As employer burnout costs soar, EY gets at the heart of worker well-being with Vitality Index
Employee burnout has evolved from a productivity concern into a full-blown fiscal crisis rivaling the most chronic health conditions. EY is addressing the challenge head-on with its Vitality Index, a tool designed to help employers measure and boost workforce well-being.
The stats are startling. Burnout costs American companies more than Alzheimer’s disease, the price tag exceeding $355 billion each year. Meanwhile, it’s been linked to serious health consequences, from heart disease and mental health problems to heightened suicide risks.
Burnout has emerged as one of the hottest topics in the HCM space. At its annual conference, HR tech company Dayforce presented research challenging nearly every conventional assumption about employee burnout, from who’s most at risk to what actually helps — and underscoring why traditional management solutions are falling.
In an interview with WorkLife, Frank Giampietro, EY’s chief well-being officer for the Americas, pointed to the rise in the phenomenon known as “quiet cracking,” where employees seem functional on the surface while struggling inside. “Leaders need to shift away from the dated notion that employee engagement alone signals organizational health,” he says.
Unlike traditional engagement metrics, the Index offers a data-driven approach to understanding the lived experiences of employees both in and out of the workplace.
The Index distinguishes itself through its comprehensive methodology. Rather than relying on superficial engagement surveys, it considers multiple dimensions of employee well-being, providing employers with actionable insights into the state of the workforce.
Giampietro explains the genesis of the initiative. “We wanted to stay focused on this idea about creating a workplace and an experience for our people that could have well-being infused in it,” he says. The team established three guiding principles: maintaining focus on creating workplace experiences infused with well-being; ensuring their beliefs would guide operations; and recognizing the importance of diverse personal journeys.
The Index generates data that helps organizations identify specific areas requiring attention, enabling targeted interventions rather than one-size-fits-all solutions. Such precision allows companies to allocate resources more effectively and measure the impact of their well-being initiatives over time.
Giampietro emphasizes that the Index isn’t just about identifying problems but, rather, about creating solutions. The tool helps organizations understand patterns of burnout across different departments, roles and demographics, enabling leadership to address systemic issues before they escalate.
The cost of burnout stems from factors including absenteeism, presenteeism (being physically present but mentally disengaged), turnover and healthcare. By quantifying the impact of these variables, EY aims to make the business case for investing in employee well-being more compelling to business leaders with an eye on the bottom line.
As Giampietro explains, “The more work you can do in actually showing a direct connection between well-being and ROI — whether that’s top side with revenue or whether it’s an impact to productivity — it’s really hard to ignore when the data tells your story.”