Port of Tyne is a deep water port situated near the River Tyne in northeast of England. It offers modern handling facilities and combines road, rail and sea transport. With time, it has diversified its business and currently it is focusing on five business areas such as conventional and bulk cargoes, car terminals, cruise and ferry, logistics and estates. Infrastructure development has been found beneficial for conventional and bulk business. Cultural and commercial transformation has also been found in the port. It also focused on the safety of their employees and has been internationally recognized for health and safety and environmental practices (Port of Tyne 2017). To evaluate how Port of Tyne is now considering the safety of employees, it is necessary to conduct risk assessment at their site. The site at South Shield was inspected for the purpose of risk assessment to identify occupational risk and measures taken for the health and safety of patients.
The main aim and objective of risk assessment at Port of Tyne was to identify any risk or hazards experienced by employees and evaluate the risk to identify the best measure to protect the health and safety of workers. It will facilitate taking necessary preventive action to safeguard work.
Considering the diverse nature of jobs at Port of Tyne, it can be said that employees working at the site would have a demanding job and they need to be active all the time. There are also chances that the employees may have to work for longer hours and they might be overloaded with work. It would be necessary to evaluate satisfaction of employees in their job and level of stress experienced in their job role. Hence, the approach chosen for risk assessment and risk management at Port of Tyne in relation to work-related stress are as follows:
While conducting risk assessment process, the use of risk assessment tool is the most critical part to validate the risk and identify specific risk factors. The IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) stress risk assessment template has been used and the advantage of this tool is that it is a solution-focused assessment tool that provides guidance as well and desired states for each parameters (Stress Risk Assessment template 2017). The tool is also reliable as it has been provided by IOSH and it is the Chartered body for health and safety professionals in UK. It is the world’s biggest health and safety membership body, hence their resource and guidelines are reliable as they specifically campaign for issues of the working people (IOSH 2017). The IOSH stress risk assessment template has set of questionnaires for each type of stressors to identify the major stressor affecting performance of employees at Port of Tyne. The five stressors covered in the template include demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. All theses fives stressors and the associated questionnaire with them are the common stressors and evaluation of this critical to successful understand risk present at the Port of Tyne.
Based on the use of risk assessment tool and the approach mentioned above, survey was conducted with all employees present at the site. There was two parts to the survey. Firstly, the IOSH risk assessment template was distributed to each participant to collect their response. Secondly, comprehensive one-on-one discussion was done with each participants to identify the relevant response.
The strength and limitation of the evidence collected through the above approach are as follows:
Strength |
Limitation |
· Most common work stressors affecting employees at Port of Tyne was identified · The presence of desired state in the questionnaire gave guidance to correct existing workplace measure and implement future actions for the company · The data collected from the risk assessment template provided by IOSH was effective in preparing action plan to prevent risk |
· The risk assessment tool had guidance for desired state in questionnaire, however there was no scale to measures the risk. For example, use of likert scale for each questionnaire would have eliminated the need for one-on-one discussion to identify the major stressors for employees. · The data collected lacked numerical data regarding the severity of risk |
The survey was done with employees at Port on Tyne on two working days. A total of 150 employees took part in the survey. Although the company had other additional employees, however this sample size was adequate to identify the risk present in the organization. The response of participants in relations to the stress risk assessment template was analyzed and cross-checked to identify the common work stressors reported by employee. The analysis of the stress risk assessment form submitted by student revealed that issues such as workload, work patterns and work environment was a common response given by employee followed by control in work, support, relationship, change and role. Hence, the core purpose of identify the primary risk for employees was identified by the completion of the first part of the survey. As prioritizing risk was also a focus according to the approach chosen for risk assessment, the one-on-one discussion with employees gave detailed insight into relevant work structure and work environment that contributes to risk for employees.
