Not all stress is bad. Some can motivate you to perform better. But chronic stress can affect your employees’ lives. According to 2024 research from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI),1 prolonged exposure to chronic stress can increase the risk of health issues like cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depression. Providing your employees with practical resources may help support their stress-management efforts.
Employee Burnout Trends
Burnout can be associated withchronic, unmanaged workplace stress. According to Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Survey, 2025,2 55 percent of U.S. workers surveyed reported experiencing burnout. The same research shows that burned-out employees are also three times more likely to say they'll leave their organization within the next year, suggesting that stress management is not just a wellbeing issue but a retention one. These findings highlight the potential value of year-round, not just seasonal, stress support.
Stress can affect an employee’s personal life, and may also contribute to lower productivity, burnout, conflict and errors at work. According to the American Psychological Association 2025 Work in America™ survey,3 54 percent of workers report feeling stress at work due to job insecurity.
One aspect complicating stress is that what may be stressful to one person may not be stressful to another. What is agreed on is that the causes of stress vary widely from big life events like loss of a loved one, divorce, illness or financial issues to the accumulation of small triggers over time. And yes, unfortunately, jobs are a common source of stress.
Luckily, HR teams can stress the importance of stress management. Use this campaign guidance to help employees navigate stress.
Set Your Campaign Objectives
Stress may be common, but managing stress before it takes a toll on health and wellness is vital. Your employee benefits package may include many products and resources employees can use to practice stress management and self-care. Use a Stress Management campaign to bring awareness to those opportunities. Your campaign objectives might include:
- Increasing downloads of your company’s wellbeing app.
- Increasing employee engagement with your EAP program and related resources. EAP utilization may be low because of unclear awareness of what's covered or confusion about how to access it so pair any EAP promotion with plain-language examples of what the EAP can help with (stress, family issues, financial counseling, etc.) and exactly how to reach it.
- Encouraging employees to take advantage of preventative health screenings and annual primary care visits.
- Boosting utilization of your gym membership programs or health coaching services or encourage exploration of yoga or meditation.
- Highlighting additional benefits like coverage for cognitive behavioral therapy.
Stress Management for Hybrid and Remote Employees
Hybrid and remote employees may face stress patterns like blurred work-life boundaries, difficulty disconnecting after hours and less spontaneous connection with coworkers. When promoting this year's stress-management benefits, make sure available remote-accessible options are called out explicitly: virtual EAP counseling sessions, on-demand or livestreamed meditation and yoga classes and wellness app features accessible to both in-office and remote employees.
Strategies for Building Resilience
Stress relief and resilience-building are related but different: relief focuses on stress in the moment, while resilience-building aims to support an employee's capacity to handle future stress. Consider adding resilience-focused content to this campaign such as sessions on reframing setbacks, building strong support networks, or structured problem-solving skills. Offer this alongside existing meditation and mindfulness offerings, which may help with in-the-moment stress management and can complement longer-term skill-building.
Workplace Mental Health Metrics
To help assess engagement with this campaign and your stress-management benefits in general), track a few consistent metrics: EAP utilization rate wellness app downloads and active use absenteeism trends pulse survey questions specifically on stress and burnout (not just general engagement) Reviewing these metrics after the campaign, and again periodically throughout the year, may help identify trends in engagement and usage.
Consider This Communications Plan and Timeline
Use a week-long campaign to encourage employees to use the resources they have available to manage stress early and often. Consider this timeline of activities:
Monday
- Send a kick-off email introducing Stress Management Week.
- Share a complete list of benefits and resources employees can access for stress management.
Tuesday
- Pick two benefits and/or resources to highlight with employees via email such as your EAP or gym membership program.
- Give every employee a branded stress ball.
- Host a lunch-and-learn led by your leadership team and an outside expert about stress at work, encouraging an open and supportive environment.
Wednesday
- Host a yoga and meditation class.
- Share a post on your corporate social channel about preventative health screenings and discussing stress-related concerns with a health care provider.
Thursday
- Send an email encouraging employees to download their wellness app.
- Post a link to benefits portal where employees can explore available voluntary benefit offerings.
Friday
- Encourage employees to take a mindfulness break and do something like take a walk, follow a guided meditation or another activity to ease their stress.
- Send an email wrapping up the week, including all resources employees can use for stress management.
Year-Round Stress Management Planning
Stress Management Week offers a seasonal opportunity for outreach, but stress doesn't stay confined to November, especially with the year-end holidays right around the corner. Consider building a lightweight, recurring cadence beyond this campaign: a quarterly check-in email on stress-management benefits, ongoing manager training refreshers and a periodic review of the metrics outlined above. This may help sustain engagement beyond the campaign week.
For more ideas on employee engagement, download this helpful resource: Your 12 Month Guide to Keeping Employee Benefits Front and Center.
