Burnout | 3 in 5 HR pros consider switching careers as workload pressures mount

New research suggests HR professionals are reaching breaking point, revealing how three in five (62%) have seriously considered leaving their role in the past 12 months - as unsustainable workloads, inefficient systems and lack of senior support take their toll.

The study of 300 UK HR professionals by IRIS, whose HR software manages more than 850,000 UK employees, found that high workloads are the primary driver of attrition risk (30%), followed by the emotional toll of the role (19%), and insufficient pay relative to workload (16%). Nearly half (46%) told IRIS they regularly work longer hours than contracted with a similar share of respondents (45%) feeling overwhelmed by their workloads.

Operational inefficiency is compounding the pressure. HR professionals lose an average of half a working day (3.4 hours) each week to poorly integrated systems, yet only 28% have a fully or largely integrated HR platform in place. Most are navigating a patchwork of systems and spreadsheets (34%) or manual processes only (24%).

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The top challenges created by poor systems included downtime (33%), missing features HR pros need (30%), and poor integration leading to updating multiple systems separately (30%).