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Category: Corporate Strategies for Burnout Prevention

  • Executive Burnout: The Hidden Risk Undermining Your Succession Plan

    Executive Burnout: The Hidden Risk Undermining Your Succession Plan

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    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    Why Executive Burnout Is a Governance Risk You Can No Longer Ignore 

    For too long, burnout has been treated as a personal wellness issue. Aa sign that someone needs a long weekend, a vacation, or a meditation app. But from the C-suite vantage point, this is the wrong lens.

    Executive and managerial burnout is not a personal failure. It is a governance failure.

    It poses a direct, unmanaged threat to business continuity, leadership pipeline integrity, and organizational capacity.

    What I Saw in 20+ Years Leading Global Talent Processes

    Across my career at global organizations, I facilitated hundreds of Talent Review meetings. These are the rooms where senior leaders passionately debated performance, potential, and succession. Here’s what always struck me:

    Leaders loved Talent Review meetings… but consistently failed in the follow-through.

    • We dutifully assessed performance.
    • We analyzed potential.
    • We flagged flight risks.

    But then?

    Workloads took over. Development plans were untouched. Critical conversations didn’t happen. And flight risks… well, they flew.

    The pattern was painfully predictable:

    • A high-value leader resigns unexpectedly
    • The “ready-now” successor we thought we had wasn’t actually ready
    • We scramble to hire externally
    • Internal leaders lose morale because promotion paths feel blocked

    In every case, the root cause was the same: Weak follow-through. Not weak talent.

    And burnout was almost always in the background.

    The Cost of Executive Pipeline Fragility

    Make no mistake: executive burnout is a multi-million-dollar problem.

    • High-Value Loss: Burnout among executives and managers costs organizations over $20,000 per person annually in lost productivity and diminished performance.
    • Succession Shock: Replacing a critical leader costs 50% to 200% of salary and creates a destabilizing gap in your leadership pipeline.
    • Missed Opportunities: Your best leaders carry the most mission-critical work. When they leave, projects stall because no one else has the context or expertise.
    • Reputation Damage: When an executive leaves due to burnout, the story spreads, eroding employer brand trust faster than any Glassdoor review ever could.

    If you’re a senior leader focused on cost optimization and growth, this is not a people issue. This is a financial and operational liability.

    For further reading: Burnout Doesn’t Send You an Invoice but It’s Already Draining Your Bottom Line

    Conservative synthesis of leader and HiPo research suggests roughly 30–45% of critical successor/high-potential leaders are likely to show moderate-to-high burnout risk.

    Your Succession Plan Is Probably Blind to Burnout

    Traditional succession planning answers one question: Who could step into a bigger job?

    But it doesn’t answer the more urgent one:  Who is burning out in the job they have right now?

    This is the gap that creates unpredicted resignations and the expensive panic that follows.

    How I Bring Governance Discipline to Burnout Risk

    As an Executive Succession Risk Partner, my work is to bring a diagnostic, data-driven lens to what most companies treat as a “soft” issue.

    1. The Future Risk Audit

    Using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS), we assess your critical leadership cohorts. This is not an engagement survey. It is a structural risk audit.

    2. Pinpointing Systemic Failure

    AWS data reveals what’s actually eroding capacity:

    • Workload
    • Fairness
    • Reward
    • Control
    • Community
    • Values misalignment

    This tells us why your leaders are exhausted and which systems are failing them.

    3. The Structural Fix

    We stop blaming individuals and start repairing the organizational mechanics:

    • Workload friction
    • Recognition gaps
    • Decision-making autonomy
    • Value misalignment
    • Leadership capability issues

    These interventions rebuild capacity and strengthen succession integrity.

    The Outcome: Capacity Reclaimed. Succession Secured.

    Structural interventions create measurable gains:

    1. Succession Secured: You protect your most valuable leaders, ensuring pipeline integrity and business continuity.
    1. Capacity Reclaimed
      By removing friction, you recover lost hours, lost energy, and lost productivity — enabling your organization to finally “do more with less.”

    If you can’t afford to lose $20,000 of leadership capacity this year, or risk a sudden vacancy in a critical role, the time to audit your risk is now.

    Interested in assessing the risk inside your own organization?

    Let’s schedule a 15-minute conversation to evaluate the health of your leadership pipeline and the real-world cost of burnout in your succession plan.

