thrive at work/Preventing stress in the workplace

Guide · Prevention

How to prevent stress in the workplace.

Prevention means finding where stress comes from before people get ill, and changing those conditions. It works best as a routine, not a campaign.

By Jerry Fiser, Founder & CEO · Reviewed by Marcin Bulik, Research Director · Updated November 8, 2026

Last reviewed November 2026

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How can employers prevent stress in the workplace?

Treat stress like any other workplace risk: assess it, find the teams and conditions that cause it, change those conditions, and check again. Focus on workload, control, support, relationships, role clarity and how change is managed.

Key takeaways

Treat stress like any other workplace risk: assess, act, check.
Six areas to work on: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
In Germany, assessing psychological strain is a legal duty.
Recovery scores usually fall first, so they improve first too.

Why preventing workplace stress pays off.

Chronic stress shows up as lower focus, more mistakes, more short absences and higher turnover. Preventing it protects performance as well as health, and it is usually cheaper than dealing with burnout and replacing people who leave.

Six areas to prevent stress in the workplace.

Demands
Plan workload. Match work to people and time. Stop or delay projects when teams are full.
Control
Share decisions. Involve teams in how work is organized.
Support
Equip managers. Give managers time and training to support their people.
Relationships
Act on conflict. Have clear routes to raise and resolve conflict and poor behavior.
Role
Clarify expectations. Everyone should know what good looks like in their job.
Change
Explain and consult. Explain why change is happening and give people a voice.

Three colleagues planning work at a glass wall

Assess workplace stress like any other risk.

Many countries require employers to assess psychological risks. In Germany this is part of the workplace risk assessment under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastung). In the UK, the UK Health and Safety Executive Management Standards give a structured approach.

The UK Health and Safety Executive guidance on work-related stress and European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) on psychosocial risks both treat stress as a workplace risk to assess and control. The OSHA guidance on workplace stress collects US resources.

Steps for managing workplace stress risks.

1
Identify the hazards. Use a survey and team discussions to find where stress comes from.
2
Decide who might be harmed. Look at teams and roles, not only individuals.
3
Evaluate and act. Agree changes to workload, control, support, roles and how change is handled.
4
Record what you found. Document the risks, actions, owners and dates.
5
Review. Measure again after a few months and update the plan.

A 90-day plan to prevent stress in the workplace.

Weeks	What happens	Output
1 to 2	Anonymous survey by team	Baseline: strain, capacity, engagement
3 to 4	Team workshops on results	Two or three priorities per team
5 to 10	Changes to workload, control and support	Owners and dates for each change
11 to 13	Re-measure the same questions	Evidence of what moved

What managers control.

Managers decide most of the daily conditions that create or prevent stress: how work is allocated, how priorities are set, whether people can switch off, and whether problems can be raised safely. Training them to spot early signs and act on one condition at a time prevents more stress than any policy. See signs of burnout at work.

How managers can open a conversation about stress.

Ask privately how the person is finding their workload, listen without judging, and agree one change you can make this week. Check in again within seven days.

Practical ideas to prevent stress in the workplace.

Idea	Why it helps
Meeting-free focus blocks	Fewer interruptions, more control over the day
Clear priorities each week	Less conflict between demands
Flexible hours or remote work where possible	More control over when and where work happens
Quiet spaces	Somewhere to concentrate or recover
Social time with colleagues	Support and connection
Access to counseling	Help for people who are struggling

Combine ideas like these with changes to workload and roles. Perks alone rarely prevent stress if the underlying demands stay too high.

Team agreements that prevent workplace stress.

Simple team agreements reduce stress quickly: when messages can wait until morning, how urgent requests are flagged, how new work is prioritized against existing work, and when meetings are not scheduled. Agree them together, write them down and review them after a month.

Check whether stress prevention worked.

Prevention without measurement is guesswork. Run an anonymous survey before and after changes, report by team, and look at capacity measures such as recovery and energy as well as engagement. Recovery usually falls first, so it is the earliest place to see improvement too.

Capacity detail in the thrive at work platform — Recovery and energy by team show whether prevention is working.

Indicators that workplace stress prevention is working.

Indicator	Source
Workload and control scores improve	Survey
Energy and recovery hold in busy periods	Survey
Short-term absence falls	HR data
Fewer stress-related complaints	HR and occupational health

Measure it

thrive at work measures four capacity domains (energy, recovery, focus and resilience) alongside four engagement domains in one anonymous survey: the employee capacity assessment.

Measure capacity, not just mood

Most stress problems show up first as falling energy, recovery and focus. thrive at work is a workforce performance platform: an employee engagement platform that also measures capacity to perform, so you can see strain by team before it turns into absence or resignations. Read more about employee capacity.

Sources.

UK Health and Safety Executive Management Standards. www.hse.gov.uk
UK Health and Safety Executive guidance on work-related stress. www.hse.gov.uk
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) on psychosocial risks. osha.europa.eu
OSHA guidance on workplace stress. www.osha.gov

Common questions

What is the first step to prevent workplace stress?

Find out where it is coming from. An anonymous survey reported by team shows which conditions and which teams need attention first.

Is preventing workplace stress a legal requirement?

In many countries, yes. In Germany, psychological strain must be part of the workplace risk assessment. Check the rules in each country where you employ people.

How often should stress be assessed?

At least once a year, and again after significant change such as restructuring or rapid growth.

How can employers reduce stress in the workplace?

Find where stress comes from by team, change the conditions behind it (workload, control, support, role clarity, how change is handled) and measure again after a few months.

What is a stress risk assessment?

A structured check of the work conditions that can cause stress, with actions to reduce the risks and a review of whether they worked.

What are the best ways to prevent stress at work?

Manage workload, give people more control, clarify roles and priorities, train managers to support their teams, handle change openly and measure stress by team so you know where to act.

What is the employer’s role in preventing workplace stress?

To assess the risks, change the conditions that cause stress, support people who are struggling and check whether the changes work.

Prevent stress where it starts.

A 30-minute call covers how a first measurement shows the conditions behind stress.

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