9 hours ago
Employee support shouldn't start at the breaking point
Burnout has become an escalating crisis in the modern workplace. As many as 57% of workers experience the negative impacts of work-related stress and burnout, driven by overwhelming amounts of work, not enough resources, and economic uncertainty.
This isn't just an employee well-being issue—it's a business issue. Burnout erodes engagement, drives turnover, and drains productivity, on average costing companies approximately 15% to 20% in payroll.
The mistake most organizations make is waiting too long to step in and help. Support often arrives after someone is already overwhelmed, grieving, or emotionally checked out. We need resilient systems if we want resilient teams—teams that can adapt, recover, and perform through disruption. This starts with replacing or supplementing reactive gestures, such as an employee assistance program (EAP) hotline, leave of absence, or wellness webinars, with infrastructure that consistently supports people through the complexity of real life, not just their workloads.
Resilience isn't just about helping people recover from a crisis—it's about recognizing the full spectrum of life's disruptions, both big and small. Sometimes it's a tragedy. But just as often, it's transition: a cross-country move, a parent's declining health, a child's wedding, or the quiet pressure of managing too much for too long.
These moments don't always come with a formal request for help, which is why reactive support models fall short. A truly resilient organization builds systems that assume people will need support and shifts from episodic support to an embedded support system. Instead of waiting for someone to raise their hand, it proactively puts structures in place that meet employees where they are—before, during, and after change.
The most effective organizations are proactively integrating support into how they operate, communicate, and lead for employee well-being. Examples include:
Life navigation services that help employees manage major transitions, like caregiving, end-of-life planning, or financial and legal challenges after a death in the family.
Peer-based support networks, including trained mental health allies or employee resource group leads who are visible, accessible, and empowered to connect teammates to help.
Crisis-aware leadership trained to ask deeper questions, spot warning signs, and create space for people to step back, recover, or reset without penalty.
Flexible infrastructure to help employees respond to the unpredictable—from school closings to elder care needs—without disrupting their livelihood.
Proactive use of people analytics to spot patterns of burnout or disengagement and identify support gaps early to intervene before they compound.
But programs alone aren't enough.
The signs that someone needs support are often subtle, and burnout rarely begins with a dramatic breakdown. It starts with small changes—a high performer who goes quiet in meetings, a team member who starts logging on late, or a leader who suddenly misses details they wouldn't have missed before. In high-performing cultures, people may not admit or vocalize that they're struggling.
Employees need to feel comfortable trusting that it's safe to ask for help before they reach a breaking point. And that trust is shaped by what leaders model, what behaviors are rewarded, and how organizations respond when life inevitably interrupts work. That's why culture matters just as much as infrastructure.
Culture tells employees whether they can actually use the resources that exist. You can have the best support offerings in the world, but if you don't normalize using them or employees worry they'll be penalized for needing help, none of it matters. Resilience is built when leaders model vulnerability, teams normalize checking on one another, and support becomes part of everyday work, not just a once-a-year initiative.
So, ask yourself:
Do your people know where to go when life throws something big at them?
Do your leaders know how to respond when it does?
Are you building a culture that helps people reset, not just perform?
FINAL THOUGHTS
Too often, we talk about resilience as if it lives entirely within the individual. But in any organization, it's shared—a balance of what the company provides and what the employee brings.
It's the organization's responsibility to create an environment where asking for help is safe, support is accessible, and care is embedded in how work gets done. It's the individual's responsibility to show up with awareness, to use what's available, and to keep growing through what life brings.
The companies that will thrive in the next chapter are the ones building systems and cultures that reflect that truth. Because support shouldn't start at the breaking point—it should already be there.
