What’s causing HR burnout & 12 ways to avoid it
12 August 2025
With HR publications rife with the increasing issue of HR burnout, it’s time to take a deep dive into what’s causing the people responsible for your workforce to burn out faster than any other profession. With exclusive commentary from Emily Thomas, People Business Partner at CV Library, this blog explores what’s causing HR burnout and offers 12 ways to avoid it.
5 key takeaways: Why we need to understand and reduce HR burnout
1. HR burnout is a critical and unique risk: HR professionals are experiencing burnout at higher rates than other roles, despite being responsible for managing the wellbeing of others. They face emotional fatigue, increasing responsibilities, and higher expectations, often with insufficient support, especially when working in isolation.
2. Multiple compounding factors are driving burnout: The causes of burnout are complex and multifaceted, including increasing workloads and strategic demands, budget pressures with less funding for engagement initiatives, emotional strain from leading through change and adversity, isolation, especially in stand-alone HR roles and the constant need to upskill amid evolving legal and business landscapes.
3. HR needs support, not just responsibility: HR teams often lack support systems even as they provide them for others. They must be allowed to be human, have a support network, and be equipped with tools like Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), fitness benefits, and mental health resources. Encouraging resilience, rest, and emotional expression is vital.
4. Employers must actively reduce the risk: There are 12 clear strategies employers can adopt to reduce HR burnout, including encouraging work-life balance and boundaries, minimising unnecessary admin using automation and AI optimisations, offering development and recognition and creating a positive culture that champions wellbeing and resilience.
5. Empower HR as strategic, valued leaders: HR should be seen not just as support staff, but as subject matter experts and strategic partners. Empowering HR with decision-making authority, public recognition, and professional development opportunities boosts retention, reduces burnout, and strengthens the organisation overall.
If you have time to stick around, let's dive a little deeper.
What is HR burnout?
HR burnout is the same as any other example of employee burnout. An employee goes through five stages, starting with what’s known as the honeymoon phase, where everything appears to be fine, up to the stage where an employee reaches burnout. More than being stressed and tired, burnout brings symptoms like chronic fatigue, which can take months to recover from.
If HR burnout is like other cases of employee burnout, why are we giving it specific attention?
HR professionals suffer from higher burnout and turnover rates than professionals in other fields—an ironic predicament, given HR is tasked with managing employee retention and navigating the workforce away from burnout.
The quote from Epassi sums it up. HR professionals are suffering higher rates of burnout, and yet, they’re the people tasked with supporting the wellbeing of the rest of the workforce, and this is why we must talk about it.
What’s causing HR burnout?
There are several factors contributing to the increase in HR burnout, including an ever-increasing workload, evolving pressures, budget constraints, AI evolutions, the global economic landscape, the need to lead through adversity, the continuous need to upskill and, in some cases, being a one-person team.
In June, we ran a LinkedIn poll asking HR professionals what they believe is increasing their risk of burnout. We gave them four options:
- Pressures: Budget constraints
- Wellbeing: Increasing workload
- Uncertainty: AI evolutions
- All of the above
13% voted for budget constraints and 37% for wellbeing issues. While AI evolutions didn’t receive any votes, 50% selected ‘All of the above’, suggesting the combination of all three was the most significant cause of HR burnout.
LinkedIn limits the options we can present. Next, we’ll explore these causes in more depth alongside other known contributing factors.
An increasing workload
There are many ways the HR workload is increasing. Once upon a time, HR was more likely to be viewed as an administrative role, onboarding, offboarding, managing payroll and dealing with any workforce issues that arose.
Today, the HR professional is more of a strategic partner, supporting the operational side of the business in talent and structural mapping while also leading the way with employee engagement and wellbeing.
Pressures and budget constraints
We're in an environment where the HR professional must do more with less. Not just more tasks, but deliver better results -- boost engagement, reduce employee turnover, create a high-class onboarding schedule and attract the best talent with an ever-shrinking budget.
