The key to building sustainable work practices is to think about managing our energy at work, not our time, says these three experts.

“The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story… energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals.”

While this advice is highly relevant to today’s business context, it originates from a Harvard Business Review article published nearly two decades ago.

In their 2007 article, Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time, the authors outline four key dimensions of managing energy at work: physical (sleep, exercise and nutrition), emotional (positive-versus-negative energy), mental (cognitive load and distractions) and spiritual (meaning and purpose).

“Eighteen years later, these points are still highly relevant in energy management,” says Colin Ellis, author, workplace culture expert and upcoming speaker at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition on 19 – 21 August. 

But if energy management has been on the executive agenda for so long, why has so little changed over time?

“Short-term work and short-term thinking still dominate. We still glorify people who are busy rather than productive,” says Ellis.

Many workplace environments are not designed for high performance, causing employees’ energy to drain at the margins, says Daniel Sih, author, speaker and founding CEO of Spacemakers.

“Without structured deep-work time, employees are left with no choice but to complete high-value tasks outside of standard working hours.”

In Australia last year, the average worker completed nearly five weeks of unpaid overtime – equivalent to 10 per cent of total working hours. If valued at median wage rates, this unpaid labour cost the average worker $7,713 in 2024, or $297 per fortnight.

Changing the narrative

When employees are mentally and physically exhausted from excessive or strenuous work hours, they lack the capacity for strategic thinking, problem solving and sustained high performance, all of which are critical to businesses.

The question for HR and business leaders is clear. How can energy be managed more effectively at an organisational level to drive performance without fuelling burnout?

One of the first steps HR practitioners can take is changing the narrative that busy equals successful. 

“Leaders boast about being in back-to-back meetings, about always being ‘on’. But what are they actually achieving?” says Ellis. “HR needs to take the lead in shifting the mindset – from rewarding hours spent working, to measuring impact created.”

This starts with encouraging leaders to role-model healthy work habits. Ellis points to Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke as an example.

“He created a bit of a storm when he posted on [social media] that he didn’t work long hours or over weekends. People criticised him, saying, ‘He’s not dedicated’. But he made a point of saying he absolutely was. He’s just really good at prioritising his work and creating balance. That’s the example we want leaders to set.”

“Short-term work and short-term thinking still dominate. We still glorify people who are busy rather than productive.” – Colin Ellis, author, workplace culture expert and upcoming National Convention and Exhibition speaker

HR can help break this cycle by fostering curiosity about leaders who display unhealthy work habits, he adds.

“Ask them: ‘What’s causing you to work so late? We’re seeing higher rates of burnout, which will lead to greater attrition. What might be the root cause of this?’”

It might sound obvious, but it’s also important to “teach managers how to be managers”, he says.

“We should be teaching them about flow states, the importance of taking visible breaks, celebrating success, running effective meetings and how to be outcome-focused.

“Then you get this great environment where managers hold each other accountable for really good practice, so it’s not on HR to solve this. It’s on managers’ daily behaviours.”

Hear more from workplace culture expert Colin Ellis at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August.

Redefining success metrics

Many organisations still measure productivity by input rather than output, failing to assess whether employees are delivering valuable work. 

Rashmi Dixit Sharma CPHR, Chief Operating Officer, Forward Ability Support, and Chief People Officer, Forward Ability Support and BrightSky Australia – charities providing products and services for people with spinal cord injuries – says the nature of her organisation’s work often requires employees to go above and beyond in supporting clients.

“If we’re asking our people to expend positive and proactive energy at all times, it’s important we treat them in a way that replenishes their energy, allowing them to continue performing at that level consistently.”

Beyond ensuring teams are adequately resourced, Forward and BrightSky reconsidered their defined metrics of success.

“Standard metrics, like how many customer calls an employee takes, just didn’t work. Some calls take five minutes, some take an hour. There’s no way we can say taking 10 calls in a day is a good thing, so we stopped measuring based on volume.

“Now we measure how many orders we receive, how many customers choose to return and how many customers have a positive experience with us. If they experience our services positively, we’re doing something right. That mindset shift has been transformational,” she says.

Read HRM’s article on how to prevent ‘busy culture’ from harming organisational productivity.

Creating the conditions for energising work

A significant yet often overlooked cause of workplace fatigue is cognitive overload – the mental exhaustion caused by constant interruptions, excessive meetings and inefficient workflows. 

Employees are rarely given the deep-focus time required for meaningful work, leading to frustration and a sense of underperformance – whether it’s legitimate or not.

Employees are often left feeling trapped in a cycle of constant notifications, back-to-back meetings and reactive task switching, says Sih. HR leaders need to help their organisation tackle this at a systemic level.

“It’s not about telling employees to take more breaks. It’s about designing a workplace that doesn’t constantly deplete their energy.”

At Forward and BrightSky, that looked like automating the frustrating aspects of work.

“We made a simple rule – use technology to reduce admin burden,” says Dixit Sharma. “We ask employees, ‘What’s the most difficult, repetitive part of your job?’ Then our IT team works with them to reduce the admin burden and gain efficiency. 

“For example, we didn’t want our people to have to remember passwords. As soon as they log into their system, they’re automatically granted access to all the programs they need.” 

This may seem like a small change, but a collection of incremental improvements like this can have a significant impact. When employees no longer have to navigate avoidable friction points, they can focus their energy on meaningful work rather than administrative burdens.

“This has freed up employees to do the work that actually requires human insight and creativity, and it’s drastically reduced exhaustion from tedious, unnecessary tasks.”

Boosting performance

To secure executive and board buy-in for investing in energy management and protection practices, Dixit Sharma analysed multiple years of management satisfaction surveys to highlight the persistent and unresolved challenges.

“When I started with the organisation, I discussed with the CEO the cultural challenges we faced and the two options we had. The first was to maintain the status quo; do exactly what we’ve always done and nothing changes. 

“Or we could commit to cultural transformation, which may include changing systems, changing structure, reviewing values, organisation-wide training and seeing it through.”

“I was also honest about what the journey ahead might look like. Change is neither easy nor comfortable. Taking people along on the journey is key. As a charity, we are seeking growth with limited resources. People need to feel supported in doing that, especially when things go wrong, as they sometimes will.”

This is a subtle yet important reframe. Too often, when people are trying to sell an idea to decision-makers, they focus on all the positive things that could happen in the future – but it’s just as important to highlight what could go wrong if no action is taken.

Investing in workplace energy is not a soft initiative. It is a business imperative with measurable ROI.

“Energy management isn’t just about avoiding burnout. It’s about unlocking peak performance in a sustainable way,” says Ellis. “Organisations that get this right will have healthier, more engaged and more productive workforces.”

“Those that don’t? They’ll keep burning out their best people.”

A longer version of this article first appeared in the April-May edition of HRM Magazine, exclusive to AHRI members.