The difference between stress and strain in occupational psychology lies in their definition and effect:

Stress describes all external, objective factors that affect a person in the workplace. Stress can be of a physical, psychological or social nature and includes, for example, the working environment (noise, temperature), the work tasks (difficulty, complexity) and the work organization (working hours, break arrangements). Stress is therefore that which comes to the person from outside and can initially be viewed neutrally.

Stress, on the other hand, describes the individual, subjective reaction to these stresses. It depends heavily on the person's personal condition, experience, knowledge and abilities. A certain load can therefore lead to different levels of stress depending on the person. Strain can manifest itself in the form of stress, fatigue, frustration or even positive challenges and is the actual effect that the strain has on the person.

To summarize:

Stress = external working conditions
Stress = individual impact of these conditions on the person

Evaluation in terms of employee protection is a systematic process in which risks to health and safety at work are identified and assessed. According to the Employee Protection Act (AT) and the Occupational Health and Safety Act (DE), employers are obliged to evaluate activities and work processes and to record this process and the results in the health and safety documents. Subsequently, suitable measures to eliminate or minimize the hazards must be defined and implemented. Since 2013, the mandatory risk assessment has also explicitly included mental workload.
The subjective stress experienced and perceptions of individuals are not covered by the workplace evaluation.

Every employer, starting with the 1st employee.

The aim is to identify hazards in as standardized and structured a manner as possible. The measures subsequently defined should address the cause and have a collective effect, i.e. bring about a continuous improvement in working conditions.

In the event of an audit, compliance with the above 7 steps and the use of a suitable instrument in accordance with ISO 10075 standard. The stresses identified and the measures derived from them must be recorded in the company health and safety documents.

The members of a survey group should carry out comparable activities under similar conditions. The obvious approach here is to group them into departments.

Every employer is obliged to continuously review and adapt measures to improve occupational health and safety. A 1 to 2-year cycle is recommended for the evaluation and accepted by the legislator.

According to Section 5 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the risk assessment of mental stress must be updated "whenever there is a change in working conditions".

Examples of this are the use of new working materials, changes to work processes and activities and the occurrence of incidents or accidents.

Companies that do not carry out a risk assessment for mental stress risk legal consequences. Depending on the severity of the violation, this can mean a fine or even a prison sentence for the employer, especially if the health or life of an employee is endangered as a result.

The workplace evaluation is regulated in §5 ASchG. This paragraph obliges employers to identify and assess hazards and to define and document measures.

§5 ASchG Assessment of working conditions

(1) The employer shall determine which occupational health and safety measures are required by assessing the hazards associated with the employees' work.

(2) The employer shall carry out the assessment according to the type of activities. In the case of similar working conditions, the assessment of a workplace or activity is sufficient.

(3) A hazard may arise in particular from

1. the design and furnishing of the workplace and the workplace,
2. physical, chemical and biological effects,
3. the design, selection and use of work equipment, in particular working materials, machines, devices and systems, and how to handle them,
4. the design of work and production processes, work sequences and working time and their interaction,
5. inadequate qualification and instruction of employees,
6. mental stress at work.

Legal provisions on evaluation in Austria:

The obligation to evaluate mental workload has been explicitly enshrined in the Austrian Occupational Health and Safety Act (ASchG) since 2013. It is also highlighted as a special evaluation obligation in Section 68 (1) of the ASchG.

Employee Protection Act (ASchG, Federal Law Gazette 450/1994):

§ 4 (Hazard identification and determination of measures)
§ 5 (Documentation)
§ 7 (Principles of risk prevention)

In Germany, trade supervisory offices or supervisory authorities of the respective federal states are responsible for monitoring compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, including the psychological risk assessment. They carry out inspections and check the occupational health and safety measures in companies. On the other hand, accident insurance institutions (e.g. employers' liability insurance associations) play an important role, as they not only monitor compliance with the regulations, but also offer advice and training on risk assessment. They can impose sanctions in the event of violations.

In Austria, the labor inspectorate is primarily responsible: As the central authority that monitors employee protection, it checks whether companies carry out risk assessments, including mental stress, properly. In the event of violations, the labor inspectorate can take measures or impose fines.

Both countries rely on a combination of inspections and preventive measures to ensure that the risk assessment is carried out properly.

You can access the Care Survey at login.persentis.com and share the survey link with your employees. Once the survey is complete, the results will be available immediately in the dashboard.

In addition, you can download a PDF report. You will also receive the legally required update form and a certificate confirming the scientifically validated method used by PERSENTIS Care.

Critical topics are clearly identified. These can then be addressed with internal specialists, working groups, or experts from the PERSENTIS network .

The effectiveness of the measures can be specifically evaluated later—for example, by including additional individual questions in a subsequent PERSENTIS analysis or a Pulse survey.

Would you like to get to know PERSENTIS Care beforehand?
Our guide walks you through the user interface step by step and shows you how a Care evaluation is structured—with no obligation and no registration required. OPEN GUIDE

The documentation obligation is laid down in the Occupational Health and Safety Act (DE § 5 and § 6 ArbSchG / AT ASchG, § 4 and § 5). Accordingly, all companies are legally obliged to document the risk assessment.

The documentation must show that the risk assessment was carried out appropriately, what measures were taken and whether the employee's protection goals were achieved. The documentation can be kept in paper form or in the form of electronically stored files.

With your PERSENTIS Care Report you will receive a certificate of the conceptual, technical and methodological quality of the survey procedure as well as a documentation form in which you can enter responsibilities and planned measures.

In GERMANY, companies that fail to comply with their obligation to carry out a mental health risk assessment can face considerable penalties:

Fines: Fines of up to 25,000 euros may be imposed for non-compliance with the legal requirements

Criminal consequences: In the worst case, the managing director may be personally liable under criminal law. This can lead to prison sentences of up to one year or correspondingly higher fines.

Other possible consequences: Discontinuation of the affected work area, recourse claims by insurance companies in the event of an accident at work

These penalties are generally only imposed after the company has been requested by the competent authority to carry out the risk assessment and has not complied with this request within a set period of time

AUSTRIA: Failure to carry out an evaluation of mental stress in Austria can result in the following penalties in accordance with § 130 Para. 1 Z 5 ASchG:

First offense: fine from €166 to €8,324
Repeat offense: fine from € 333 to € 16,659

Due to the changing world of work, mental stress is increasingly becoming the focus of statutory occupational health and safety and workplace health promotion. According to European standard EN ISO 10075-1, which forms the basis for employee protection and in particular the 2013 amendment regarding the evaluation of mental stress, this is "the totality of all detectable influences that come from outside and have a psychological effect on people".

It is therefore not about measuring job satisfaction, burnout, performance, stress or similar in individual employees, but exclusively about the conditions under which work takes place. It examines which work-related factors can potentially lead to psychological stress in order to specifically identify and improve them.

In 23 EU countries, the systematic recording of the stress situation is explicitly enshrined in law.