In 2025, who isn’t stressed at work? From CEOs to interns, almost everyone is worried about the shifting job market and what it means for their careers. Yes, HR is in charge of addressing the stress levels of the workforce, but the truth is that HR leaders have their share of stress to deal with. A new survey by Ciphr found that 94% of HR decision-makers reported experiencing work-related stress.
HR workers, much like other employees in an organization, fight workplace battles that leave a lasting mark on them. HR leadership issues range from handling layoffs and dealing with their repercussions to mediating a workplace fight and walking away as the bad guy. There is often no winning in the situation for them. HR trends for 2025 have left a confusing trail of practices to follow, leaving HR leaders grappling with the unpleasant effects of burnout.
HR stress is often well-hidden, but it can overwhelm them all the same. (Image: Pexels)
What is the Leading Cause of HR Stress?
For an employee, learning that your HR leader battles with stress might feel the same as finding out your therapist deals with anxiety regularly. Despite the vast divide that sometimes exists between employees and their HR teams, at the end of the day, HR workers are just as human as their employee counterparts. The recent survey by Ciphr found that HR decision-makers experienced considerable work-related stress.
What was the leading cause of this HR stress? Heavy workloads. This doesn’t come as a surprise, as most organizations only have a few HR workers in charge of managing the entire workforce. Considering the range of responsibilities they are tasked with, HR leaders constantly face issues with regulating multiple varying components without letting anything fall through the cracks.
As a result, the bigger the organization, the more the HR stress. Around 34% of HR professionals who oversaw workforces of over 1,500 employees reported being victimized by excessive workloads, which was higher than the 27% of HR workers who felt the same at smaller organizations.
One in four, or 23% of the respondents, explained their stress was exhausting enough to push them to the point of burnout. Taking things one step further, professionals at organizations with over 1,500 employees were more likely (35%) to experience chronic stress.
Apart From HR Workloads, What Were Some Other Causes of Stress?
The HR “workload” stress component makes up only one part of the puzzle. This HR-centric stress was also linked to rising costs (26%), employee retention (24%), and budget management (24%). A pattern emerges from the HR stress data, and it clearly highlights the role of economic uncertainties in the problems faced by HR.
Managing budgets and expenses is not necessarily an HR task, but when the organization determines that the workforce will have to bear the brunt of budget cuts, it falls to HR to make tough decisions about who to let go and where to bring the numbers down.
Additionally, factors such as skill shortages, excessive meetings, workplace conflict, and misconceptions about HR’s role also came up as stress inducers for HR.
HR Burnout Solutions—Something Needs to Be Done About the HR Stress Numbers
HR executives face many challenges in their day-to-day functioning, but there is rarely any opportunity for them to address these concerns. When workloads get too heavy or unrealistic, employees can talk to their managers or HR representatives, but HR leaders don’t always have someone to report to and put their concerns to rest.
This is a shortcoming in most organizations, and is a prime reason for the many HR leadership issues and why some choose to quit the field. HR trends for 2025 may guide how HR leaders reshape the workforce, but it is equally important to look into solutions on how to help HR.
Strategies to Address HR Pressures
Putting policies into place for employee wellness is a core HR responsibility, but HR workers need to utilize the same benefits themselves and ensure their needs are equally taken care of.
Individual Strategies for HR Professionals
HR stress starts as an HR responsibility and some things can be done to mitigate stress on an individual level.
Set boundaries with work and separate work life from personal life. HR calls after work hours to settle workplace disputes are not healthy.
Make a case for hiring more workers for the HR team if the HR workload becomes unmanageable. Even a small team specifically for specialized functions like hiring or payroll management can take some of the workload off.
Seek support and connect with peers in the industry to ensure you have a support system for advice or just for feeling a sense of connection. It can be hard for HR executives to build friendly relationships with the internal workforce.
Explore time management skills and task prioritization strategies to clearly understand which of your tasks takes precedence over others. Not all tasks can be handled at the same time with equal levels of importance.
Upskill efficiently and keep up with the HR trend being discussed for 2025 so you aren’t blindsided by an unexpected change that increases your workload.
Organizational Strategies for Addressing HR Stress
There are only so many changes you can make at an individual level before progress is blocked by a rigid, unmoving system at work. HR burnout solutions need to involve a systemic change at work.
Streamline workloads and explore HRIS systems that can automate some repetitive HR tasks and reduce some of the workload on HR employees.
Assess workloads regularly and conduct audits to ensure a fair distribution of tasks and responsibilities is prioritized to avoid overburdening HR teams.
Recognize HR efforts and acknowledge the difficult work they do, boosting morale and diffusing unpleasant situations at work.
Offer training and development opportunities for HR to keep up with the industry-based changes, but also include general leadership skills and strategies that they could use at work.
Foster open communication at work to ensure that HR concerns are heard clearly. They work closely with the workforce and best understand how to approach them and their needs. Communicate with HR so they know what needs to be communicated with employees.
HR leaders hold an organization and its workforce together, and when they are stressed and burned out, the bond weakens. HR stress is no small matter and organizations that are committed to thriving should address it at once, unless they want the HR experts migrating to an organization with a more unified culture.
Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights into topics like HR stress, trends, and technological changes that are reshaping how we work in 2025.