Research from Ciphr finds just 6.3% of HR professionals report never feeling stressed out at work.
By Maggie Mancini
Just 6.3% of people in HR roles in the U.K. never experience stress at work, according to research from Ciphr. Most (94%) are affected by work stress and find at least one aspect of their job stressful, data shows. Workloads topped the list of things causing them the most stress and anxiety (29%), followed by rising costs (26%), the challenges of employee retention (24%), and managing budgets (24%).
Worryingly, nearly one in four (23%) HR professionals reported feeling stressed to the point of burnout or exhaustion. This rises to over a third (35%) of those working at organisations with more than 1,500 employees, indicating a potential link between workforce size and the occurrence of chronic stress.
Other significant stressors for all respondents include recruitment and skills shortages (23%) and having to attend too many meetings. Around one in six have anxiety about conflicts at work (18%), while others experience stress from dealing with misconceptions about what their day-to-day HR role and responsibilities actually entails (18%).
Employee case management was also found to be among one of the more stressful parts of working in HR by a sizeable (17%) share of respondents.
Other things that cause HR professionals the most stress or anxiety in their jobs include:
- misconceptions around HR’s role and responsibilities (18%);
- lack of resources (16%);
- “always on” culture (15%);
- workforce/HR reporting (14%);
- compliance (13%);
- job or company stability (12%);
- lack of clarity of organisational goals (12%);
- remote/hybrid work (11%);
- supporting employee well-being (11%);
- travelling for work (10%); and
- the people they work with (7.4%).
“In recent years there’s been a lot of focus on what employers and HR can do to safeguard and support their employees’ mental health and alleviate workplace stress. And rightly so,” says Claire Williams, chief people and operations officer at Ciphr. “But conversations rarely talk about the huge pressures that people in HR roles feel and how stress can impact them, and even fewer organisations offer tailored support to their HR teams. HR professionals often spend so much time focusing on the rest of the business that their needs aren’t always prioritised. There may also be an assumption that, because they work in HR, they know how to deal with work stresses better than other employees.”
It’s not just HR professionals who are stressed out. A separate Ciphr study from 2024 reveals that work is one of the biggest causes of stress for U.K. adults, with 86% experiencing stress at least once a month, and as many as one in nine (11%) feeling stressed every single day.
