Stress Risk Assessment Template (Free Download)
If someone has asked you to do a stress risk assessment and you are not sure where to start, this is the template I would use. Fill it in on this page, put your own logo on it if you want, and save it as a PDF when you are done. No sign up, no cost, and nothing you type comes to us. It saves as you go but only onto your own computer, so you can close the tab and come back to it later.
Fill it in online· Print a blank copy· The six areas· How to fill it in· See an example· Questions
Now, a workplace stress risk assessment sounds like a big formal exercise, and I understand why people put it off. What it comes down to is asking where the pressure in your team is coming from, writing down what you found, and deciding what you are going to do about it. The six areas below are the ones the Health and Safety Executive uses, so you are not sitting in front of a blank page guessing what to include.
Every employer in the UK has a duty to assess the risks to their people’s health, and work-related stress sits inside that duty. If you employ five or more people you also need to write down what you found. People often call it an HSE stress risk assessment, because the Health and Safety Executive is where the approach comes from. So the template asks for a name against every action and a date to look at it again, because if nobody goes back to it in three months then all you have really done is write something and file it.
And it is worth doing properly rather than as a box tick. According to the HSE, 964,000 people had work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25, which is about half of all work-related ill health, and it cost 22.1 million working days. That is close to 23 days each. If someone in your team had to take a month off, you would feel it, and so would everyone covering for them.
The stress risk assessment template
Fill this in below. If you are staring at it wondering how much to write, press “Show Me an Example” and a completed one opens in a window you can read alongside your own. It does not touch anything you have typed.
Stress Risk Assessment
Built around the six HSE Management Standards
0 of 6 areas started
The PDF button opens your browser’s print window. Choose “Save as PDF” as the destination and you will get a clean copy with the styling stripped out.
Download a blank stress risk assessment PDF
Some people would rather do this with a pen, in a room, with the team in front of them. This gives you the same six areas with room to write, ready to print. It comes out blank whatever is in the form above, so you can be halfway through your own and still get a clean copy.
The six areas the HSE asks you to look at
These six areas are the HSE Management Standards, and they are worth reading before you fill anything in, because most people find their real problem sits in an area they were not expecting.
How to fill it in
1. Start with what you already have
Before you ask anybody anything, have a look at what is already sitting in your systems. Sickness absence, staff turnover, exit interviews, grievances, notes from one to ones, overtime patterns. Quite often one team is carrying something the rest of the business has not noticed, and you will see it in the numbers before anyone says it out loud.
2. Ask your team, and let them answer anonymously
This is the part people skip, and skipping it is what turns the whole thing into a guess. You cannot fill in the Support or the Relationships section on somebody else’s behalf, and not many people will tell their manager to their face that the problem is their manager.
If you want a quick way to gather it, Workplace Lens is our own survey tool, so weigh that accordingly. It asks anonymously about workload, job satisfaction, stress, communication, development and mental wellbeing, which maps closely onto the six areas above, and it gives you a score per area rather than a spreadsheet to work through yourself. It is free to get started.
3. Write down what you are already doing
This is the box people leave blank, and it is worth filling in. If you already have an employee assistance programme, flexible hours, trained mental health first aiders or a decent rhythm of one to ones, write it down. Leaving it empty makes your organisation look worse than it is, and it tends to produce action plans that duplicate something you are already running.
4. Rate each area honestly
Low, medium or high. The temptation is to put medium against everything so the document looks balanced, and that helps nobody. If Demands is high, say high. Nobody is going to thank you for an assessment that says everything is fine when it is not.
5. Decide what further action is needed, and who is doing it
Be specific and be realistic. “Improve communication” is not an action. “Team lead runs a fortnightly 20 minute catch up, starting 12 August” is an action. Put a name against it too, because an action with nobody’s name on it tends not to happen. That name is often not the person who wrote the assessment, which is why the form asks for both.
6. Save it, share it, and set a date to look again
Download the PDF, share it with whoever needs it, and put the review date in the calendar. Three to six months suits most teams, sooner if you scored anything high or if something significant is changing. When you come back, tick off what actually got done. That bit is more satisfying than it sounds.
A stress risk assessment example
This is a made-up customer support team, filled in across all six areas. It is the same example the button at the top of the form opens, so you can keep it on screen while you work through your own. Yours does not need to be longer than this.
1. Demands
High- What we found
- Ticket volume up about 30% on last year with the same headcount. Three people mentioned working through lunch in their one to ones, and the anonymous survey put Demands lowest of the six areas. Sickness absence up in this team but not elsewhere.
- What we already do
- Flexible start and finish times, an employee assistance programme, and workload as a standing item in monthly one to ones.
- What further action is needed
- Two contractors through the autumn peak. Ticket triage reviewed so simple queries stop reaching the team at all. Lunch cover rota so nobody eats at their desk. Alongside that, a practical session on handling the pressure that will still be there once the backlog clears.
- Who will do it, and review by
- Priya, Support Manager. Review in three months.
2. Control
Medium- What we found
- The team escalate routine decisions because nobody is sure what they are allowed to sign off. Two people said they feel watched rather than trusted.
- What we already do
- A weekly team meeting where work is allocated.
- What further action is needed
- Written decision limits so the team can approve a refund up to 100 pounds without asking. Self-scheduling on the rota trialled for one quarter.
- Who will do it, and review by
- Priya, Support Manager. Review in three months.
3. Support
High- What we found
- Nobody in the team could say what the employee assistance programme actually offers. Two managers admitted they do not know what to do when someone tells them they are struggling, so the conversation gets avoided.
- What we already do
- An employee assistance programme, and an open door policy that is not written down anywhere.
