BUSINESSES may have a better chance of surviving the economic downturn if they can identify when their employees are heading for a crisis, a North-East human resources consultancy has said.

Newcastle-based PPM has said that companies are increasingly demanding more for less from their staff, making redundancies and expecting remaining workers to cover the roles.

And the company warned that if businesses do not recognise and deal with workers suffering stress or sickness as a result of extra work, the company’s productivity is likely to be affected.

PPM director Maureen Lindberg said: “If bosses see their staff becoming paralysed by stress or otherwise struggling they have to remember it is up to them, as line managers, to do something about it.

“Managers can tend to shy away from difficult emotional issues, seeing it as a personal issue or feeling they don’t want to intrude, but it is their responsibility – employers have a duty of care to find out what is wrong and try to help.”