A budget that senior leaders may have once willingly approved for employee engagement purposes now faces more scrutiny than ever. HR professionals find themselves justifying the need for a benefits budget, with the return on investment being the primary business priority.
Uncertainty due to AI evolutions
AI evolutions can make the life of HR teams easier. AI automations or dashboards that predict outcomes can help all employees work more efficiently. For the HR professional, AI evolutions can reduce the amount of admin they manually complete, freeing them up for more critical tasks.
Sounds good so far, but when technology advances, there’s always an element of uncertainty. With so many businesses making headlines for replacing some human-filled roles with AI alternatives, HR teams are also concerned over the future of their profession.
The global economic landscape
No country operates in isolation, and the global economic landscape impacts our HR representatives here in the UK, as Emily Thomas, People Business Partner at CV Library, shares.
The global economic landscape has changed dramatically over the last five years. The COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation, global demand for cost-efficient practices and the increased sophistication and accessibility of technology have created unprecedented change. Alongside the significant shifts in the global geo-political position, there have been seismic shifts in the workplace with increasing uncertainty, instability and insecurity.
The voice of change
With HR becoming more integrated within strategic business decisions, they will consult on some organisational changes. Regardless of their role in a transformation initiative, HR become the voice of change, representing leaders when updating the rest of the business.
As Emily says,
HR Professionals are at the frontline of these complexities and changes, responsible for communicating, implementing, supporting, and sometimes defending decisions. This is often against a backdrop of decreasing trust between employees and employers and wider instability.
Leading through adversity
With change comes potential adversity, and as Emily Thomas, our guest blogger, shares,
The changes have not only increased the workload for HR professionals. They demand significant emotional resilience. Whilst most HR professionals are also managing their own experience of these changes, they're also tasked with supporting employees, managers and leaders through these changes with empathy, composure and a commercial perspective.
Lone-working
The size of a business and workforce complexities will determine the number of people in your HR team, which means some businesses only have one person working in the HR function.
When working through challenging periods with a team at your side, you can create a support network – people who understand the extent of what you’re dealing with. Since many HR activities are confidential, it’s not always possible for an HR professional to seek support from their colleagues. In a team, they have peers whom they can lean on, but when alone, isolation can add to the emotional load.
Balancing work and home demands
Emily Thomas explains that women make up 60% of HR roles. In our blog, ‘Burnout & Absenteeism: Why It's Costing Your Business’, we share burnout statistics that highlight that the risk of burnout is higher in women than it is in men.
The additional mental load, domestic labour and childcare responsibilities which often fall to women are causing further demands on professionals already juggling with competing priorities and demands.
Emily supports arguments we’ve previously made in our blogs on work-life balance and supporting working parents. While gender roles are more balanced today than in previous generations, much of the parenting responsibilities fall on mothers when both parents work full time.
Upskilling and continuous learning
Business expectations on the role of HR are evolving, and with government polices subject to change, the HR professional is on a path of continuous learning.
The recent change in the UK Government and the Employment Rights Bill have proposed historical changes and plans for the workplace which, if fully introduced, will significantly affect the workplace. This evolving complexity is putting increasing pressure on HR professionals to upskill and stay up to date to remain compliant continuously. Often balancing commercial need and fair workplace practices.
Evolving employee demands
Employee demands and expectations are also advancing. There are up to five generations in the workplace, and they each have different needs and priorities. It falls on HR to create employee engagement and wellbeing initiatives that appeal to all.
Furthermore, Emily claims that,
The rise of social media and non-traditional methods for earning income streams has created a shift in the mindset of employees, resulting in demand for more flexibility, greater benefits, more inclusive and meaningful work in addition to compensation. These expectations put increasing pressure on HR Professionals to match demand and attract and retain talent.
12 ways to avoid HR burnout
We’ve discussed ten reasons why HR burnout has become such an issue, and Emily sums up this situation below:
The current landscape is a melting pot for HR Professionals, leading to emotional fatigue, isolation, high workloads and demands, leading to an unprecedented degree of burnout within this cohort.