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  • Bad Leadership Is One of the Biggest Drivers of Burnout

    Bad Leadership Is One of the Biggest Drivers of Burnout

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    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    We talk a lot about employee burnout – employee resilience, personal boundaries, and meditation apps. But what we don’t talk nearly enough about is the top driver of burnout inside organizations; i.e., leadership behavior and the psychological safety it creates (or destroys).

    The data is overwhelming:

    • 70% of team climate is influenced directly by the manager (organizational psychology research).
    • Teams with low psychological safety show significantly higher rates of stress, turnover, conflict, errors, and stalled innovation.
    • Leaders account for up to 40% of the variance in employee burnout (McKinsey).

    This isn’t about “bad apples.” It’s about leaders who were promoted without the training or support to create healthy, high-performance environments.

    And the cost is enormous.

    The Hidden Cost of Poor Leadership and Low Psychological Safety

    When psychological safety is low, employees operate under chronic threat response. And that creates a cascading set of losses:

    • Turnover: Employees leave managers, not companies.
    • Lost productivity: Chronic stress reduces cognitive capacity by up to 30%.
    • Higher healthcare premiums: Burnout costs between $4,000 and $21,000 per employee annually, depending on the level of the role.
    • Presenteeism: The “I’m here, but I’m barely functioning” cost.
    • Absenteeism: More sick days and stress-related health issues.
    • Lower innovation: People will not share new ideas if they fear being judged.
    • Slower decision-making: Teams stay quiet until asked, and escalate unnecessarily.
    • Employer brand erosion: Word spreads fast in talent markets.

    This is the Burnout Tax. A silent financial leak created by poor leadership practices.

    What Poor Leaders Consistently Miss: Psychological Safety Is the Engine of Performance

    Most leaders don’t intend to create burnout. But without training, they unintentionally:

    • react defensively
    • communicate inconsistently
    • set unclear expectations
    • reward urgency over quality
    • shut down dissent
    • ignore micro-signals of distress

    These behaviors create a low-safety environment where people simply cannot access their best thinking.

    Psychological safety is not “comfort.” It is the freedom to think, contribute, question, and take smart risks without fear. It’s the foundation of innovation, trust, and sustainable performance.

    How to Assess Psychological Safety (and Burnout Risk) in Your Organization

    Here are the tools that matter most. They are evidence-based, not trendy:

    1. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)

    The gold standard for measuring burnout, used globally for decades. It assesses:

    • Emotional Exhaustion
    • Depersonalization
    • Diminished Personal Accomplishment

    2. Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS)

    The workplace assessment that reveals why burnout is happening:

    • Workload
    • Control
    • Reward
    • Community
    • Fairness
    • Values alignment

    Together, MBI + AWS provide the most complete view of burnout sources.

    3. Team Interviews or Focus Groups

    Direct, human insight. The nuance you can’t get from surveys alone.

    4. Workload + Decision-Making Analysis

    This exposes:

    • bottlenecks
    • inefficient approval flows
    • unclear ownership
    • decision fatigue
    • role overload

    5. Leadership 360s

    A reality check for leaders: “How you think you’re showing up” vs. “How your team experiences you.”

    The Metrics That Matter (Including Leading Indicators)

    Most organizations rely solely on lagging indicators; i.e., the signs of burnout that appear when it’s already too late:

    • Voluntary turnover
    • Absenteeism
    • Performance drops
    • Exit interviews
    • Formal complaints

    You need these, but they won’t help you intervene early.

    Leading indicators show burnout before it erupts:

    • Increases in workload without resource adjustment
    • Slow or hesitant decision-making
    • Drop in idea-sharing or collaboration
    • More escalations from frontline teams
    • Increased conflict or defensiveness in meetings
    • Reduced participation in optional initiatives

    These indicators tell you: “A burnout storm cloud is forming. Act now.”

    The Skills Leaders Must Learn to Reduce Burnout and Build Psychological Safety

    Psychological safety improves when leaders build specific, behavior-based skills:

    • Deep listening and non-defensive communication
    • Recognizing early burnout signals
    • Giving feedback without triggering threat response
    • Facilitating inclusive conversations
    • Clarity-setting and scope control
    • Managing workload and prioritization
    • Repair conversations after harm
    • Emotional regulation under pressure
    • Coaching skills (not just directing)

    These skills are not “soft.” These are performance skills that drive execution, innovation, and results.