- What further action is needed
- Managers trained on spotting stress and handling the conversation, because the gap is confidence rather than willingness. The assistance programme re-promoted with a plain explanation of what it covers.
- Who will do it, and review by
- Dan, HR. Review in three months.
4. Relationships
Medium- What we found
- Two long-running disagreements have never been dealt with and the rest of the team works around them. The survey flagged fairness as the weakest point after workload.
- What we already do
- A grievance procedure people know exists but nobody has ever used.
- What further action is needed
- A facilitated team session to reset how the team works together and agree what is acceptable, run by someone from outside the team so people can speak freely. What is agreed gets written down afterwards rather than left as a good feeling in the room.
- Who will do it, and review by
- Dan, HR. Review in three months.
5. Role
Low- What we found
- Most people are clear on what their job is. Two in the escalations team report to both a team lead and a project manager and regularly get conflicting priorities.
- What we already do
- Job descriptions, last reviewed two years ago.
- What further action is needed
- Escalations job descriptions rewritten. The two managers agree between themselves who sets priority, rather than leaving the team to work it out in the middle.
- Who will do it, and review by
- Priya, Support Manager. Review in six months.
6. Change
Medium- What we found
- The restructure was announced in April and people still do not know what it means for their own role. Rumour is filling the gap, and two of the strongest performers have started looking elsewhere.
- What we already do
- A monthly all-hands, though the restructure is not always on the agenda.
- What further action is needed
- A fixed fortnightly update for as long as the restructure runs, including the weeks when there is nothing new to say, because silence is what feeds the rumours. A session to help people handle the uncertainty while it plays out.
- Who will do it, and review by
- Dan, HR. Review in one month, because this one is moving.
A completed stress risk assessment
A made-up customer support team, all six areas filled in
What actually fixes what
This is worth saying plainly, because I run wellbeing workshops for a living and I would rather you got this right than booked one you did not need.
If your assessment finds a workload problem, a workshop will not fix it. Nothing I can teach anyone in 90 minutes makes 30% more tickets disappear. That one needs headcount, or fewer tickets, or different priorities. Same with a role clarity problem, or a manager who needs support to manage. Those are structural and they need a structural answer.
Where a workshop does earn its place is the part you cannot restructure away. Every job has some pressure in it that is not going anywhere, and people handle that pressure far better when they have practical tools and when the team can talk about it openly instead of everyone sitting there assuming they are the only one struggling. That is where a session earns its place, and it works best sitting alongside the structural fixes.
If you want to read more about where the pressure usually comes from before you start, we have written up the 10 common causes of workplace stress and the UK workplace stress statistics from ten years of HSE data, which are useful for the “what we found” boxes and for making the case to whoever holds the budget.
Questions people ask
What is a stress risk assessment?
It is a written record of where the pressure in a workplace is coming from, what you already have in place to deal with it, and what you are going to do next. You work through six areas set out by the Health and Safety Executive, rate each one low, medium or high, and put a name and a date against every action. It is the same shape as any other health and safety risk assessment, the hazard being stress rather than something physical.
Is a stress risk assessment a legal requirement?
Employers have a duty to assess the risks to their employees’ health and safety, and work-related stress falls within that duty. If you have five or more employees you also need to record the significant findings. This template will help you carry that out and record it, but it does not make you compliant on its own, and the assessment and the decisions in it remain yours. If you need certainty about your own obligations, check the HSE guidance directly or take proper advice.
What is the difference between “what we already do” and “what further action is needed”?
The first is the controls you have in place today, so an employee assistance programme, flexible hours, a one to one rhythm, trained managers. The second is what you are going to add or change because of what this assessment found. Keeping them apart matters, because it shows a reader whether a high rating means you are doing nothing or means you are already trying and it is not enough yet.
Is this for a whole team or for one person?
This one is for a team or an organisation, which is what most people mean when they say stress risk assessment. There is a second kind, an individual stress risk assessment, which a manager works through with one person, usually after somebody has raised a concern or is coming back from time off with stress. The HSE Management Standards were built for looking at how an organisation is set up rather than how one person is coping, though plenty of employers borrow the same six areas as prompts for that conversation. If that is what you came for, this template will still give you a structure to work from, you would just be filling it in about one person rather than a team.
How often should we review it?
Three to six months suits most teams. Review it sooner if you scored anything as high, if you are going through a restructure or a merger, if a lot of people have left, or if something happens that changes how the work feels. A review does not have to be a full reassessment, it can be twenty minutes checking whether the actions actually happened.
Who should complete it?
Usually a line manager or someone in HR, but not on their own. The findings should come from the people doing the work, which is why step 2 matters. If one person fills the whole thing in from their own impression of the team, you have written down an opinion rather than an assessment. The person completing it is also often not the person who carries out the actions, which is why each section names its own owner.
Can we assess a whole organisation in one document?
You can, but it tends to flatten out the very thing you are looking for. Pressure is rarely spread evenly, and a company-wide medium usually hides one team at high and one at low. If you have distinct teams doing distinct work, do one per team and you will get far more out of it.
What if people do not tell us the truth?
Then you have learned something, which is that trust is low, and that is worth writing into the Relationships or Support section. Anonymity helps a lot. So does showing people what changed last time. Nobody fills in the second survey honestly if nothing happened after the first one.
If you do nothing else today, fill in the Demands section for one team. It takes about ten minutes and it usually tells you more than you were expecting.
Once you know where the pressure is
We run practical stress workshops for teams across the UK and online, built around what your assessment actually found rather than a set agenda. Tools people can use the same day.
Enquire About a Stress Workshop