Workplace mental health and wellbeing moved from a people concern to a business imperative during the COVID-19 pandemic. While it has fallen down the priority list for business leaders since, due to ongoing economic turbulence and the rapid emergence of AI technologies, it remains a vital topic for employees.

But HR has its concerns in this arena too – namely that the profession is seemingly struggling to address and overcome its own poor mental wellbeing.

If left unchecked, this could leave the profession unable to cope with further increases in workloads and expectations, ultimately driving talent from HR entirely.

If HR is going to become a fulcrum of business strategy and success in the future of work, getting its mental health back to positive levels will be crucial.

The bigger question is how it can go about doing so – will the usual tactics and tools deployed for the wider workforce be enough or will a strategic rethink as to how HR functions be needed from the top?

UNLEASH speaks to HR & wellbeing experts to understand the depth of the issue, how HR leaders can address root causes rather than symptoms, and how HR’s mental health differentiates from concerns among the rest of the workforce.

The depth and breadth of HR’s mental health problem cannot be ignored

When considering the extent of the issue, the experts UNLEASH spoke to were unequivocal in their judgement: Significant. Widespread. Escalating. Overlooked.

Claire Hawes, Chief People & Operations Officer at CIPHR, says that in her experience a “large proportion” of HR professionals report mental health symptoms such as “burnout, chronic stress, and emotional exhaustion.”

More worryingly, they are also “normally operating under sustained pressure, without adequate support, leading to a crisis that’s only recently gaining visibility,” she adds.

But others say the problem is more complex and goes deeper than just these symptoms. 

Stephanie Lemek, Founder of The Wounded Workforce, tells UNLEASH that many HR professionals are “grappling with secondary trauma and compassion fatigue, conditions more commonly associated with first responders and frontline care work”.

When you’re repeatedly tasked with holding space for others’ pain, layoffs, harassment claims, leaves of absence, mental health crises, and systemic organizational dysfunction, it takes a toll.”

What should be of high concern to HR leaders is that this is by no means occurring to a minority of HR teams or just one the frontlines.

Serena Palmer, executive coach, talent strategist, and founder of Serena Consulting, observes that the issue is present “at all levels of the HR structure.”

However, it is “particularly prevalent in the HR roles that are in constant partnership with the business” such as HR Business Partners, Recruitment and Talent Partners, and DEI Partners.

The scope of the issue was laid bare in recent research from Towergate Employee Benefits, which surveyed more than 1,400 HR professionals in the UK.

The 2025 HR Mental Wellbeing Report, one of the only dedicated reports of its kind, found burnout is ‘very likely’ in 63% of respondents, and a further 15% are ‘at risk’ of burnout – with low levels of wellbeing evident in 67% of those surveyed.

Furthermore, three in four (73%) respondents said they were affected by symptoms of low mood and depression, while 44% meet the criteria for clinically significant symptoms of depression, compared with just 16% of the general population.

“The figures paint a stark picture of a profession under immense strain, with emotional exhaustion, poor sleep, and a lack of support becoming the norm rather than the exception,” comments Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate.

High workloads and a lack of support make for an untenable combination

Digging into the drivers of this trend, Towergate’s research shows that an excessive workload, particularly on the administrative side, is one of the primary sources of stress for HR professionals.

Indeed, many said they are working more than 50 hours each week “just to stay afloat,” Clark adds.

“Poor management and lack of influence is also a big issue with 41% feeling excluded from key decisions, and often left to clean up the mess. This is exacerbated by a lack of support and generally feeling undervalued in the role.”

Personio’s VP of People Business Partners, Suzie Rogers, adds that the combination of excessive administrative workloads and rising internal pressure from both leadership and employees is resulting in “a function stretched thin and unable to focus on the strategic, people-centric work that drew them into the profession.”

Research from Personio at the start of 2025 found that as many as one in three UK HR professionals were looking for a way out of the profession due to overwork – a trend that could see organizations lose the guardians of company culture and employee experience.

This mental burden – the expectation to “remain composed and unemotional” while managing the “the balancing act between employee advocacy and business priorities” as Hawes highlights – is a tough ask for HR workers when operating without the right support from above or structurally.

Lemek adds that HR has become entrenched in a position of the “emotional shock absorber of the workplace”, albeit without “appropriate support or acknowledgement” of this emotional labor. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, this burden has only grown, she explains, with many senior and experienced HR now expected to be “strategic advisors, culture carriers, and de facto mental health first responders.”

At the same time, the dominant narrative in workplace mental health continues to over-index on individual action like self-care, resilience training, meditation apps, and largely ignores the systemic contributors to distress,” she comments.

