Top 4 Employee Stressors and What HR Can Do About Them

In this article we discuss:

• The Top 4 Employee Stressors
• Benefits Beyond Wellness
• Key Takeaways

Placing importance on work is a natural part of employment, especially for high performers. But as the level of perceived importance increases, so can stress levels, which can negatively affect how we perform. In fact, 73% of employees said work-related mental health struggles hurt their job performance, according to Lyra’s 2025 State of Workforce Mental Health Report. 

This is quite the dilemma for employees–and a business imperative for HR teams. When organizations support their employees in managing their stress levels, it ensures that they can operate at their full potential. 

With the right insights, HR teams can prioritize improvements and craft programs that provide ongoing support, reaping positive benefits for employees, people managers, and businesses alike. Let’s explore four areas that HR leaders should consider when building out, or refreshing, wellness initiatives. 

Top 4 Employee Stressors

Burned out individual contributors can cost US companies an average $4,257 per salaried worker, an American Journal of Preventive Medicine study found. These costs jump to $10,824 per manager and $20,683 per executive.

There’s no expectation that work will ever be perfect and completely stress-free. But setting up employees with the right tools to combat common workplace stressors is essential to their optimal performance and your bottom line. 

As HR teams create wellness programs, it’s critical to understand what areas are going to be the most impactful to their workforce’s employee experience. By focusing on the largest stressors at hand, you’re encouraging higher program usage, and eventually, seeing the benefits of these programs come to life. 

Workload Management

44% of respondents recently reported excessive workloads as a top workplace stressor. This is a challenging pain point to navigate considering the rapid pace of change within the business landscape. 

Many organizations are cutting costs amidst global socioeconomic shifts, which can translate to a lack of resources, lost headcount, and higher performance targets. But these pitfalls at work can trigger chain reactions in an employee’s life outside of work–or worse–harm their health.

The recent Workday “Global Workforce Report” notes that our own metrics show that baseline employee needs, including fair compensation, growth opportunities, and clearly defined goals, are the key to an engaged workforce—but business leaders will need to consider how to make work more meaningful if they want to raise performance standards. 

This is because workers who believe they are doing meaningful work feel 37% more accomplished than those who don’t, even under “challenging workloads.” This suggests that meaningful work and accomplishment are critical in order for employees to remain engaged and highly productive. Ultimately, this insight gives companies a North Star for increasing productivity.

What HR Teams Can Do

Employees are human while they’re at work and while they’re not at work. They face diverse sets of problems and stressors that require diverse approaches of support. Including varying types of coaching in your employee wellness packages can help employees navigate challenging times, no matter the cause of stress. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Coaching offerings should span a variety of different categories to meet your employees where they are. 

Whether financial, personal, or even career coaching–it’s within HR’s control to provide this added layer of employee support to realize an employee’s full potential.

Staffing Shortages

41% of respondents reported inadequate staffing as a top workplace stressor. With organizations shifting their strategies and leaning out teams, it often leads to open headcount. The problem with open headcount is that there’s still work allotted to that empty role, and someone on the team has to absorb it.

Which can sometimes lead to retention issues, causing a “swinging door” effect, where more employees are headed out the door due to overwhelm and being undercompensated for their increased workloads. 

This is a vicious cycle that HR teams are faced with regularly. And in the increasingly demanding business world, that can have serious implications to organizational performance. Combatting these staff shortages when they come up is helpful, but proactively planning for these changes is the most ideal scenario.

What HR Teams Can Do

Urgency can cause chaos, and staffing shortages are fairly urgent. Empathy is sometimes the last priority that comes to mind when staffing shortages impact a team. But it can go a long way for your business. 

Tying the empathy a team feels to manager effectiveness metrics is a measurable way to ensure a good employee–and human–experience within your workforce. And it’s not only when staffing shortages occur. Empathy should be an always-on strategy for HR teams to foster an environment that is safe, effective, and adaptable in the face of challenges.

