Members Login

Your Member Benefits Website features include:
  • Access to online articles with helpful information
  • Ability to submit an online form asking a counselor to contact you
  • Topics covering working life, wellness, parenting, management, etc.

Customers Login

Your Customer Hub features include:
  • Automated headcount updates in UCMS
  • Invoicing reflective of the active populations under your account
  • Access Reporting with case trends, disruptive issues, utilisation

Local Service Partners

Local Service Partners are independent EAPs with which WPO has established strategic relationships for the delivery of global EAP services in alignment with the WPO models, processes and quality standards.

Employer Duty of Care and Burnout

The concept of burnout is complex and the employer’s duty of care responsibility to assess and mitigate foreseeable risk is often misunderstood, even by well-meaning responsible employers. The purpose of this paper is to provide some general guidance for employers—and in particular HR practitioners—in meeting their baseline duty of care obligations to worker burnout regardless of the sector in which they operate. The author, Lisbeth Claus, is a Professor Emerita of Management and Global Human Resources at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management of Willamette University.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

Recent trend reports indicate that stress and burnout among workers of all occupations are on the rise compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels, resulting in a ‘burnout crisis’. The reasons cited for this widespread burnout focus mainly on the macro context of the world of work: crucible events like the pandemic, the isolation of remote workers, staffing shortages due to the ‘great resignation’, cost cutting by employers, and workers being always ‘on’ due to communication technologies—all conditions contributing to work overload, the blurring of work and life boundaries, and work stress. In addition to those macro externalities, burnout is also due to unhealthy work cultures at the organizational meso-environmental level. Burnout has become an important topic in the wellbeing conversations of today.

"
"

Download the Booklet

With six years of participant data, a personalised six-session mindfulness programme– provided as part of a global employee assistance programme (EAP) – shows significant benefits in reducing employee stress and improving focus and sleep quality. Those positive benefits continued to improve in the six months following completion of the programme.

  • 27 February 2024

Mental health is critical to human health and wellbeing, yet mental health problems are more likely to go undiagnosed and untreated than physical health problems. With the pandemic, international conflict, increased financial stress from inflation, and concerns about food and fuel shortages, mental health is being challenged in new ways.

  • 15 September 2023

Organisational risk management has broad applications, from mitigating financial risk to recognising and managing risks in safety, quality, health, legal liability, and the organization's impact on the environment. Risks to and from an organisation's employees fall within the scope of risk management, typically with a focus on reducing the risk of accidents, injuries, or illness and putting controls in place to prevent employee theft or fraud. Workplace safety, for example, is commonly seen as part of risk management, and that concern extends to aspects of employee health, such as fatigue, that can impact accidents and error rates.

  • 11 September 2023

The concept of burnout is complex and the employer’s duty of care responsibility to assess and mitigate foreseeable risk is often misunderstood, even by well-meaning responsible employers. The purpose of this paper is to provide some general guidance for employers—and in particular HR practitioners—in meeting their baseline duty of care obligations to worker burnout regardless of the sector in which they operate. The author, Lisbeth Claus, is a Professor Emerita of Management and Global Human Resources at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management of Willamette University.

  • 21 June 2023

Workforce surveys around the world suggest that employee burnout – already a significant problem – may be getting worse. For employers, this can mean a costly drag on productivity. When workers are exhausted and emotionally distant from their jobs, they are unable to perform at their best and are more likely to make mistakes. They are also more likely to leave their jobs – draining the organisation of skills, knowledge and experience. Burnout at work can also affect all aspects of life, from health and relationships to career and finances.

  • 21 June 2023