All the elements come together to create a ‘melting pot’. It creates a shocking visual of the reality our HR professionals face, but it doesn’t need to reach this point. Read on to discover twelve ways to reduce the risk of HR burnout.
1. Help HR professionals protect their wellbeing
In the podcast featured above, Pluxee UK’s HR Business Partner, Tom Nash, shares his journey throughout his career. From times when he slept in his car to avoid the cost of the commute, to how he accidentally stumbled across the right group of people to help re-shape his mindset and prioritise his resilience.
It’s an episode employers shouldn’t miss. One where every employee can gather tips on how to create a ‘wellbeing blueprint’ that will protect them from reaching burnout.
2. Encourage a positive work-life balance
Part of protecting your wellbeing means protecting your work-life balance. From ensuring you take a lunch break away from the desk to finding activities that fill your wellbeing cup, it’s vital to protect personal time.
Have you heard of the 42% rule?
It works on the premise that our body and brain need to spend 42% of the time resting, which is roughly 10 hours out of a 24-hour day. Help your HR professionals break up their day to fit in these moments of mental rest. Once they get into the habit, they can lead by example, encouraging the rest of your workforce to adopt the practice.
In the context of hybrid working and ‘always on’ culture, it will be important for HR Professionals to set clear boundaries for their own work-life balance, including logging off on time, using annual leave and using flexibility to work efficiently. Focussing on protecting and prioritising their wellbeing will ensure that they can continue to show up in the capacity required of them in the workplace.
3. Enforce boundaries
It’s impossible to create a positive work-life balance or protect your wellbeing without creating and enforcing boundaries. From logging off on time to ensuring they use their annual leave to the fullest, your HR teams must make it clear that while they are there for your workforce, they're not on call.
Your HR teams must be approachable and accessible, but constant desk-bombing on office days may lead to additional stress. Encourage your HR team to communicate how colleagues should reach them when they have something to discuss or to delegate specific timeslots for ad hoc visits and calls.
4. Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP)
An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is fundamental to your mental health and wellbeing strategy. It won’t be effective in isolation. As with any employee benefit, you must encourage use, and in the case of mental wellbeing, remove the stigma associated with seeking support.
Emily supports this position:
HR People Leaders need to work with their teams to normalise accessing these support services within their team and ensure that they benefit from all the benefits and offerings provided to the wider business.
5. Gym and fitness discounts
Our case study for Acorns Children’s Hospice reflects another profession at high risk of burnout – palliative care nurses. Understanding the value that physical activity has in helping people move stress through their body, and its role in reducing the risk of burnout, the hospice embedded our Gym and Fitness Discounts into their employee benefits offering.
Making exercise more affordable and accessible helps employees find balance, even a new passion, and reduces the risk of burnout.
6. Prioritise resilience
We’ve touched upon wellbeing and work-life balance, but the goal is resilience. You can create financially, mentally, and physically resilient employees through a range of employee perks and cultural changes.
To be resilient means to be able to withstand the challenges that will come your way. You need your ‘selfcare pot’ to be well stocked, to be able to leave any personal worries at the office door and to have the energy and drive to push forward. A holistic approach to employee wellbeing, combined with a culture of flexibility and balance, puts you in the best position to create a resilient HR team.
Chris Smith, founder of Kid Resilient and the SPEAR Resilience Blueprint, joined us on a recent podcast.
Resilience comes from life's inevitable challenges. Resilience doesn't mean that you don't feel pain, it means that you formed habits, behaviours, and mindsets, that you know will be positive for you to navigate yourself out of that chaos.
While Chris doesn’t entirely reveal the secrets of the SPEAR method, he touches on an element of the Three R’s resilience method – reflection.
There are inevitable things that will happen to us, and once you go through one of these scenarios, you need to build some form of blueprint as to what worked for you in that moment. What are the things that you did that were positive or not positive. Ultimately, how did you get out of that moment? How did you move on?