Importance of Recognition

33% of respondents reported lack of recognition as a top workplace stressor. Validating that your work is done well isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. It’s a business imperative.

The onset of recognition isn’t new, but it will become increasingly vital to employee experiences as the integration of AI within our work becomes more prevalent. The workforce is at an intersection between the traditional way of doing things, and reimagining their approaches to work due to AI. Recognizing this and giving accolades for innovation can help encourage AI utilization.

Of course, the same is also true for workforce performance that isn’t impacted by AI. 

Recognition is an important part of the human experience at work. It creates a celebratory, encouraging environment that can influence teams to go beyond their traditional scope–all while creating connections and increasing engagement amongst employees along the way. In fact, 37% of employees identify recognition as the most significant factor that drives their engagement at work, according to Great Place To Work.

What HR Teams Can Do

All employees deserve to relish in those moments of pride for a job well done. But providing recognition doesn’t need to be reserved for managers. Everybody in your organization should have the ability to do so.

Using recognition programs help to create a regular rhythm of celebration amongst your workforce which can effectively engage employees. Sometimes, the smallest accomplishments can have the largest impact. No matter the size of accomplishment, recognition is an easy opportunity to let your employees know their work is meaningful.

Manager Support

21% of respondents reported lack of manager support as a top workplace stressor. This isn’t a blame-game. It’s a workplace reality that is typically a layered issue. Many variables can cause a lack of manager support, like being over capacity, burnt out, or providing air coverage for their team. 

This can easily escalate into everyone feeling like they're spread too thin–a mission-critical problem. Manager support is a large variable in an employee’s experience at work. 50-70% of an employee’s work perception is influenced by their direct manager according to Frontline.

What HR Teams Can Do

When HR teams provide the right tools to people managers, it enables them to act quickly or even get ahead of problems before they exist. People managers have a lot to balance, and they’re not always looking for new problems to solve. These real-time insights safeguard teams from experiencing tension resulting from low manager support, and ensures everybody receives the right level of support at the right time to perform effectively.

Benefits Beyond Wellness

The boardroom should embrace wellness programs just as much as your employees who benefit from them. Companies that invested in wellness programs saw an average ROI of $2.73 for every dollar spent, according to a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review. That is a promising indicator of the power of wellness programs.

Not only do wellness initiatives create a culture of well being, they also provide tangible results that positively impact performance, productivity, and profitability. The outcomes don’t stop there–comprehensive benefits packages have a reported impact of:

• Positive ROI: 88% of businesses reported a positive ROI, 8% higher than businesses without a comprehensive benefits package.
• Increased productivity: 95% of businesses reported increased productivity, 11% higher than businesses without a comprehensive benefits package.
• Increased engagement: 88% of businesses reported an increase in employee engagement, 13% higher than businesses without a comprehensive benefits package.

Comprehensive benefits packages also boost retention. 78% of HR and benefits leaders at companies with comprehensive mental health benefits reported higher retention rates.

Key Takeaways

People managers and HR teams clearly have something in common: their functions are complex. That complexity can easily distract from important priorities like workforce mental wellness. But mental wellness is no longer a nice-to-have. High-performing talent requires it, and it’s essential for a high-performing business.

When thinking about your approach to wellness packages, consider this summary of key takeaways:

• Engrain empathy in your company culture. Don’t underestimate the power of a deeply empathetic manager approach.
• Educate your workforce about the benefits available to them. They won’t know they’re there if you don’t introduce them.
• Expand certain benefits, like coaching, to cover multiple categories. Remember, it’s not a one size fits all approach. Adjust accordingly.
• Make accessing your wellness programs a breeze. Accessing these programs shouldn’t contribute to employee overwhelm. 
• Tie manager effectiveness to wellness objectives. Holding managers accountable is key to high performance.

75% of industries are showing an increase in high‑potential voluntary turnover—but what does that mean for business leaders? Learn more in this Workday report.