“This puts HR in a bind: expected to ‘fix’ mental health for others without the psychological safety, staffing, or executive support needed to even take care of themselves.”

However, HR professionals can also be viewed as guilty of not ‘taking their own medicine,’ says Palmer, who highlights that one of the most common statements from HR teams is that they are too busy looking after others that they have no time to look after themselves.

She explains there is an “identity crisis” in the profession, with a “constant push/pull on what role HR should be performing,” where organizations want them to solve people issues, while HR leaders want them to “empower the business to own their people issues.”

“Ultimately, the loser here is the employee, and so most HR professionals will just get on and try to “fix” the issues,” Palmer states.

“This creates a feeling of never being quite able to deliver to anyone’s expectations – this can erode confidence and deeply affect motivation and a sense of achievement.”

HR’s mental heath issues are not the same as the rest of the workforce

According to Towergate’s research, depression and anxiety rates among HR professionals are 2.5 and 1.5 times higher respectively than among the general population.

“Unlike other roles, HR carries a unique emotional burden – often acting as the first line of support for others while receiving little support themselves,” Towergate’s Clark explains.

“This dual role, supporting others while managing their own emotional strain, creates a ‘silent crisis’ within the profession.”

“As the report notes, HR professionals are often the ones holding organizations together, yet they are rarely offered the same care they extend to others.”

To begin addressing these concerns, one misstep that HR and business leaders need to avoid is relying on existing mental health support strategies and tools provided for the wider workforce, and to recognize the unique compassion fatigue and isolation HR professionals face.

“The mental health challenges in HR are different from the broader workforce because they’re both vicarious and invisible,” comments Lemek.

HR is often exposed to trauma without necessarily experiencing it firsthand, and that exposure usually goes unrecognized by organizations. It’s a recipe for emotional exhaustion and disconnection — two major hallmarks of compassion fatigue.”

Palmers adds that it’s not a surprise so many HR professionals have a “core characteristic of being driven by helping others” – indeed this is at the root of why they excel at what they do and, as a result, many are unlikely to “put themselves in front of the people they are helping.”

“The culture of many great HR teams has been unconsciously built over a long time around this principle. This is very different from an operations team culture or a sales team, and it is deeply entrenched,” she explains.

“Many HR functions have recognized this and talk about a new vision or culture, but the actions and expectations have not changed; somehow, the behavior of putting yourself last or not even on the list remains constant. I do not find this in other business functions.”

Organizations must address the root causes through systemic change

While the surface symptoms of poor mental health among the HR community may look the same as those among the wider workforce, HR and business leaders need to take different actions to address the root causes.

A common recommendation among the experts UNLEASH spoke to is the need for systemic change to organization wellness specifically for HR.

One way of doing so is to “rethink organizational culture, workloads, and management practices”, instead of offering “surface-level solutions like wellness perks,” says Personio’s Rogers.

This could be designing roles with “manageable expectations, promoting work-life balance, and encouraging leaders to model healthy boundaries,” she adds.

“They should also foster psychological safety, ensure employees have autonomy and purpose in their work, and regularly gather and act on feedback to identify systemic stressors.”

“By prioritizing sustainable work environments over reactive fixes, organizations can prevent burnout at its source.”

Part of rethinking organizational culture means leaders acting to “normalize and name secondary trauma and compassion fatigue” in both HR and other employees, states Lemek, who also highlights the need to “rebalance responsibility” to ensure that HR is not the only department left “holding the hard stuff.”

Meanwhile, Palmer underlines a need for organizations to “put your money where your mouth is” by investing in the resources and support systems HR needs to feel valued: “In business, the teams that get the investment are the teams that know they are valued.

If you commit to making the work lives of your HR team easier by improving the things that slow them down or create massive workloads (systems/tools), they feel valued.”

Clark also highlights the need for “robust support systems” to be embedded at an organization level and “multi-level change rather than surface-level interventions.”

“This includes fair workloads, psychological safety, and inclusive decision-making. It is also important for the business to recognize the emotional labor inherent in HR work,” she details.

“At a professional level it is important for industry-wide mental health standards to be established, with training provided in personal and professional development. Structured supervision for HR professionals should be normalized.”

She concludes that at an individual level, HR professionals should be encouraged to prioritize their own wellbeing, access regular support, and build resilience through proactive strategies.

“Crucially, the report stresses that resilience workshops or wellbeing apps alone are insufficient. What’s needed is a cultural shift that places HR wellbeing at the heart of organizational strategy.”