Length: 2 hours 

Group Size: 5 - 35

Audience: HR Business Partners, Employee Relations Teams, HR Helpdesk Employees, Sickness Absence Teams and other HR roles

Overview

HR professionals’ roles can involve repeated exposure to complex and emotionally charged situations - including conflict, illness, grievance and safeguarding concerns. While this work is central to organisational effectiveness, it does require HR professionals to balance empathy for individuals with responsibility for company decisions. Over time, this can carry a cumulative emotional impact.

Our two-hour training session provides a psychologically informed and practical framework, structured around four practical capabilities that support sustainable HR practice: 

• recognising emotional exposure in HR roles;
• spotting early signs of strain;
• protecting personal wellbeing and professional boundaries; and
• supporting colleagues while escalating concerns appropriately

The training is delivered by Jane Cox - an executive coach, trainer and supervisor with extensive corporate experience holding HR Director and senior manager positions in the financial, retail and hospitality sectors - including with RSA Insurance, Royal Bank of Scotland, Kingfisher plc and Mitchells & Butler plc.

Participants are introduced to key concepts such as compassion fatigue, emotional saturation and moral strain, and explore how these can affect energy, decision making and professional judgement through the stress performance curve.

Participants learn to recognise early signs of emotional strain in themselves and in colleagues, enabling earlier intervention before stress escalates. The session also addresses coping with guilt and the impact holding confidential information without the usual opportunities to process difficult situations through conversation. Practical tools are introduced to help participants protect their own wellbeing and to help support colleagues who may be struggling. A simple framework for supportive conversations will be shared, as well as clarity provided on when and how to escalate concerns.

A core feature of the session is a role specific case study activity, where participants work in groups aligned to their HR function. This ensures the learning is grounded in realistic scenarios and directly applicable to the pressures of each role.

Course outcomes

The Workplace Mental health Champions course will enable participants to:

• Understand how emotional exposure affects HR professionals over time (including compassion fatigue and vicarious stress).
• Develop strategies to look after personal wellbeing in emotionally demanding roles.
• Create clearer separation between personal values and organisational responsibility to reduce guilt.
• Understand the wellbeing impact of holding confidential and sensitive information.
• Recognise early warning signs of mental ill health in themselves and others.
• Apply practical wellbeing techniques including recovery rituals, journalling, mindfulness and peer support.
• Support colleagues who may be struggling using the TALK framework.
• Know what support resources and crisis pathways are available.

Course content

• Practical skills to spot triggers and signs stress and burnout in ourselves and our colleagues 
• Protecting yourself during emotionally demanding work
• Preparing for conversations which are likely to be emotionally tough
• Staying regulated and hold empathy during conversations, without taking responsibility for outcomes
• Using recovery rituals and close the cognitive loop, so cases do not follow you home, with examples of practical tools to use
• The hidden challenge in HR: handling confidential emotional load
• Supporting colleagues if you notice they are struggling, crisis awareness and pathway, and avenues of support
• Practice into action – multiple case study activities and listening exercises 
• Reflections and next steps, including creating a personal action plan