Stress can cause small businesses to lose 'quite a lot of money'

10 February 2010 03:25:02

The Health and Safety Commission has said that small businesses may be more at risk of losing money if employees are suffering from stress-related illnesses.

Speaking to researchers, spokesperson Ray Allger said that small businesses did not have the same availability of cover as larger organisations, so that if an employee needed to be absent from work due to a stress-related illness, finding temporary staff and training them could prove costly.

Mr Allger suggested a solution to help tackle this potential problem: "Small businesses can request a visit from a specialist; they will go in look at the work place and the working patterns and basically help the small businesses to identify areas where issues of stress might occur."

He added that while not all events could be foreseen, small businesses should follow the Health and Safety Act guidelines and prepare for potential setbacks.

"There are a lot of incidents that you can account for … with really simple steps they can be managed."