Navigating workplace stress: Insights and strategies in 2025

In today’s fast-paced business environment, work-related stress and mental health challenges have reached unprecedented levels. According to an HSE report, stress, depression or anxiety were responsible for the majority of days lost due to work-related ill health in 2023/24.

On average, 21.1 days per individual were taken off for stress, depression or anxiety, amounting to a total of 16.4 million days lost, highlighting the need for proactive stress management measures.

Stress Awareness Month, held each April, is a crucial reminder for organisations to prioritise mental wellbeing and implement effective strategies to manage stress.

The growing impact of workplace stress

Modern workplaces are increasingly burdened with stressors such as heavy workloads, tight deadlines and interpersonal conflicts. Adding to these pressures, organisations are navigating the Employment Rights Bill. This legislation is set to bring the most substantial employment law changes and financial considerations in a decade, making HR’s role pivotal in navigating this new landscape.

With new workplace protections against sexual harassment and expanded day-one rights, organisations must ensure compliance while managing the increased complexity. Many are responding by reducing their workforce or adjusting people costs, which in turn creates uncertainty, anxiety and job insecurity.

Mental Health UK‘s Burnout Report 2024 shows a wide pattern of workplace stress. Their findings indicate that nine out of ten adults experienced significant work pressure in the last year, and one in five workers needed time off for mental health reasons linked to their jobs.

HR is particularly feeling the impact of these added pressures. Recent research has found that over a third of HR professionals are actively considering leaving the profession due to burnout, with more than half of those surveyed having experienced burnout in the past five years.

It is clearly crucial to prioritise strategies that support mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. By adopting proactive measures, organisations can reduce the negative effects of stress and create a more resilient, engaged workforce.

Primary aims of Stress Awareness Month

Stress Awareness Month is designed not only to shine a light on the challenges posed by stress but also to drive meaningful action. The initiative aims to:

• Educate the public about the causes and effects of stress;
• Promote effective stress management techniques to enhance mental health and wellbeing;
• Encourage open conversations to reduce the stigma surrounding stress and mental health issues;
• Provide resources and support to help individuals and organisations manage stress effectively.

These goals offer a valuable framework for organisations to enhance their well-being programs and create a more supportive workplace culture.

Key strategies for reducing workplace stress

Invest in your managers

Managers are pivotal in cultivating a healthy work environment. By investing in their well-being and upskilling them to listen actively, empathise and offer constructive feedback, organisations can build trust and improve psychological safety. This proactive approach enables early identification of stress-related issues, preventing minor challenges from escalating.

This year’s Stress Awareness Month theme, “Lead with Love“, highlights the role managers can play in creating healthier workplaces. By building a culture of trust, compassion and resilience – where employees feel valued, supported and empowered – organisations can shift from high-stress environments to cultures of collaboration and growth.

A key way to achieve this is through Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) – demonstrating support and acceptance toward others, regardless of their thoughts, words or actions.

This mindset strengthens relationships, improves communication and reduces workplace stress and conflict. It also creates an environment where openness is encouraged, continuous growth becomes the norm, and employees feel genuinely valued and engaged.

By embedding UPR into leadership and everyday interactions, organisations redefine success. It becomes about kindness, empathy and respect – workplaces where people don’t just work harder, but work happier.

Technology alleviates workplace stress

Technology plays a key role in reducing workplace stress by simplifying complex processes and ensuring compliance with evolving employment laws. By streamlining the management of employee relations (ER) case management processes, technology helps create a more consistent and less stressful environment for everyone involved.

empower®‘s guided journeys help simplify the complexity in ER case management processes, enabling managers to self-serve cases. This frees up HR capacity and enables proactive prevention of workplace disputes, improving culture and employee experiences.

By making employee relations management more straightforward, technology creates a less stressful environment for both managers and employees, enhancing overall workplace wellbeing.

Technology can also be used to reduce the stress involved in change programmes, such as redundancies or TUPE transfers. Meeting Manager enables organisations to deliver more compassionate consultation meetings to employees affected by change.

