HBR Guide to Beating Burnout

CHAPTER 15

Making Work Less Stressful and More Engaging for Your Employees

by Natalia Peart

We all know that excessive stress is a health hazard. What is less talked about are the effects of burnout on business performance. Stress makes people nearly three times as likely to leave their jobs, temporarily impairs strategic thinking, and dulls creative abilities. Burnout, then, is a threat to your bottom line, one that costs the U.S. more than $300 billion a year in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity, and medical, legal, and insurance costs.¹

The more companies realize this, the more the workplace wellness sector grows. But individual-level perks are not the answer to our problem. In a recent study, researchers found that while there ...