Top workplace fatigue risk factors HR leaders should know in 2026

Key takeaways

• Proactive management can prevent costly burnout crises: Waiting for crises costs more than prevention. Organisations that proactively assess and mitigate risks can help reduce absenteeism, prevent costly burnout-related turnover and address how fatigue impacts work performance and increases the risk of making mistakes.
• One-size-fits-all benefits fail diverse workforces: Younger workers are 2.5x more likely to feel extremely burnt out than those over 50, while women’s mental health scores are often lower than men’s. Tailored support addressing demographic-specific stressors is essential.
• Communication gaps leave employees without easy access to support: Over 60 per cent of workers in Australia report unclear communication about wellbeing programs. When employees don’t know where to find help, burnout escalates into serious mental health crises.
• Measurement misalignment masks program ineffectiveness: Enrollment rates and app downloads don’t indicate actual recovery. HR leaders should track absenteeism, presenteeism losses, exhaustion levels and mental health risk scores—metrics that reveal true program impact and burnout hotspots.
• Fragmented care delivery costs organisations: Siloed mental, physical and financial health services reduce utilisation and awareness.

As employee wellbeing pressures evolve, HR leaders and organisations must learn how to anticipate challenges, support people and respond with care.

The pressures employees carry are becoming more complex and interconnected than ever. Across Australia, financial stress is disrupting sleep. Caregiving demands and health concerns are draining energy. Occupational burnout and workplace fatigue are following people from home to work and back again. These are not individual failings but systemic challenges that require organisational attention.

Fatigue can significantly impact workplace safety and productivity, leading to increased absenteeism, presenteeism and a higher likelihood of accidents and errors. Supporting employee wellbeing is essential to help mitigate these risks and foster a healthier, more productive workforce.

Poor mental health is a major driver of lost time at work. According to Safe Work Australia, mental health claims have surged 161 per cent over the past decade. HR leaders are also navigating strict legal requirements to ensure a psychologically safe work environment. Compliance with the Fair Work Act and mitigating workplace psychosocial hazards are critical priorities. Traditional approaches to employee wellbeing just weren’t built for what today’s workforce is facing. A more holistic outlook is needed. 

The question facing many is, where to start?

Five critical risk factors are influencing what effective employee wellbeing looks like – and understanding these factors can help HR leaders and organisations respond effectively and build more resilient teams.

Five critical employee wellbeing risk factors

1. Reactive versus proactive management: The burnout and fatigue risk factor

Waiting for a crisis before addressing costs more than preventing one. According to the TELUS Mental Health Index (MHI), Australian workers with a high mental health risk score experience significantly more lost productivity (September 2024) than those with a low risk score.

The spiral often starts small. The MHI reports that 31 per cent of workers (June 2025) say work stress disrupts their sleep, while another 29 per cent say poor sleep is making stress harder to manage. Long work hours, irregular night shifts and inadequate rest periods are significant contributors to workplace fatigue risk, further compounding the problem. =e. There’s a direct correlation between sleep quality and productivity, making proactive prevention of workplace problems essential for HR departments to help manage workplace health and safety effectively.

Occupational burnout often begins with unrecognised signs of fatigue in the workplace. Common signs and symptoms of fatigue and burnout include:

• Persistent tiredness
• Difficulty concentrating
• Irritability 
• Decreased motivation

Early recognition of these symptoms is crucial for effective intervention. 

Research shows that 47 per cent of workers in Australia (MHI April 2024) end their workday feeling mentally or physically exhausted. This chronic fatigue is a leading indicator of burnout, and when left unaddressed, it can escalate into full burnout. 

With managing psychosocial hazards being a legal requirement in Australia, employers must identify and manage workplace factors that can increase the risk of psychological harm, such as high job demands, inadequate support, poor work-life balance. Environmental stressors such as extreme temperatures and high noise levels can also increase fatigue and impair performance. These hazards directly contribute to employee burnout and fatigue. Organisations that proactively assess and mitigate these risks can help reduce absenteeism and prevent costly burnout-related turnover. 