    A Call to Action for Organizations

    If you’re serious about improving performance and retention, and strengthening leadership effectiveness, start with a Psychological Safety & Burnout Audit that includes:

    • MBI + AWS
    • Team Interviews and Focus Groups
    • Workload & Decision-Making Analysis
    • Leadership 360s

    This gives you clear data, clear language, and a clear roadmap for targeted improvement. No guesswork. No blaming individuals. Just evidence, insight, actionable steps and opportunity.

    If you are interested in learning more about a Psychological Safety & Burnout Inventory, contact us.

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  • Stop Burnout: Unlock Employee Innovation and Boost Productivity

    Stop Burnout: Unlock Employee Innovation and Boost Productivity

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    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    Burnout isn’t about weak individuals. Burnout is a silent organizational crisis that is destroying your employees’ ability to think, innovate, and make smart decisions. For leaders demanding high performance, this is a huge financial leak.

    The system is broken, and the cost is measured in millions:

    1. Turnover Time Bomb: The moment your best people leave, you pay huge costs to replace and retrain them.
    2. Presenteeism Trap: Your people are at work, but the damage to their focus and decision-making means their output quality is low. This is worse than absenteeism because you’re paying for mediocre performance.

    Burnout is Everywhere: It’s Already in Your Company

    If you think this problem is unique to other industries, think again. Burnout is now a global epidemic that has been declared an “occupational phenomenon” by the WHO.

    • Prevalence is High: Studies consistently show that up to 70% of professionals report feeling burned out at least once in their career.
    • Managers are Hit Hardest: Middle managers, your critical layer for execution, are often the most exhausted, caught between unrealistic demands from the top and struggling teams below.
    • The Cost is Universal: Whether you’re in tech, finance, or retail, the root causes (unmanageable workload, lack of control, unfairness) exist in every organization.

    You are not immune. Your best people are likely struggling with this right now.

    The Burnout Brain Drain: Why Burnout Equals Bad Decisions

    Burnout isn’t just low energy; it’s a brain function failure that costs you millions in poor judgment:

    • Executive Functions Shut Down: The part of the brain responsible for planning, problem-solving, and good judgment struggles to work. Result: Your staff wastes time on low-priority tasks, makes costly errors, and can’t see the big picture.
    • The “Brain Fog” Trap: Focus and memory fade. If a critical email is missed, or a project detail is forgotten, it’s often the result of chronic cognitive exhaustion, not carelessness.
    • Innovation Blocked: Creativity and adaptability require a fully functioning mind. Burnout actively kills your ability to innovate and respond to market changes.

    For example, I know a CEO who has made Innovation a core company value. Yet, despite this focus, there is no measurement of employee burnout within the organization. This raises a critical question:

    How can true innovation be achieved if the company is experiencing brain drain due to unaddressed burnout?

    Without actively monitoring and addressing burnout, even the most innovative environments risk losing their best talent and stifling creativity.

    ACTION PLAN: 3 Ways Leaders Fix the Cognitive Crash

    Stop prioritizing wellness apps. Start fixing your organization’s design flaws.

    1. STOP Overload: Stop making people do two jobs. Cut non-essential work and enforce boundaries to give the brain time to recover.
    2. GIVE Control: Delegate authority and power, not just tasks. Giving employees control over how and when they work is the most powerful tool against burnout.
    3. MEASURE Risk, Not Just Engagement: Use validated burnout assessments to directly link your organizational culture issues to your turnover costs and error rates.

    Stop letting burnout drain your talent and your profits. It’s time to lead with systemic change.

    To learn more ways to fix burnout and its impact on innovation, creativity and thinking, contact us.

  • Stop Asking Burned Out Thoroughbred Leaders to Win the Race

    Stop Asking Burned Out Thoroughbred Leaders to Win the Race

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    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    Last week, I was chatting with my neighbor, a former jockey who spent years racing some of the best horses in the country.

    He told me about a horse he once ran too hard. The animal had enormous heart and talent, and even when injured, it tried to push through. But one race changed everything. The horse finished (barely) and was never the same again.

    “Once a thoroughbred breaks,” he said quietly, “he won’t ever run the same again.”

    That line stayed with me. Because I see it play out in workplaces every day. We ask burned out leaders to do more and more.

    The Thoroughbred Leader

    High-performing employees, your thoroughbreds, are the ones who give extra, stay late, and care deeply. They don’t need constant motivation because excellence is already in their blood, in their DNA.

