The Samaritans have launched a training programme to tackle workplace stress.

WorkLife will add to the existing communications skills courses offered by the Samaritans, providing “active listening skills” for managers and teams.

The programme explores challenging work situations anonymously through a series of fictional characters.

The charity this week launched a series of road shows in Edinburgh to show businesses what training opportunities are available through the scheme.

Project co-ordinator Jonathan Moran said: “Samaritans is already an established provider of communication skills training in the workplace and WorkLife is a natural extension of the training we currently provide to external organisations.

The organisation conducted a survey which found that one in five employees felt their boss lacked the training to deal with staff personal issues.

Commenting on this, Moran added: “I believe the survey’s findings show that not enough is being done at ground level to tackle stress in the workplace and highlight the need for the sort of training we are offering.”