The regulator's own framework names six areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. HSE calls them the Management Standards, and they cover what it treats as the primary sources of stress at work.
This page walks you through all six and asks one question about each: what could you actually show someone. It gives you back the areas you flagged, what evidence usually looks like in each, and a link to the regulator's own material.
It produces no score, no rating and no verdict on whether you are compliant, because none of those would mean anything. It is an educational self-review, not a risk assessment and not legal advice.
Two questions per area. The first is about the work itself, the second about whether a concern raised in that area has somewhere to go, which is the half of each standard most people miss. Answer honestly: nobody sees this but you.
Nothing you tick is sent anywhere. There is no account, no email box and no server call on this page. Your answers exist in this browser tab and disappear when you close it.
It is not a risk assessment. A risk assessment under regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 has to be suitable and sufficient for your particular workplace, which requires knowing things about your workplace that a web page does not know.
It is not a compliance check, and it does not produce a score. HSE does not expect an employer to meet all six standards: it describes them as "a target for the organisation, goals that employers should be working towards through an ongoing process of risk assessment and continuous improvement". No current HSE Management Standards page sets a target percentage, and HSE's own free analysis tool produces no benchmark or percentile. A number here would be inventing a threshold the regulator has declined to set.
It is not legal advice. If something on this page makes you think you have a real problem, the people to talk to are a health and safety professional, an occupational health provider or an employment solicitor, depending on what the problem turns out to be.
And it is not a survey of your employees. It asks what you can show, which is a different question from how your people feel, and only one of those two is answered by asking you.
HSE's own wording for each standard, the second limb that applies identically to all six, and the kind of record that tends to exist when an organisation has genuinely looked at an area. None of this is a required format: regulation 3(6) prescribes no template, no standalone document and no retention period.
HSE: this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment
. The standard is that employees indicate that they are able to cope with the demands of their jobs
.
A dated note of what you looked at and what you changed. Rota or hours data you actually reviewed. A record of a workload conversation and its outcome. HSE's Talking Toolkit has a demands template if you want a structure.
HSE: how much say the person has in the way they do their work
. The standard is that employees indicate that they are able to have a say about the way they do their work
.
Notes from team or one-to-one discussions where a way of working changed. A flexible working request and its outcome. Anything showing a decision was taken with the people doing the work rather than about them.
HSE: this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues
. The standard is that employees indicate that they receive adequate information and support from their colleagues and superiors
.
The dated communication that told people what is available. Take-up information for whatever support you provide. An induction or handbook page that names the routes.
HSE: this includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour
. The standard is that employees indicate that they are not subjected to unacceptable behaviours, eg bullying at work
.
A dignity at work or anti-bullying policy with a date on it, and evidence it was circulated. A named route for raising something, including one that does not go through the person's own manager.
HSE: whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles
. The standard is that employees indicate that they understand their role and responsibilities
.
Current role descriptions, or notes from the conversation where one was clarified. A record of a handover or a reorganisation where responsibilities were restated.
HSE: how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation
. The standard is that employees indicate that the organisation engages them frequently when undergoing an organisational change
.
The message that announced the change and its date. Notes from whatever session or thread people could ask questions in. A record of a question that was raised and answered.
Every one of the six standards has a second half, and it is word for word the same in each: systems are in place locally to respond to any individual concerns
. The first half is about how people experience the work. The second is about whether a concern has anywhere to go once someone raises it. An organisation can look respectable on the first and have nothing behind the second, which is where most practical failure in this area happens.
The full breakdown, with the research behind the thresholds that circulate as targets, is in the guide to the six HSE Management Standards.
This checker restates a published regulator framework and adds nothing to it. The questions are ours; the six areas, their definitions and the second limb are HSE's.
| Framework | The HSE Management Standards for work-related stress. Six areas, each with a stated standard and an identical second limb about local systems for responding to individual concerns. |
|---|---|
| Legal duty behind it | Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3: a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to employees' health, with the significant findings recorded where five or more people are employed. HSE applies this duty to stress. |
| Status of the Standards | Guidance, not legislation. HSE states that following the Management Standards approach correctly means adopting an approach "that is considered suitable and sufficient", and publishes an equivalence checklist for organisations using a different method. |
| On surveys | HSE: "A survey is not an essential step and for smaller organisations it would not be proportionate to run such a survey, particularly where the same data can be gathered in other ways." HSE publishes a Talking Toolkit of conversation templates, one per area. |
| On scores | No current HSE Management Standards page sets a target percentage. The 85% and 65% figures in circulation come from a 2004 pilot whose own authors described the thresholds as "based on research that was indicative, rather than grounded". |
| On attainment | HSE: "HSE does not expect an employer to meet all the standards. They represent a target for the organisation, goals that employers should be working towards through an ongoing process of risk assessment and continuous improvement." |
| Sources checked | 14 August 2026, against the HSE pages linked above. |
| What we added | The two questions per area, and the notes on what evidence tends to look like. These are our editorial judgement, informed by the HSE material, and are not endorsed by HSE. |
The regulator's own framework names six areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. HSE calls these the Management Standards and describes them as covering the primary sources of stress at work. Demands covers workload, work patterns and the work environment. Control is how much say a person has in the way they do their work. Support is the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues. Relationships covers promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour. Role is whether people understand their role and are not given conflicting ones. Change is how organisational change, large or small, is managed and communicated.
No. The Standards are HSE guidance, not legislation. The legal duty sits in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which require a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to employees' health, and HSE applies that duty to stress. HSE says that following the Management Standards approach correctly means adopting an approach that is considered suitable and sufficient, and it publishes an equivalence checklist for organisations that use a different method.
No, and no tool can. It has no knowledge of your organisation beyond the answers you give it, it does not see your records, and whether an assessment is suitable and sufficient is a judgement about your particular workplace. It is an educational self-review that points you at areas you may want to look at and at the regulator's own material. It is not a risk assessment, not a compliance check and not legal advice.
No. HSE states that a survey is not an essential step, and that for smaller organisations it would not be proportionate to run one, particularly where the same information can be gathered in other ways. HSE publishes a Talking Toolkit of conversation templates, one for each of the six areas, on the basis that structured conversations can gather what a larger organisation would gather through a survey. Dated, recorded conversations are evidence.
No current HSE Management Standards page sets a target percentage, and HSE's own free analysis tool produces no benchmark or percentile. HSE also says it does not expect an employer to meet all the standards, describing them as a target to work towards through ongoing risk assessment and continuous improvement. That is why this checker produces no score.
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