7. Give them space to be human
We’re at tip number seven, and getting to this point meant reading through many challenges HR professionals must face. We’ve talked about supporting them, helping them work out stress and having a safe space to turn to.
Why do they need this?
Because they’re human.
Your HR team may follow through with a restructuring plan to the best of their abilities, remaining professional while fulfilling a duty that could cause them emotional pain. It’s important to normalise these feelings. To let your HR teams have a moment to feel the weight of some of the duties they fulfil, to have their moment to grieve, get angry, whatever they need to work through.
8. Ensure they have a support network
Those who work with a wider HR team may have a more naturally occurring support network than those who work in isolation. Having a support network is vital for mental and emotional wellbeing, especially when you’re the person responsible for delivering difficult news.
Whether you have leaders in your business who can act as mentors or the option to use external support – even EAP, ensuring your HR professionals have a support network can mean the difference between thriving and burnout.
9. Reduce unnecessary admin
We’ve mentioned AI innovations and automations as a potential source of stress, but they also bring efficiencies. AI, automations, and additional reporting tools reduce one significant HR headache – unnecessary administrative tasks.
With more elements to manage as HR responsibilities diversify, the admin load also increases. While some tasks require the human touch, others are better left to technological advances.
With employers now offering a variety of employee workplace perks, benefits administration can be time-consuming. That’s why you should explore all-in-one employee benefits platforms through partners that combine all your benefits in one place, provide transparent reporting and data, account management and marketing support.
10. Recognise their efforts
In our blog, ‘Employee recognition: The ultimate guide for employers’,we reference the role recognition has in reducing employee stress. Don’t forget to recognise your HR team when they demonstrate your business’s values, lead by example, and see a challenging project through to the end.
Recognition is especially important for HR professionals working in isolation. You need to ensure they feel seen and valued. Thanking them for all they do will give them a mental and emotional boost, helping them become more resilient and confident in handling anything that comes their way.
11. Provide development opportunities
The need to stay up-to-date and constantly learning contributes to HR burnout, but it’s also vital for being successful in the role. Ensure you provide your HR team with the time and space they need to digest policy changes and new processes during the working day, so they don’t feel pressured to read up on them in their spare time.
Discover what else might benefit them. If their role is evolving from predominantly admin to projects, would they benefit from a project management course? How about their Excel skills? There are people who work with Excel and those who make it work for them. Taking time to enhance their software skills could make them more efficient in the long term.
12. Empower them to be subject matter experts
The world is changing faster than ever, and HR Professionals are in a unique position to shape and drive a future of work that looks different from anything we have seen before.
We second Emily’s thoughts here. Your HR leaders are a strategic partner. They’re subject matter experts in their fields, and you should recognise their worth and input. Give them opportunities to comment in public, lead keynote sessions and run internal learning sessions.
Champion them as a thought leader in your sector, allow them opportunities for networking and growth, and you’re nurturing reliable spokespeople who can enrich your brand.
Recognise the causes and reduce the risk of HR burnout
We’ve opened your eyes to the reality that your HR leaders, team or lone rangers face on a daily basis. The challenges and emotional battles that you may have assumed or expected that they’ll take in their stride.
You recognise that they’re at considerable risk of burnout and have the insights you need to reduce this risk, boost resilience and keep all your workforce healthy.
Together, we can create the culture and provide the tools needed to make HR burnout a thing of the past.
Sources: CV-Library, Rise Workplace Wellbeing, Kid Resilient.
FAQs
How can employees apply the 42% rule of burnout?
Sleep can make up a large portion of our ten hours of rest, but not everyone gets the maximum eight hours each night. Encourage your employees to use their full lunch hour to rest and recharge. Consider running weekly meditation sessions, lunchtime yoga, and educating them on ways they can recharge throughout the day.
How can we identify burnout?
Download our guide to Recognising and Resolving Burnout to understand how to identify and alleviate it.
How long does it take to recover from burnout?
It can take longer to recover from burnout than it did to become burned out in the first place. Burnout presents physical and mental issues that will affect people differently.
