INTRODUCTION

The current rise in covid-19 cases has prompted the Peruvian State, as well as companies, to enforce policies and procedures in order to contain the spread of the virus.

One of the sectors that has continued to operate since the beginning of the pandemic has been private security, consisting of security agents and supervisors in charge of watching over and monitoring facilities to safeguard property from theft or vandalism. This meant that employees had to comply with new demands, such as wearing facemasks and maintaining social distancing, as well as executing sanitary protocols in the clients’ establishments where the service is provided.

Job demands that do not match the worker’s capabilities, resources or needs may lead to harmful physical and emotional responses, which are referred to as occupational stress. Low risk levels have been found in other studies conducted on stress levels in this sector (^{Pineda, 2019}); however, in the new context of the pandemic, with new protocols such as wearing facemasks, taking temperature, maintaining physical distance, among others, this level could vary and, thus, giving rise to the novelty and importance required to develop this research.

It is also important for the employer to determine the level of occupational stress that workers who perform this activity might experience in order to develop preventive plans to better manage their mental health.

Entre las herramientas validadas en el país para realizar las mediciones de estrés laboral, se cuenta con el Cuestionario de Estrés Laboral OIT-OMS (^{Suárez, 2013}), el cual evalúa el nivel de riesgo de estrés laboral en nuestra población de estudio, de este modo, la investigación es viable.

Among the tools validated in the country to measure occupational stress, there is the ILO-WHO Workplace Stress Scale (^{Suárez, 2013}), which estimates the level of risk of occupational stress in our study population, thus, the research is reliable.

According to the Spanish trade union Unión General de Trabajadores, an in-depth study of risks that originate from insufficient labor organization is necessary. Such situations make stress relevant as it is related to working conditions or factors, even more so if workers are exposed to them for 12 hours, i. e., the working day of a security agent and supervisor in the country.

There is also the biological risk of exposure to covid-19 due to the execution of the new procedures requested by the client, which involves taking the temperature of people entering the facility, in addition to performing other controls, which may trigger additional stressors.

Therefore, control measures to prevent the onset of occupational stress symptoms, which could lead to absenteeism and to the detriment of labor productivity, are of paramount importance.

METHODOLOGY

A quantitative approach was used for this study, because data collection was used to test the hypothesis by means of statistical analysis. The design was non-experimental, because the context where security agents and supervisors work was not altered at the time of applying the questionnaires. It is correlational, because the association between the variables “occupational stress” and “work-related factors” was measured. It is cross-sectional, because the study was conducted in the year 2021 in the context of covid-19 pandemic.

The sample was comprised of 541 agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima. To identify the variable work-related factors, a data collection form made up of two components, socio-demographic data and work-related factors data, was used. To determine the occupational stress variable, the ILO-WHO Occupational Stress Scale, initially designed by Ivancevich and Matteson and later adapted by Angela Suárez to the Peruvian context in 2013, was used as instrument. This scale consists of 25 questions distributed in seven dimensions: organizational climate (4 items), organizational structure (4 items), organizational territory (3 items), technology (3 items), leader influence (4 items), lack of cohesion (4 items) and group support (3 items), which are measured on a Likert scale.

The reliability of the ILO-WHO Workplace Stress Scale instrument was evaluated in 30 cases using Cronbach’s alpha test, which considers an instrument to be reliable when its values are greater than 0.7. In this case, a value of 0.948 was obtained, thus confirming the reliability of the instrument. As the instrument “Work-related factors” is a data sheet, it was not necessary to validate it.

Chi-square test was used for hypothesis testing to find associations between the variables “occupational stress” and “work-related factors” in the study population. The test was performed for each work-related factor, yielding the the results shown in Table 3. The association between the variables is considered statistically significant when p < 0.05.

RESULTS

From the descriptive results, it was observed that 68.4% of the security agents and supervisors are between 40 and 59 years old. All of them are male. A total of 75.6% of the security agents or supervisors are married or cohabiting. In terms of education, 66.0% have a high school education, 22.3% have a technical education (complete and incomplete), and 11.6% have a higher education. A total of 61.6% have 1 or 2 children.