    But when they start to falter, showing signs of exhaustion, cynicism, or self-doubt, leaders often respond with: “We need to get engagement up.” They double down on focus groups, action planning, motivation, goal setting, or pep talks, asking these same employees to “dig deeper” or “recommit.”

    It’s the workplace equivalent of urging an injured racehorse to run faster.

    Burnout Is an Injury, not a Motivation Problem

    Gallup reports that nearly 30% of the workforce is burned out and burnout affects top performers more often.

    Some quick math: In a 500-person company, 15 thoroughbreds (your top talent), working at 75% capacity, costs the company over $560,000 per year.

    When someone is physically, mentally, or emotionally depleted, no amount of focus groups and action planning to improve engagement will restore their performance. Burnout erodes capacity from the inside out and, unless it’s addressed, those employees don’t just leave the company; they lose part of themselves in the process.

    Companies Are Not Thinking About the Cost of Burned Out Leaders

    Most organizations rely on engagement surveys to understand employee well-being. Engagement data tell you how committed people feel, not how depleted they are. Ironically, your team can be 100% committed yet burned out to their core.

    That’s why I use the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS) in my work. These tools reveal why people are struggling, pinpointing root causes like workload, control, recognition, fairness, values alignment, and community.

    When leaders have that data, they can finally fix what’s broken instead of pushing people harder.

    A Better Question: Are my Leaders Healthy Enough to Win the Race?

    Before asking for more engagement, productivity, or discretionary effort, pause and ask: “Are my top performers healthy enough to run?” Because if they’re burned out, they don’t need a pep talk, they need recovery and systemic changes in their work environment.

    Protect your thoroughbreds, and you protect your performance. Ignore their injuries, and you risk losing both.

    What do you think?

    Have you ever seen a “thoroughbred” employee pushed too hard? How did it impact them and the team?

    Interested in learning more about burnout assessment tools? Contact us.

    The Burnout Imperative is a weekly newsletter for CHROs and business leaders. Follow it here on LinkedIn.

    #BurnoutPrevention #EmployeeEngagement #LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalHealth #HRStrategy #CorporateCulture #instituteforburnoutrecovery

  • Before you Post That $100k Job, Think Again

    Before you Post That $100k Job, Think Again

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    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    Why solving burnout by adding more people may cost more than fixing what’s broken.

    When teams feel stretched, hiring seems like the obvious answer. Add capacity. Lighten the load. Hit the goals.

    But what if the issue isn’t capacity? What if it’s culture?

    Before approving new headcount, leaders should pause and ask: Which of the six Areas of Worklife might be out of alignment?

    Because burnout rarely starts with individuals. It starts with systems.

    The Six Levers of Burnout

    Maslach and Leiter’s Areas of Worklife framework identifies six organizational factors that drive burnout risk:

    1. Workload – sustainable pace and realistic capacity
    2. Control – autonomy and influence over decisions
    3. Reward/Recognition – appreciation, fairness, acknowledgment
    4. Community – trust, support, and belonging
    5. Fairness – equity in workload, promotion, and decision-making
    6. Values – alignment between individual and organizational purpose

    When even one of these areas is consistently misaligned, adding more people rarely solves the problem. It just spreads the strain.

    Recognition: One of the Hidden Triggers of Burnout

    Recognition is often the quietest – but most costly – gap.

    When people feel unseen, their performance declines even if workload stays constant. Gallup’s 2024 data show employees who don’t feel recognized are 2.7x more likely to leave, and teams with low recognition experience 20% lower productivity.

    Many organizations misread this as a capacity problem and respond by hiring. But the real issue is motivational, not operational.

    Headcount Vs. Systemic Fix: A Cost Comparison

    For a mid-market company of 500 employees (average salary $100K):

    OptionCostOutcomeRisk
    Add 1 FTE$130K–$150K (salary, hiring, ramp-up)Temporary reliefRoot cause persists; burnout remains
    Address Recognition gap$40K–$60K (manager training, peer recognition tools, comms redesign)Engagement and retention gainsRequires leadership focus, not more headcount

    Even a modest recognition initiative that boosts engagement by 10% can recover $1M+ in productivity – a far higher return than hiring another employee.

    The CFO’s Math

    If just 10% of a 500-person workforce is underperforming due to burnout and low recognition:

    • That’s 50 people delivering at 80% capacity.
    • Annual productivity loss ≈ $1 million (50 × $100K × 20%).
    • Addressing recognition costs a fraction of that and pays back 10–12x ROI if engagement rebounds even halfway.

