The cost of burnout calculator

Short answer: burnout costs a company in three ways: days of absence, productivity lost by people who keep working while exhausted (presenteeism), and replacing people who leave. It rarely shows up as one line in the budget, so it is worth estimating. The calculator below does the maths with assumptions you can adjust to your own data.

How the calculation works

Absence = people at risk × extra days of absence × cost of one working day (annual cost ÷ working days).

Presenteeism = people at risk × % productivity lost × annual cost. People working while burnt out are present but less effective: more mistakes, slower decisions, less initiative.

Turnover = people at risk × % who leave because of burnout × replacement cost. Replacing someone includes recruitment, time until the new person is fully productive, and the knowledge that walks out of the door.

The assumptions

The starting values are not official averages. They are there so the calculator works. For a useful result, replace them with your own:

• People at risk: from screening with a validated questionnaire.
• Absence and leavers: from your HR data.
• Replacement cost: varies a lot by role, and is much higher for specialised roles.
• Presenteeism: the hardest to measure and often the largest. Use a cautious value.

What reduces the cost

• Measuring risk by team and changing the causes: workload, role clarity, manager support. See psychosocial risk assessment.
• Fast, confidential access to psychological and medical support.
• Preventing burnout before it starts: see how companies can prevent employee burnout.
• Paying attention to remote teams, where exhaustion is easier to miss: see burnout in remote and digital teams.