Figure 1 shows the occupational stress level of security agents and supervisors: 63.8% have a low stress level, 18.3% have a low medium stress level, 15.5% have a medium high stress level and 2.4% have a high stress level.

Source: Prepared by the author.

Figure 1 Level of occupational stress of security agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima. 

Table 1 shows the descriptive results for group 1 of the work-related factors. It is observed that 82.3% of the security agents and supervisors work in access control with exposure to people and 17.7% do perimeter security without exposure to people. Some 90% of the security agents and supervisors work as security guards, 5.0% work as stand-in guards and another 5.0% work as on call guards. A total of 49.4% security agents and supervisors have been working in a private company for 3 to 10 years; 38.0%, for 1 to 3 years; and 12.6%, for more than 10 years. Of the security agents and supervisors, 81.5% have less than five (5) shift rotations in the private security company; 12.6%, between 5 and 10; and 5.9%, more than 10. In the last year, 52.2% of the security agents and supervisors were supervised daily; 36.4%, weekly; 5.7%, biweekly; and the other 5.7%, monthly. A total of 56.2% of the security agents and supervisors have some form of incentive, 25.7% have no incentive, 13.1% receive a transportation bonus and 5.0% receive a food bonus.

Table 2 shows the results for group 2 of the work-related factors. It is observed that 83.0% of the security agents and supervisors have a 12-hour work schedule; 12.8%, an 8-hour work schedule; and 3.9%, other work schedules. A total of 64.7% of the security agents and supervisors have an indeterminate contract; 26.1%, a semi-annual contract; 8.1%, a quarterly contract; and 1.1%, a monthly contract. In the last month, 51.4% of the security agents and supervisors had a net income (compensation) between S/ 1001 and S/ 1500; 36.8%, between S/ 1501 and S/ 2000; 6.1%, between S/ 500 and S/ 1000; and 5.7%, of more than S/ 2000. Of the security agents and supervisors, 74.9% work in industry; 21.4%, in services; 3.3%, in residences; and 0.4%, in warehouses. Some 64.7% of the security agents and supervisors totally agree with the significance of the task, 29.4% agree, 3.5% totally disagree, 1.8% neither agree nor disagree, and 0.6% disagree. A total of 63.8% of security agents and supervisors have job stability, 17.0% have no job stability, and 19.2% have an uncertain job situation. Finally, 52.9% of security agents and supervisors agree with the perception of security in the surrounding environment, 24.2% strongly agree, 9.2% disagree, 9.1% neither agree nor disagree and 4.6% strongly disagree.

DISCUSSION

Today, the world we live in is undergoing various changes that have an impact on work activities, labor relations and organizations, which are also constantly undergoing changes. Such changes create new psychosocial risks, but also new opportunities for professional, personal and social development.

Work environments are no stranger to this period of changes, which may affect the employees of an organization and, consequently, its productivity. According to ILO figures as of 2019, occupational stress affected 60% of the working population, and is therefore a cause for concern for company managers due to its adverse effects on the health of workers (^{Vidal, 2019}).

According to the results obtained on the level of occupational stress in agents and supervisors of a security company in Lima, 63.8% have a low level of stress and 18.3% have a low medium level. Similar results were obtained by ^{Pineda (2019}) in his study on the level of anxiety and stress at work in surveillance workers, with 62.3% reporting mild psychological stress and 61.2% reporting mild or low physiological stress. Consistent similar results were obtained by ^{Chipoco et al. (2018}), as 77.0% of workers in a customs agency in Callao reported low levels of stress.

Other authors such as ^{Bedoya et al. (2017}) reported that 60.7% of staff members of the Police Unit of the Technical Investigation Corps of the city of Guadalajara had a low to very low level of occupational stress. Meanwhile, ^{Vidal (2019}) also observed mostly low level of stress in workers of SMEs (46.3%). However, these results are not consistent with those reported by ^{Márquez and Flores (2019}), who found that 89.4% of nurses in the emergency area of a health center in Arequipa experienced a medium level of occupational stress. In turn, ^{Braganza (2018}) found high levels of stress in employees of a public transit agency in Ambato, Ecuador.