    And Recognition is only one of the six levers. Misalignment across multiple areas multiplies the financial impact.

    A Smarter Way Forward

    Before approving that next headcount request, ask: “Which area of work life might actually be out of alignment?

    Workload may be visible but Recognition, Fairness, or Control often drive the real energy drain.

    Systemic burnout requires systemic solutions. Adding people won’t heal a sub-optimal culture.

    The Leadership Imperative

    Recognition isn’t “soft.” It’s strategic.

    When leaders align all six Areas of Work Life, they don’t just prevent burnout, they protect performance, profit, and the people who make both possible.

    I help leaders quantify burnout costs before they become turnover costs. DM me if you’d like to see what that looks like in your 2025 plan.

    Sign up for my LinkedIn Newsletter.

    Learn more about the Cost of Burnout.

  • Burnout Is Not a Wellness Issue! It’s a Business Risk

    Burnout Is Not a Wellness Issue! It’s a Business Risk

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    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    When companies talk about solving the burnout problem (statistically, 30% of US team members are burned out), the conversation often drifts to wellness solutions: yoga classes, meditation apps, or resilience training.

    But let’s be clear: Burnout will not be solved by delegating the fix to team members. Placing the responsibility on the individual to resolve it is like asking a fish in a dirty aquarium to clean its tank.

    Burnout is a serious business risk problem. It requires leadership to assess and resolve systemic problems within the organization.

    The Blind Spot at the Top

    Senior leaders review engagement survey scores, may “steady results,” and conclude the workforce is doing fine. They don’t realize that engagement surveys fail to measure systemic issues causing increased turnover, absenteeism, presenteeism, and health care cost.

    If they do think about burnout, they dismiss it assuming it’s a personal weakness and a lack of resilience.

    Here’s the flaw: engagement and burnout are not opposites. A workforce can be highly engaged and simultaneously deeply burned out. In fact, high engagement can accelerate burnout if it’s not paired with sustainable systems.

    The Cost Leaders Don’t See

    Burnout doesn’t only show up in turnover (though that cost is steep enough). It shows up in:

    • Slower execution – deadlines slip, projects stall.
    • Lost innovation – people stop offering new ideas.
    • Eroded culture – trust fractures, collaboration wanes.
    • Weakened strategy – because you don’t execute with agility, your competitive edge weakens.

    And these costs do not appear as a neat line item in the P&L. They accumulate silently, invisibly.

     A Case in Point

    One company I worked with proudly invested in a robust wellness program: gym stipends, meditation rooms, a health app, nutrition classes and even massage.

    But turnover among high performers continued to climb. Innovation pipelines slowed. Team morale declined.

    Why? Because workloads were unsustainable, recognition was scarce, and decision-making bottlenecks kept people stuck. The wellness program was a bandage on a systemic wound.

    The Shift That Matters

    When leaders start treating burnout as a strategic risk, their questions change:

    • Where in our system are expectations misaligned with capacity?
    • Which leadership behaviors are draining, rather than fueling, performance?
    • How do we measure not just engagement, but sustainability of performance?

    This is how you prevent silent erosion. This is how you protect the strategy you’ve invested so much to build.

    Final Thought

    Burnout is not solved by the Benefits Department alone. It’s solved when leaders take it as seriously as any other strategic business risk.

    👉 In upcoming editions of The Burnout Imperative, I’ll share how to identify systemic risk factors, and how to act on them before they cost you your best people and your competitive edge.

    Subscribe to my LinkedIn Newsletter, The Burnout Imperative.

    Learn more about how Company Culture Contributes to Burnout

  • Why High Performers Burn Out First and Quit

    Why High Performers Burn Out First and Quit

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    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    Your highest performers tell you they are leaving because they’ve been offered more money at another company. But it’s not always true.

    Some leave because they’re exhausted.

    And often, you won’t see it coming.

    In my HR career, I sat in countless Talent Review Meetings. Leaders spent enormous effort identifying high-potential talent – our “Hi-Pos.” We invested heavily in their development, planning for a future ROI.

    But what if they burn out before the return is realized?

    Take “Elena” (not her real name). She was brilliant, articulate, and already seen as a future VP. At the same time, she was a mom, caring for an ill parent, and married to a partner with an equally demanding career. From the outside, she had it all together.

    On the inside, she was running on fumes. Skipped meals. Sleepless nights. Guilt over missed school events. Guilt over leaving work at 5:00. Anxiety that she was “barely enough” at work and home.

