Do HR professionals need tailored treatment over mental health?

Do HR professionals need tailored treatment over mental health?

A new ‘HR mental wellbeing report 2026’ among 3,000 HR professionals over the course of three years has found that only 13% felt their mental health had been “well supported” at work.

Low mood and depression had affected 74%; and 44% believed they had experienced symptoms of clinical depression (compared with the national average in the UK population of 18%). Anxiety was reported by 73% (40% at a clinically significant level) compared with 15% nationally. The report, carried out by Ultimate Resilience and Everywhen, suggested that 38% of the staff surveyed were considering leaving the profession as a result.

Tailored health for HR

The findings also point to the value of wellbeing support: the HR professionals who did feel supported by their employer reported how they were less likely to be dealing with the symptoms of anxiety, depression and burnout, and less likely to be taking sick leave because of stress or thinking about leaving the profession.

The complexity and demands on HR, argues the report authors, means that the usual signposting to an EAP and advice on wellbeing and mental health isn’t enough for people in those roles. Instead, they say, employers should be provided with services tailored to their particular needs, including “access to tailored mental health support and structured supervision”, along with “psychologically-informed reflective spaces, such as HR supervision”. Specific communications are needed to understand the needs of HR teams.

What’s happening?

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “Of all the functions within an organisation, HR should be the most aware of the advice around mental health and wellbeing, and the different kinds of support services available. So what’s going wrong?

“It may be that some HR professionals feel that services like the EAP are for other people, not themselves — as well as there being a level of overfamiliarity, an assumption they know the general advice and what an EAP is for, its critical value in helping people at early stages and to defuse potential problems.

“All types and levels of workers face their own kinds of pressures and challenges, and for HR teams to receive special treatment in terms of tailoring, given the range of services that are already available, feels unnecessary and a misunderstanding of the underlying causes.”