This not only reduces the stress on those directly impacted, but by demonstrating your commitment to people-first processes, it has a positive effect on those remaining in the business.

Utilise HR analytics for proactive wellbeing strategies

Understanding the root causes of workplace stress is essential for taking effective action. empower®‘s employee relations (ER) analytics and advanced management information (MI) provides visibility across your organisation, helping you track employee relations challenges and identify trends that may contribute to stress.

For example, empower® helps HR leaders identify manager capability gaps, enabling targeted leadership development that reduces stress by building confidence and capability.

It also combines key case data from across your organisation, producing interactive dashboards that offer real-time insights into people management. With this, businesses can:

• Monitor key metrics related to employee relations, including case trends, investigation outcomes and policy impact;
• Use benchmarking data to compare stress-related factors across departments, locations and similar organisations;
• Identify patterns in absence, grievances and wellbeing concerns, enabling HR teams to intervene proactively.

By transforming employee relations, you can gain more value from your existing employee relations data, unlocking actionable insights that enable you to make data-driven decisions to reduce workplace stress and cultivate a more engaged workforce.

Our HR experts can also help to facilitate this process, making analysis significantly easier, meaning your teams can identify any areas of weakness to improve employee experiences.

Embed mental health awareness and education

Robust health and wellness initiatives are essential to mitigating workplace stress. Recognising common signs of stress – such as frequent headaches, fatigue, anxiety, low mood and difficulty concentrating – allows for timely and proactive intervention. Mental health first aid training is an invaluable tool, enabling your workforce to support one another through challenging times.

To build a truly supportive culture, mental health conversations should be ongoing, not just one-off initiatives. Safe spaces, regular check-ins and drop-in sessions with trained mental health first aiders and mentors ensure employees feel heard and supported.

Leaders play a critical role in reducing stigma. By openly discussing mental health and signposting resources, they set the tone for a workplace where employees can seek help without hesitation.

Training and eLearning keeps mental health support current, providing everyone with the knowledge and confidence to navigate challenges. With poor mental health costing UK employers up to £56 billion per year, investing in awareness and education isn’t just beneficial, it’s essential.

Supporting neurodiverse employees

Neurodiversity training, in particular, can have a hugely positive impact on reducing workplace stress and improve employee satisfaction. We have previously highlighted that one in three neurodivergent employees are dissatisfied with the support they receive from their employers, and over half have taken time off work due to their neurodivergence.

Neurodivergent employees often face environments that don’t meet their needs, leading to stress. Pearn Kandola’s Neurodiversity at Work Report 2024 found that 63% of neurodivergent workers masked their emotions or discomfort at work. This suppression can cause anxiety, stress, exhaustion and poor mental health. In fast-paced environments, this leads to burnout and mental health challenges.

Register for our latest webinar, “People priorities 2025: Manager empowerment and the value of neuro-inclusion“, for expert insights and strategies for empowering managers, increasing neurodiversity awareness, and effectively supporting neurodivergent talent.

Review and refine HR policies

Modern, inclusive HR policies play a critical role in reducing workplace stress. Outdated or unclear policies can create confusion, unfair treatment or unnecessary pressure on employees. Regular reviews ensure policies remain accessible, well-understood and aligned with company values and business goals.

A focused policy review can also strengthen Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) by identifying and addressing unintentional biases, such as gendered language in parental leave policies. Our expert HR guidance helps refine policies, introduce inclusive practices and ensure they genuinely support all employees.

Beyond policy updates, ED&I training and coaching equip leaders and employees with the knowledge to create more inclusive and supportive work environments.

Get in touch

Stress Awareness Month is a perfect opportunity for businesses to reassess and reinforce their commitment to mental health. By investing in leadership training, elevating mental health awareness and refining HR policies, organisations can create a resilient workforce ready to meet modern challenges head-on.

Contact us today to find out how we can support your organisation.