    When she finally spoke to me, she was in tears. She was already deep into burnout and seriously considering quitting.

    Her story isn’t rare. It’s a pattern I see often: High-performing women, carrying heavy loads at work and at home, who silently burn out. Then, something breaks.

    Why High Performers Burn Out First

    • They say yes too often. Elena rarely turned down requests, even when she was stretched thin.
    • They self-silence. She didn’t want to appear weak, to others or in her own eyes, so she kept going.
    • They set very high standards. She expected excellence in every domain. No tolerance for “good enough.”
    • They become over-relied on. Her leadership team leaned heavily on her because she always showed up.

    These dynamics don’t just exhaust energy. They erode engagement, focus, and resilience.

    Recent Data on Burnout in High Performers: The Numbers Back It Up

    To show this isn’t just one person’s story, here are some recent findings:

    • A McKinsey/LeanIn survey of ~65,000 U.S. employees found 42% of women report feeling burned out, compared with 35% of men. Constant “always-on” expectations make a difference. (UNLEASH)
    • Deloitte research across 5,000 women in 10 countries showed 53% of women say their stress levels are higher than a year ago, and almost half feel burned out. (Deloitte)
    • According to McKinsey Health Institute, 37% of adult caregivers report high burnout symptoms (emotional, exhaustion, cognitive impairment), compared to lower rates for those caring for children. Caring for ill family members is a serious risk factor. (McKinsey & Company)
    • In a report about “high performers,” 53% of them said they are burnt out; higher than the rate among typical employees. (Modern Health)

    These stats show that burnout isn’t rare; it is widespread. And for high-potential talent, like Elena, the risks are compounded.

    The Leadership Blind Spot – Burnout in High Performers

    Many leaders assume that if someone is delivering, they’re okay. But that assumption is dangerous. High performers, especially those in caregiving roles or with heavy home responsibilities, often:

    • Mask their stress
    • Push through until they don’t have a choice
    • Avoid asking for help to protect their reputation

    This means that by the time the visible signals show up (e.g., a decline in quality, missed deadlines, withdrawal, lost enthusiasm) it’s already very serious.

    What Leaders Can Do About Burnout in High Performers

    Here are practical actions to prevent the burnout of your top people:

    • Redefine what success looks like. Celebrate sustainable performance, not just long hours.
    • Spot subtle signals. Fatigue, irritability, disengagement. If a previously reliable leader becomes quiet, don’t assume it’s just “busyness.”
    • Normalize asking for help. Create real space (not just a policy) for people to speak up when they’re overloaded.
    • Audit workload and responsibility. Distribute critical tasks more evenly; avoid defaulting always to your top people.
    • Support caregivers explicitly. Recognize that caregiving responsibilities (for children or adult parents) are major stressors. Flexibility and benefit plan design matter.

    The Bottom Line

    Elena’s story is painful, but we can learn from it. Burnout doesn’t just cause turnover. It dims innovation, erodes trust, damages reputation, and weakens organizational culture.

    If your high performers are burning out first, then the real risk is not only losing talent, but also momentum, credibility, and the strategy you’re trying to execute.

    I’ve worked with many leaders to identify burnout risk, redesign what’s broken, and protect their people (and culture) from burnout. If you want to be the leader who prevents that from happening, let’s connect.

    Sign-up for my weekly newsletter on LinkedIn.

    Learn more about ways to recognize burnout on your team: Your Team is Burned-Out! Nine Ways to Recognize It

  • Engagement Scores Miss the Mark. How To Measure Thrivability and Prevent Burnout

    Engagement Scores Miss the Mark. How To Measure Thrivability and Prevent Burnout

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    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    In boardrooms and executive team meetings, the conversation is shifting. Engagement scores miss the mark.

    I’ve seen it firsthand. I worked with a CEO who wasn’t interested in another “engagement survey.” He wanted to know something deeper: How are our people really doing?

    Just yesterday, a colleague told me his CEO asked about “thrivability.” Not retention. Not engagement. But whether employees were truly able to thrive in the culture.

    This tells me something: leaders are starting to realize that thrivability is becoming a core business metric. It’s one they can’t afford to ignore.

    Why Thrivability Matters in Preventing Burnout

    Many organizations talk about well-being. And while well-being matters, it often stops at programs or perks: meditation apps, gym memberships, wellness stipends. Well-being can mean employees are “okay.”

