Stress Awareness Month 2025: Leading with Love, Compassion and Kindness
April marks Stress Awareness Month in the UK, and as we reach the halfway point, this year’s theme – Leading with Love – is a timely reminder of the importance of compassion, empathy, and understanding in the workplace.
Amid ongoing economic pressure, shifting work patterns, and the ever-present demands of modern life, stress continues to take a significant toll on employee wellbeing – and on business performance.
Workplace stress isn’t just a personal issue; it’s a commercial one. According to recent estimates, stress-related illness cost UK businesses over £28 billion in 2024, through lost productivity, increased absence, and staff turnover. Early data from 2025 suggests this figure could rise further if meaningful interventions aren’t prioritised.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reported that stress, depression, or anxiety accounted for over 50% of all work-related ill health cases in 2024, with more than 17 million working days lost. These numbers tell only part of the story. Behind them are individuals struggling to maintain balance, motivation, and energy in an increasingly demanding work environment.
While many companies have introduced wellbeing initiatives, the gap between intention and impact remains. National wellbeing scores among UK employees showed only a modest improvement of 2% in 2024, and overall employee engagement declined by 4%, highlighting a disconnect between wellbeing strategy and meaningful cultural change.
One of the most effective ways for organisations to drive meaningful change is by listening to their people first.
At JourneyHR , our Wellbeing Surveys offer organisations clear, actionable insight into how employees are really feeling – beyond surface-level feedback. These provide employees with an anonymous forum to discuss how they’re feeling at work, and provide feedback as to where they are feeling pressure. Businesses who engage in these surveys can analyse the data to draw out key themes and trends, and therefore best know where to invest resources and time to provide the best possible support to their employees.
Burnout, lack of psychological safety, and poor communication between managers and teams are often cited as key contributors in engagement and wellbeing surveys. It’s clear that without a strong foundation of open dialogue and genuine care, wellbeing programmes risk becoming superficial fixes rather than long-term solutions.
Psychometric tools such as Lumina Spark can help uncover communication styles, motivators, and stress triggers, giving managers the clarity they need to lead with empathy. The tool provides a deeper awareness into employees’ communication preferences and tendencies, taking into account everyday behaviours, and how these vary when in stressful situations. When used alongside wellbeing data, tools like Lumina become a powerful foundation for building trust, fostering connection, and ultimately, creating healthier, more human workplaces.
As Stress Awareness Month continues, it’s the perfect time to reflect on how your organisation supports its people – not just with policies, but with purpose and heart.
At JourneyHR , we understand that creating a culture of wellbeing is not a one-size-fits-all approach. That’s why we work closely with organisations to embed strategies that are both impactful and sustainable – whether that’s crafting a wellbeing roadmap, delivering training to cultivate psychological safety, or using Lumina’s psychometrics to help leaders better understand and support their teams.