and staff handbook to ensure that the stress policy does not contradict nor override the contract will be necessary.

Steps to implementation

Good communication between you and your employees is essential. You should ensure that the stress policy is widely publicised among your employees by individual letters, posters in the workplace and on the intranet.

Make employees aware how and whom they should approach with a work-related stress problem. If, in implementing a policy, changes are made to employees’ existing terms and conditions of employment you may, depending on the numbers affected, need to consult employees within minimum time frames under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

Key points to include in your stress policy

A statement of your commitment to monitor and reduce work-related stress

A definition of stress. (HSE guidance defines stress as the “adverse reaction people experience when excessive pressures or types of demand are placed on them”)

• Identify work-stressors
• Provide for, and regularly review, risk assessments to health
• Provide a system for recording and managing the risks
• Ensure suitable and sufficient training is provided to all staff
• Ensure suitable support mechanisms are in place, for example, confidential counselling
• Give employees guidance on how to deal with the effects of stress and how to raise concerns within the workplace

Detail the responsibilities of different staff groups.

Health and Safety Executive guidance

The HSE advises employers to include the following wording at the beginning of your policy: “We are committed to protecting the health, safety and welfare of our employees. We recognise that workplace stress is a health and safety issue and acknowledge the importance of identifying and reducing workplace stressors.”

Also, the HSE emphasises the need to make sure your managers:

• monitor workloads to ensure that people are not overloaded
• monitor working hours and overtime to ensure that staff are not overworking
• monitor holidays to ensure that staff are taking their full entitlement
• are vigilant and offer additional support to staff who are under stress outside work because, for example, of bereavement or separation.

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Workplace Stress

Stress in the workplace is a growing problem for individuals and employers and government. HSE research finds that the prevalence of work-related stress has increased from 820 per 100,000 people employed in the previous 12 months in 1974 to 1,300 per 100,000 people employed in the previous 12 months in 2005.

More than 30% of respondents to the CIPD 2008 Absence Management survey identified an increase in stress-related absence, with just 11% reporting a decrease.

The growing impact of work-related stress on public health is reflected by the increasing proportion of incapacity benefit claims that are the result of mental or behavioural problems, including stress. The proportion of Incapacity Benefit (IB) claimants suffering from such conditions has increased from 28% in 1997 to nearly 40% today (Department for Work and Pensions 2006).

It is important to consider some of the reasons for the increase, because it is only by pinning down the causes of growing levels of stress and other mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, that solutions can be identified.

One likely reason is changes in the nature of employment in the last decade and a half, which have led to an intensification of work. The economist Francis Green finds that work intensity increased significantly between 1992 and 2001 (Green 2001). Green identified a number of factors that have contributed to the intensification of work over this period, including competitive pressures increasingly being passed on to employees, and the decline of union representation and power. He also cites as a cause of work intensification the introduction of HR policies designed to encourage greater worker involvement and commitment, including incentives that link effort with pay. The final factor reported by Green as contributing to increased work intensity is technological advances. The development of the Internet, emails, mobile phones, laptops and Blackberrys have increased the pace of work and also blurred the line between work and home for many employees, making it harder for them to switch off and recharge their batteries.

Other developments that over the last two decades may well have contributed to the increased prevalence of stress and other mental health problems in society as a whole include an increase in social isolation as a result of the breakdown of traditional communities and the growth in single occupancy households.

In addition, increased reliance on electronic communication technologies such as the Internet, emails, instant messaging and social networking websites such as Facebook and Bebo mean that people are no longer having as many of the face-toface conversations with family and friends that help put life and its problems into perspective.

Finally, the huge increase in personal debt over the last few years, concerns over higher living costs and, more recently, growing worries over job security against a backdrop of rising unemployment, are also likely to undermine positive mental health and increase stress levels.

All of these trends are likely to continue and increase, particularly as the economic environment becomes tougher, putting people under greater pressure than ever before, both at work and at home.

Against this background, the business case for employers to invest in the well-being of their employees by taking steps to identify and manage stress more effectively becomes cast iron.

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81% of employers now publicly report their commitment to health & wellbeing compared with 68% in 2007

According to the Business Action on Health Campaign by Business in the Community (BITC) there has been a “dramatic” increase in the number of FTSE100 companies reporting their progress on health and wellbeing using quantitative measures, up from 7% last year to 23% in 2008.

Louise Aston, campaign director of Business Action on Health, said: “Significant milestones have been reached over the past year and the issue of health and wellbeing in the workplace has, it seems, finally reached its tipping point. However, we still have a long way to go and ambitious targets to meet.

“We have committed ourselves to raising the proportion of FTSE100 companies reporting and measuring on employee health using quantitative measures from 23% to 75% by 2011.”
Speaking at The Business Action on Heath Work Well International Food Fest in London, Christine Hancock, director of Oxford Health Alliance, addressed the problems in promoting health and wellbeing to employees.

She said: “The problem at the moment is that we do not get the ‘Heineken effect’. Initiatives do not reach all parts of organisations. Initiatives mostly address employees who are fitter or already interested.”

She praised businesses that have made moves in this area. “What we need are really simple key performance indicators – for example, find out how many smokers there are in a workplace and focus reducing this number or find out employees’ body mass indexes and reduce these. Really simple things can have much more benefit.”

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Office Massage

Office Massage – the manipulation of the soft tissue of the body – has been used as a healing therapy for many years, however the use of traditional massage techniques date back much further in history.

Records dating back to 2700 B.C. show that in China massage was used to treat paralysis, chills and fever. Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician writing in 400 B.C., recommended that physicians should treat sports and war injuries with massage and rubbing.

The ancient cultures of Japan, Egypt, Rome and Arabia all considered massage to be calming, soothing and relaxing, and also very important as a healing therapy. Now, in the 21st century, there are many different kinds of massage therapies available such as Office Massage, each of which offers specific benefits to the mind and body. In addition, there are some highly specialised Office Massage techniques which are specifically designed to meet the needs of clients at certain, very special times in their lives.

Office Massage uses either the therapist’s hands to manipulate the body’s soft tissue, especially the muscles. Not only does Office Massage feel great, Office Massage has also been shown to provide tangible health benefits which is great for both the recipient and their employers. These forms of specialised Office Massage can be used to treat a wide range of conditions including stress, insomnia and general aches and pains. Office Massage relieves the symptoms of stiff, tired joints, speeds up digestion and encourages improved circulation, promotes relaxation and improved sleep. Clients who have experienced these forms of specialised Office Massage report that they find the treatment soothing.

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Event Massage

We all know the immense pressure for players to stay alive in high stakes poker tournaments and the built up stress and tension that’s caused for sitting hunched over for hour after hour.

Luckily Five Minute Angels provides onsite event massage specialists who are trained to help venues ensure that their clientele are refreshed and relaxed.

Event massage is a growing phenomenon with both casino managers and poker tournament event organisors beginning to appreciate the true value of onsite massage being provided by highly trained and glamorous masseuses.

Players are encouraged to request an event massage from one of the circulating masseuses so that there is minimum disruption to play. As a result, the Five Minute Angels team remain very much in the background keeping everyone who benefits energised whilst the main focus remains on the game itself. Event massage can also help recipients to continue playing for longer at their peak performance which is great news for both the player and the venue. For more information regarding event massage visit the Five Minute Angels website.

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