All of our risk indicators are designed to highlight teams that might need more support in order to reach their full potential.

Our research has shown that certain factors can predict a risk of burnout in a team. By tracking these indicators and taking proactive steps, organizations can reduce the risk of burnout and support healthier, more sustainable team dynamics.

Why burnout is a risk

When teams experience burnout, it affects more than just the individual's wellbeing. It can also lead to lower productivity and disengagement, creating long-term problems for both the team and organization. Burnout can be particularly prevalent in high-performing teams where workloads are heavy and appreciation is scarce. This combination causes individuals to feel undervalued and overworked, diminishing both morale and retention.

Understanding burnout: Our evidence based approach

Burnout isn’t just about feeling tired — it’s a state of physical and emotional exhaustion that can be challenging to recover from. Estimates vary widely, but around 43% of people report experiencing regular burnout symptoms, and 14% have severe symptoms. At Friday Pulse, our research has revealed that employees scoring low on both Work-life balance and Appreciation are 3.5 times more likely to experience burnout than colleagues happier in these areas. This makes these two factors critical areas for prevention of burnout.

In our estimate of risk levels, Work-life balance is the most important factor with two times the influence of Appreciation. Monitoring both of these indicators helps organizations spot early signs of potential burnout, enabling more timely interventions to support employees.

Improving a team’s Work-life balance score

• A good place to start is for the team to determine together if their low Work-life balance score is due to long term issues or more of a short term problem.
• Long-term issues: Discuss together as a team what the work norms are in the team, such as perceived expected working hours and out-of-hours availability. Identify areas where extreme working can be reduced through better policies and planning. Ensure team members can hold each other accountable for sticking to healthy work patterns.
• Short-term issues: Acknowledge high workloads and clarify when the pressure will ease. Consider and discuss what can be de-prioritised, to be picked up again when workloads ease. Plan to address the patterns of heavy workloads during quieter periods to prevent the same issues occurring again in the future.
• You can find more ideas in Things for teams to try: Improving Work-life balance

Improving a team’s Appreciation score

• As a team, identify where appreciation is lacking. Explore if it feels like it's missing from other teams, leaders, from within the team, or from clients/customers.
• Work together to define what “good” looks like so you can build a shared picture of what it would it look like to score a 4 or 5 on the Friday Pulse Appreciation question. Then work together on what’s needed to get experiences closer to that “good”.
• Take a look at some other ideas in Things for teams to try: Improving Appreciation