Employee services need to be provided to help staff feel supported, one expert has said, following the publication of research showing  the tough economic climate could be raising office stress levels.

A study conducted at the University of Nottingham and published in the journal Occupational Medicine found stress-related sick leave increases by a third in recessions, with a quarter feeling under strain when it comes to their jobs during financial downturns.

Kevin Friery, clinical director at talent and career management solutions Right Management’s Workplace Wellness, said this is a problem not all bosses have noticed.

“One of the problems associated with workplace stress is the gap between the perceptions of employees and employers,” he stated.

“Senior managers tend to significantly underestimate the extent of workplace stress and as a result fail to implement preventative measures,” the expert added.

This can lead personnel to feel their organisation is not there to support them, Mr Friery noted.

Indeed, one in three respondents to a recent British Heart Foundation survey said they did not think their organisation cared about their happiness and wellbeing.

As many as two-thirds of people answering the charity’s poll said their companies did not offer any opportunities to improve their fitness or health, such as cycle to work schemes.

Mr Friery said firms need to ask the right questions of employees to grasp how much pressure they are under at work to draw information out of them, such as ‘have you personally felt bullied at work?’ rather than ‘have you experienced bullying at work?’.

These sorts of inquiries should be made into six main areas that are known to cause stress, including the demand on personnel, the amount of control they have, how much support they are given, the way they are treated, an understanding of their role in the organisation and change management.

In each of these areas, surveys should ask staff to specify details about their experiences, so if they were talking about bullying it is important to know whether this behaviour was seen in colleagues, superiors or customers, Mr Friery stated.