    Thrivability goes further. It asks: are people energized, purposeful, and contributing in ways that drive performance?

    • Retention isn’t enough. Keeping burned-out employees on the payroll costs more than turnover. Thrivability ensures people are energized, not just hanging on.
    • Innovation and agility require energy. Thriving employees contribute ideas, solve problems, and see possibilities others miss.
    • It signals cultural health. When thrivability is high, you’ll see resilience, adaptability, and trust across the organization.

    Thrivability isn’t just surviving. It’s flourishing. And that difference is what drives business outcomes.

    How to Put Thrivability into Practice

    If you’re wondering how to measure and apply this inside your organization, start small:

    1. Ask different questions. Move beyond “Are you engaged?” to “What restores your energy at work?” or “Do you feel your work matters?”
    2. Track energy as a metric. Pulse surveys at the end of the week can reveal whether teams are consistently depleted or restored.
    3. Leverage validated tools. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Areas of Worklife (AWL) Survey are gold standards for understanding where employees are at risk of burnout—and where thriving is most possible. Unlike engagement surveys, they identify the root causes of depletion.
    4. Link to business outcomes. Compare thrivability scores with retention, innovation metrics (patents, ideas submitted), or even customer satisfaction.
    5. Pilot with leaders. Ask managers to track team thrivability and discuss results in staff meetings—make it visible and actionable.
    6. Embed in scorecards. Thrivability deserves a spot next to revenue, margin, and customer experience. What gets measured gets managed. For more ideas, read my article about how one company used KPIs to prevent burnout.

    The Executive Imperative: Measure What Matters

    Forward-thinking CEOs are already asking their teams about thrivability.

    Because companies don’t burn out. People do. And when your people thrive, your business thrives.

    Question for Leaders:
    If you could add one thrivability measure to your scorecard tomorrow, what would it be?

    (And if you’re curious about how tools like the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Areas of Work Life Survey reveal these answers, send me a note. I’m always happy to share how organizations are using it.)

    Thrivability is quickly becoming a leading indicator of organizational performance. I believe in the next five years, boards will begin expecting it reported alongside earnings and customer growth.

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    Learn more about the cost of burnout by reading Burnout Doesn’t Send You an Invoice but It’s Already Draining Your Bottom Line

  • Your Team is Burned Out! Nine Ways to Recognize It

    Your Team is Burned Out! Nine Ways to Recognize It

    •

    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    As a leader in several world-class global organizations, I quickly learned that managing people well is immensely challenging.

    I remember one technical implementation project where we were under tremendous pressure to deliver results with limited resources. I had to balance performance with the wellbeing of my team.

    At one point, a team member, with dark circles under their eyes, told me: “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

    It was a wake-up call. I realized that while pushing for results was necessary, recognizing and addressing burnout was just as critical. That moment shaped how I lead to this day.

    Burnout Isn’t a Weakness; It’s a Workplace Risk

    Burnout isn’t your team member’s personal flaw. It’s a workplace risk that:

    • Spreads through teams like wildfire
    • Erodes trust and engagement
    • Harms your department’s results
    • Damages your reputation as a leader

    The Costs of Ignoring Burnout

    • Productivity loss: Exhausted employees make more mistakes, recover slower, and need more oversight.
    • Turnover risk: Burnout is a top predictor of attrition. Replacement costs run 1.5–2x an employee’s salary. And in the meantime, the workload piles up.
    • Engagement decline: Burned-out teams don’t innovate. They do the minimum to survive, and you may never hear their million-dollar idea.
    • Reputation damage: A culture of overwork repels top talent. When word spreads, your best candidate my decline, forcing you to settle for a B or C player.

    Read more about the hidden costs of burnout.

    Nine Early Warning Signs of Burnout

    1. Withdrawal – Once-engaged employees pull back in meetings or socially.
    2. Irritability – Small setbacks spark frustration or cynicism.
    3. Declining performance – Not from lack of skill, but lack of energy and focus.
    4. Disengagement – They show up physically, but their spark is gone.
    5. Absenteeism – They take more sick days or PTO than usual. (Gallup: burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day.)
    6. Griping – Complaints and negativity about leadership become common.
    7. Physical signs – Tired eyes, low energy, weight gain / loss, and visible exhaustion.
    8. Loss of confidence – Once-bold employees shy away from high-visibility projects.
    9. Negativity – They see roadblocks instead of opportunities.