2. One-size-fits-all benefits approaches and wellbeing risk factors

Today’s workforce spans five generations and is highly diverse. A McKinsey Health Institute survey found that women and younger workers consistently report poorer health outcomes than their counterparts. Women’s disproportionate family responsibilities are linked to sleep disruption and reduced focus at work. According to Deloitte, 40 per cent of Gen Z workers feel stressed or anxious most of the time.

The 2025 TELUS Mental Health Barometer showcases that 46 per cent of workers in Australia are burnt out, with high workloads being the leading cause. Younger workers are 2.5x more likely to feel extremely burnt out than workers over 50. Women face additional mental health challenges, with mental health scores 1.8 points lower than men. Mental health issues can both contribute to and result from workplace stress and burnout, with conditions like anxiety and depression often exacerbated by these factors.

This suggests a gap between workforce diversity and the support being provided to meet the needs of different demographics. A one-size-fits-all benefits approach fails to address the unique stressors driving burnout and fatigue in different demographic groups.

3. Communication gaps: A hidden driver of employee burnout and fatigue

Digital interventions like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programs and stress management platforms have been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and burnout. However, these tools only work if employees access and use them.

Data shows a widespread communications gap, which can further contribute to burnout and fatigue. While there are many resources available for fatigue and burnout support—including dedicated mental health services for emergency service workers and volunteers—employees often lack a better understanding of how to access them. 

When employees don’t know where to access support, workplace fatigue goes unaddressed. According to the MHI, more than 3 in 5 workers (June 2025) in Australia report unclear communication about wellbeing programs. A further 29 per cent (September 2025) report that their employer doesn’t offer an employee assistance program (EAP). Without clear communication about available support, employees experiencing signs of fatigue in the workplace delay seeking help, allowing burnout to escalate into serious mental health crises.

4. Fragmented care delivery and physical health risk factors

Large organisations spend an average of US $10.5 million (AU $14.5 million) per year on wellbeing programs. Mental health, physical health and financial concerns are still often handled by separate providers with little coordination. This fragmentation can lead to low utilisation and awareness of EAPs, resulting in employees struggling to find support.

When employees have multiple access points, it creates friction that prevents them from accessing the support they need, leading to issues that could be addressed early to go unresolved. That, in turn, adds up. According to global research, 75 per cent of medical costs accrued are mostly due to preventable conditions.

These disconnected benefits shift the burden of navigation to the individual, often at their most vulnerable moments  When mental health, physical health and financial support are siloed, employees can’t access the holistic support they need, further escalating the risk of burnout. 

5. Measurement misalignment in risk management

Enrolment rates and app downloads are easy to measure. But they say little about whether employees are actually getting better, or whether wellbeing programs are working. Measurement of employee engagement, absenteeism and retention reveal far more about program effectiveness.

For example, high EAP enrollment doesn’t mean employees are recovering from burnout. Instead, HR leaders should track metrics that can reveal the true impact: absenteeism rates, presenteeism losses, employee exhaustion levels, fatigue levels and mental health risk scores. Monitoring fatigue levels is essential for assessing workplace fatigue risk factors and understanding how they impact safety and performance, even though they can be difficult to quantify. 

Workers with a mental health score of 50 or below (September 2024) experience nearly three times more productivity loss compared to those with scores of 80 or higher. Regular measurement of these indicators helps HR leaders identify burnout hotspots and intervene before fatigue escalates into serious mental health conditions.

The MHI tracks whether employees can focus, sleep, manage pressure and perform. The results help provide clarity on how workers are actually doing. Understanding these metrics can help HR leaders with risk management and mitigating workplace hazards. Psychosocial risks at work can include job scope, work schedule and opportunities for career development, all of which can negatively impact mental health. Regular reviews of control measures are essential to determine their effectiveness and identify new hazards.