Upon evaluating the level of occupational stress and work-related factors, it was determined that incentives (p < 0.001), type of contract (p < 0.001), compensation (p < 0.001) and job stability (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with the level of occupational stress of the agents and supervisors of the private security company in Lima. In other words, the lack of incentives, the lack of an indeterminate contract, the low level of compensation and the lack of job stability were associated with a severe level of occupational stress. These findings are consistent with those of ^{Pineda (2019}) regarding the low economic income or compensation related to a high level of psychological stress (p < 0.001). Furthermore, a propensity for occupational stress severity has been identified in security agents and supervisors whose work schedule exceeds 8 hours, which is consistent with the findings of Pineda (2019) who found a significant relationship between work schedules longer than 8 hours (p < 0.001) and severe physiological stress. However, ^{Ahumada et al., (2011}) observed that the severity of occupational stress is not related to longer working hours (p = 0.607).

Additional findings of this research included work-related factors not significantly associated with occupational stress, but that were associated with a certain degree of severity of occupational stress, such as the type of activity for entrance control with exposure to people, the work status as a stand-in guard or on call guard, and those with little time working in the security company. Likewise, security workers with less shift rotations and those supervised with greater continuity, who feel under heavy control, exhibited a certain degree of severity in the level of occupational stress.

It was observed that those security agents and supervisors who work in the industrial sector or warehouses presented a certain degree of severity of occupational stress, which does not correspond to the findings reported by ^{Vidal (2019}), who found that workers in the service sector have a higher level of occupational stress followed by those working in the industrial sector.

Based on the findings of this research, there are certain work-related factors that should be addressed as a priority, as they may be posing psychosocial risks in security agents and supervisors, especially, in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. It is necessary to adopt certain measures or strategies to prevent this situation, as it has an impact on the mental health of the workers and, consequently, on their work performance and productivity.

CONCLUSIONS

Upon evaluating the level of occupational stress and work-related factors, it was determined that factors incentives (p < 0.001), type of contract (p < 0.001), compensation (p < 0.001) and job stability (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with the level of occupational stress found in the participants of the study.

There is no significant relationship between the type of activity and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 1.341; p = 0.719).

There is no significant relationship between work status and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 2.725; p = 0.843).

There is no significant relationship between the time working and the level of occupational stress of the agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 5.750; p = 0.452).

There is no significant relationship between shift rotation and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 10.558; p = 0.103).

There is no significant relationship between the frequency of supervision and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 11.580; p = 0.238).

There is a significant relationship between the incentives and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 39.553; p < 0.001). Thus, occupational stress severity (medium high stress and high stress) is associated with the lack of incentives.

There is no significant relationship between work schedule and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 9.710; p = 0.370).

There is a significant relationship between the type of contract and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 30.147; p < 0.001). Thus, occupational stress severity (medium high stress and high stress) is associated with having a contract for a short or seasonal period.

There is a significant relationship between compensation and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 77.134; p < 0.001). Thus, occupational stress severity (medium high stress and high stress) is associated with a low level of remuneration.

There is no significant relationship between the type of business and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 15.378; p = 0.081).

There is no significant relationship between the significance of the task and the level of occupational stress of the agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 7.398; p = 0.830).

There is a significant relationship between job stability and the level of occupational stress of agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 209.079; p < 0.001). Thus, occupational stress severity (medium high stress and high stress) is related to an uncertain or non-existent job stability.

There is no significant relationship between the perception of security in the surrounding environment and the level of occupational stress of the agents and supervisors of a private security company in Lima (chi-square = 10.974; p = 0.531).

Programs should be implemented to develop workers’ competencies, measures should be taken to avoid mental and physical overload, active breaks should be implemented, tasks should be assigned according to the worker’s experience and knowledge, monotonous work should be avoided, schedules compatible with the workers’ private lives should be chosen, better communication between superiors should be established, forms of intimidation, violence, etc., should not be allowed, workers’ ideas should be welcomed, training should be provided to self-identify risks related to stress, among others.

The acknowledgment of certain work-related factors that may limit the performance of security agents and supervisors would improve the work environment, increase workers’ satisfaction and prevent absenteeism due to health problems, thus resulting in an economic benefit for the organization.