    What Leaders Can Do

    • Put your own mask on first: You can’t support others if you’re running on empty. Seek support from your manager, mentor, coach, or EAP.
    • Name it out loud: Talking about burnout destigmatizes it and opens space for honesty.
    • Model healthy behavior: Take time off, set boundaries, and don’t send late-night emails unless truly urgent.
    • Clarify workload: Burnout thrives in overload and ambiguity. Revisit priorities, redistribute tasks, and remove unnecessary steps.
    • Invest in recovery: Encourage breaks, PTO, flexible schedules, and use of wellness benefits. (The APA highlights recovery as a driver of wellbeing and performance.)
    • Recognize contributions: Recognition is free but often overlooked. Thank people for what they do and who they are.
    • Address root causes: Burnout isn’t fixed with yoga classes. It’s fixed when leaders address workload, control, fairness, community, recognition, and values alignment.

    Your Move as a Leader in 2025

    Burnout isn’t just a human problem. It’s a leadership imperative with business consequences.

    The sooner you recognize and address it, the stronger, more resilient, and more innovative your team will be.

    I gave you nine ways to spot burnout early.

    In your experience, what’s a tenth sign you’ve noticed – on your team, or even in yourself?

    Let’s build a conversation that helps every leader get better at this.

  • How One Company Used KPIs to Reduce & Prevent Burnout

    How One Company Used KPIs to Reduce & Prevent Burnout

    •

    Christy Suerth, MS, SPHR, CPC, CHC

    Most organizations track employee engagement. Fewer ask: What’s driving disengagement in the first place? Spoiler alert: It is burnou

    If you’re a senior leader or HR executive, you’ve seen engagement scores that fluctuate without clear cause. You’ve launched initiatives, celebrated wins, and burnout still creeps in. That’s because engagement surveys often measure outcomes, not root causes.

    At one company, a mid-sized software company with 500 employees, HR leaders faced this exact dilemma. Engagement scores were decent, but turnover was rising, and exit interviews kept pointing to burnout. So, they tried something different.

    The Six Areas That Changed Everything

    This company adopted Maslach’s Six Areas of Worklife, a research-backed framework that identifies six key dimensions shaping the employee experience:

    1. Workload – Is the volume of work sustainable?
    2. Control – Do employees have autonomy?
    3. Reward – Are contributions recognized?
    4. Community – Is there trust and support?
    5. Fairness – Are decisions equitable?
    6. Values – Do personal and organizational values align?

    These areas were measured using a short quarterly survey and tracked in a leadership dashboard.

    From Theory to Action: The KPI Dashboard

    The HR team built a dashboard that translated each area into a leadership KPI. Here’s a snapshot:

    AreaKPI ExampleLeadership Action
    WorkloadAvg. weekly hours per teamRebalanced project timelines
    Control% employees with decision authorityDelegated sprint planning to teams
    RewardRecognition frequencyLaunched peer-to-peer kudos platform
    CommunityTeam trust scoreIntroduced monthly “team health” check-ins
    FairnessPolicy equity perceptionAudited promotion criteria
    ValuesValues alignment indexConnected work to company mission in town halls

    Within two quarters, they saw a 22% drop in voluntary turnover and a 30% increase in internal mobility. Engagement scores rose, but more importantly, leaders knew why.

    Cost-Benefit: Why It Pays Off

    Cost:

    • Survey setup (internal or via external platforms)
    • Time investment for leaders to review and act on results

    Benefits:

    • Early detection of burnout before performance dips
    • Reduced attrition – Burnout is a leading cause of exit
    • Improved engagement through targeted action
    • Leadership accountability via measurable KPIs
    • Culture transformation – From reactive to proactive

    In summary, they stopped guessing and started diagnosing.

    Why Not Just Use Engagement Surveys?

    Engagement surveys are valuable, but they’re lagging indicators. They tell you what employees feel, not why.

    For example:

    • Engagement score drops → You ask: “What happened?”
    • The Areas of Work Life Survey results show workload and fairness issues → You know exactly what to fix

    Think of Maslach’s framework as the diagnostic tool, and engagement scores as the vital signs. You need both, but only one tells you where to operate.

    Final Thought

    Burnout hits your bottom line. If you’re serious about building a resilient, high-performing culture, it’s time to evolve your metrics. Maslach’s Six Areas of Worklife offer a practical, evidence-based way to turn leadership into a measurable force for good.

    Don’t just measure engagement. Engineer it.

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