A framework for action: Anticipate, support, respond

Forward-thinking organisations recognise that wellbeing exists on a continuum. People move between feeling well, struggling and feeling unwell. This means they require different support at different moments.. A three-pillar approach helps meet them where they are.

Anticipate: Stay one step ahead

Embed wellbeing into daily operations as part of the culture. This includes fostering psychological safety and training managers to spot early signs and symptoms of employee burnout and fatigue to prevent escalations. Providing training can help leaders understand and document workplace rights and obligations under the Fair Work Act. Training on recognising fatigue symptoms is essential for all staff.

Empower: Equip people and leaders

Provide employees with information and tools for self-care. This includes counselling, financial wellbeing advice and leadership development programs. Equip managers to have supportive conversations and to recognise emotional signs (cynicism, irritability), cognitive signs (performance drops, decision-making difficulties) and physical signs (visible fatigue, increased sick leave) that indicate an employee is experiencing burnout. Employees with excellent managers are 6.5 times more likely to be fully engaged.

Respond: Deliver care when it matters

Even with prevention, employees experiencing burnout and fatigue can still face crises. Prolonged exposure to psychosocial hazards can lead to psychological injuries such as depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), significantly affecting both personal and professional lives. This makes 24/7 access to counselling, crisis support and expert-led intervention critical. Research by the Integrated Benefits Institute has found that active EAP users are almost 3x more effective (287 per cent) at improving their wellbeing and reducing presenteeism.

Preparing for the future of employee wellbeing

Future-ready organisations will move beyond reactive wellbeing to integrated strategies that help drive measurable impact. This means prioritising the prevention of occupational burnout and fatigue through systemic changes, not just individual support.

• Embed wellbeing into the flow of work: Availability of support programs need to be complemented by accessibility. Ensuring employees have frictionless, personalised pathways to care – whether that’s counseling, financial wellbeing advice or leadership development - helping integrate care into their daily experience.
• Focus on outcomes: Use benchmarks to track employee satisfaction, retention, absenteeism and productivity.
• Integrate physical, mental and financial health: Tailor support to meet diverse workforce needs. Support managers to flag early signs of strain.
• Implement fatigue management strategies: Assess workload distribution, rostering practices and work-life balance policies. Address the root causes of workplace fatigue rather than expecting employees to manage burnout individually. 
• Ensure technology complements human connection: When technology is balanced with human support, dropout rates decrease by 2.9 times.

A healthier workforce is within reach. Organisations that anticipate challenges, support their people and respond with care are better prepared to thrive.

TELUs Health

Explore our Resources Hub for additional insights into Australian workforce trends and burnout prevention strategies.

Learn more

Frequently asked questions

Why is integrated health support better than siloed services? When employees have multiple access points, it creates friction that prevents them from accessing the support they need, leading to issues that could be addressed early to go unresolved. That, in turn, adds up. According to global research, 75 per cent of medical costs accrued are mostly due to preventable conditions.

These disconnected benefits shift the burden of navigation to the individual, often at their most vulnerable moments  When mental health, physical health and financial support are siloed, employees can’t access the holistic support they need, further escalating the risk of burnout

What metrics should HR leaders track to measure wellbeing program effectiveness?

Instead of tracking enrollment rates or app downloads, HR leaders should look at metrics such as absenteeism, presenteeism losses, employee exhaustion levels and mental health risk scores. These reveal true program impact.

How can organisations improve employee access to wellbeing support?

To help improve access to wellbeing support, organisations can offer frictionless, personalised pathways to care through clear communication, access to single-entry platforms, and integration of counselling, financial advice and leadership development into daily workflows.

What should organisations prioritise to help build resilient teams in 2026?

Move beyond reactive wellbeing to integrated strategies focusing on prevention, outcome measurement, diverse demographic needs, fatigue management and balancing technology with human connection.