After the completion of the survey with employees at Port of Tyne, the main stressor or risk factor identified in the organization was heavy workload and irregular work pattern present in the organization. The one-on-one discussion with employees who gave ‘yes’ response for workload further revealed that they had poor motivation or little satisfaction in their job because they had to work for longer hours and they found little time for their own personal commitment. Besides this, the nature the job was tiresome for them, so they desired that the management should have supported them in providing flexible work hours to manage the stress. The intensive work routine has also affected their performance and intention to leave.
As the Port of Tyne is a busy junction, it is evident that the work demand will be high. However, the employers must have focused on providing optimal work hours to their employees by hiring extra employees. Considering different options to mitigate the stress was also necessary because work stress has strong relation with work motivation and job satisfaction. To retain employees at the site, providing them optimal working conditions is critical. The research by Li et al. (2014) has also emphasized that work stress are determinant of job satisfaction as investigation related to level of work stress and job satisfaction in community health workers had revealed that work stress negatively affected job satisfaction. Hence, focusing on intrinsic motivation of workers at Port of Tyne is a necessary future action for the site. Evidence has also showed that job stress in negatively related to employee performance too (Jain and Kaur, 2014).
Apart from workload, management support was also found as a major risk at the Port of Tyne because if management support was available, then employees would not have to work for longer hours. The support of top management in balancing workload by hiring more staffs and giving flexible shift would have reduced resentment in workers and enhanced their intrinsic motivation too.
Based on the identification of high level of stress in employees working at Port of Tyne due to workload and poor support, it is recommended that the employers and managers of the site take necessary measures to reduce stress enhance worker’s intrinsic motivation. This can be done by modifying the work environment and building a positive culture to support employees. The advantage of good environment is that it improves employee’s performance and enhanced their intention to stay in the organization for long time (Fu and Deshpande 2014). In addition, the problem of high workload can addressed by hiring extra workers or keeping flexible shift timing so that no staff is overburdened with task. The organization can also hold periodical workshop to help staffs to work in a competent manner and control their feelings of stress while at work. This will help them to cope with work demand too (Kossek, Thompson and Lautsch 2015).
References
A risk management approach to work-related stress. 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017, from https://www.ohsrep.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/156173/NSW-tip-sheet-2-work-related-stress.pdf
Finney, C., Stergiopoulos, E., Hensel, J., Bonato, S. and Dewa, C.S., 2013. Organizational stressors associated with job stress and burnout in correctional officers: a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 13(1), p.82.
Fu, W. and Deshpande, S.P., 2014. The impact of caring climate, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on job performance of employees in a China’s insurance company. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(2), pp.339-349.
IOSH 2017. Iosh.co.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2017, from https://www.iosh.co.uk/
Jain, R. and Kaur, S., 2014. Impact of work environment on job satisfaction. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 4(1), pp.1-8.
Kossek, E.E., Thompson, R.J. and Lautsch, B.A., 2015. Balanced Workplace Flexibility. California Management Review, 57(4), pp.5-25.
Li, L., Hu, H., Zhou, H., He, C., Fan, L., Liu, X., Zhang, Z., Li, H. and Sun, T., 2014. Work stress, work motivation and their effects on job satisfaction in community health workers: a cross-sectional survey in China. BMJ open, 4(6), p.e004897.
Persechino, B., Valenti, A., Ronchetti, M., Rondinone, B.M., Di Tecco, C., Vitali, S. and Iavicoli, S., 2013. Work-related stress risk assessment in Italy: a methodological proposal adapted to regulatory guidelines. Safety and health at work, 4(2), pp.95-99.
Port of Tyne 2017. Port of Tyne – About us | www.portoftyne.co.uk. Portoftyne.co.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2017, from https://www.portoftyne.co.uk/about-us/
Stress Risk Assessment template 2017. Iosh.co.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2017, from https://www.iosh.co.uk/Membership/Our-membership-network/Our-Groups/Health-and-Social-Care-Group/Resources/Stress-Risk-Assessment-template.aspx
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