UK companies are falling behind the rest of Europe in implementing measures to effectively tackle and deal with stress in the workplace, according to a study carried out by Vigeo.
Just 45% of UK companies reported on stress prevention measures within the workplace, coming in behind France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain.
However, of those that did report, 41% reported advanced measures to cope with stress.
Stress at work has been raising serious challenges for corporate social responsibility with the World Health Organisation recognising it as a growing worry in both developed and developing countries.
Vigeo analyst Laetitia Charrier said British companies' approach to stress prevention could be improved.
"In terms of health and safety policies, UK companies are very much advanced compared to other companies, with 96% reporting a health and safety policy," she said.
"This is mainly because managers and executives are given financial incentives to implement sound health and safety strategies within their companies.
"However, only 25% of UK companies that reported a health and safety policy implemented stress prevention measures."
Charrier explained that this could be due to a difference in legislative frameworks between the UK and other European countries.
"What's interesting to note here, and what explains why so few UK companies disclose strategies on stress prevention, is that the legislative framework is not binding at all," she said.
According to Charrier, the reason for France being the most advanced country in adopting the framework could be because a wave of suicides which occurred around 2008 in public companies, leading the French government to adopt an emergency plan to address stress prevention.
The UK also displayed a poor level of transparency on absenteeism rates, with just 18% of UK companies reporting, putting them only above the US and Canada.
Charrier put this down to an obligation to report certain issues within certain countries: "If you compare the situation in France, Sweden and the Netherlands, listed companies are legally obliged to report on environmental and social indicators which would explain why the percentage of companies disclosing the absenteeism rate is very high.
"The legal framework is very different in the UK, where there is not such an obligation for listed companies to report so this could explain why so few companies reported on this indicator."
Overall, just 19% of companies surveyed around the world have posted a public commitment in favour of stress prevention, and only half of these have undertaken concrete action.
The study employed data from 700 major European and North American companies focusing on professional stress.
However, there were signs of improvement, with the most attentive and engaged businesses in stress prevention located in United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Vigeo director of methodology Fouad Benseddik said: "It is becoming clear that the prevention of stress at work will call on companies' abilities to engage and hold a dialogue on this issue; the most capable have already set a standard for innovation."
