Trans2 tackling stress at work

Trans2 Performance, based at The Deep Business Centre in Hull, has consulted with mental health professionals and researched the impact on businesses and employees nationwide of stress at work. At the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week, the company unveiled stress management training which sits alongside its programmes for leadership, management, sales and customer service.

Freya Cross, Business and Corporate Manager at The Deep and a national board member of the Business Centre Association, said: “Work is one of the most common causes of stress. It is something I have become aware of through my own business networks and it is an issue which Trans2 Performance have identified as they have researched the needs of businesses and their employees.

“In launching Mental Health Awareness Week, the Mental Health Foundation revealed that 70 million working days are lost each year to mental health problems in the UK, costing employers around £2.4 billion every year.”

Martin Johnson, CEO of Trans2 Performance, said: “Our courses in management and leadership, sales and customer are all about developing the positive aspects of a company and its workforce, but there is another side to that which is all about dealing with the negative aspects. Stress is damaging for businesses, employees and families. We decided we should do something to try to address that.”

Expansion since the launch of the business in 2015 has given Trans2 Performance a six-strong team and its own conference and training suite at The Deep Business Centre. The company has helped to improve performance for clients including KCOM, Siemens, Jet2 and Hull FC, winners of the Rugby League Challenge Cup for the last two seasons. In preparing its programmes to manage stress it has worked closely with mental health organisations and studied countless reports produced by the Government and by blue-chip consultancies.

Martin said: “The financial costs of working days directly lost to mental health issues are astronomical and another aspect is ‘presentee-ism’ – the loss in productivity that occurs when employees come to work but function at less than full capacity because of ill health.

“But it is not just about the financial figures. The strain on individuals and their families is severe, and the Mental Health Foundation’s checklist for employers includes the provision of training opportunities for line managers on how to support staff with mental health problems and stress management.”

The main work factors identified from Trans2’s research as causing work related stress, depression or anxiety were workload, deadlines, too much responsibility and lack of managerial support.

Martin said: “We can educate businesses all we want about duty of care, but we have to provide them with improved education and understanding about stress in the workplace, where it comes from and an action plan to try and support employees and find the root cause.”

Freya added: “Trans2 Performance has expanded gradually in terms of people and significantly in terms of space since opening here less than three years ago.

“We keep in close contact with all of our tenants and it is clear Trans2 Performance are heading for continuing growth because, like us, they work very hard to understand and anticipate the needs of their clients.”