Unmanaged work demands, such as a high volume, pace and intensity of work, can have a severe impact on organisational success. An expert offers a simple framework to support HR.

With excessive workload being the most frequent reason employees are leaving organisations, according to AHRI’s Quarterly Australian Work Outlook for March 2025, and work demands a continual source of high work stress in employee surveys, HR practitioners need tools to effectively respond to this chronic issue, and to support people leaders to proactively monitor their team’s workloads.

It’s not only high workloads that we need to measure more effectively, but low job demands too. Those with not enough work to do, or work that is not stimulating or enriching, are also at risk. 

Work demands are a recognised psychosocial hazard under WHS legislation. But beyond compliance, managing workload well improves performance, engagement and culture.

It also helps ensure your team spend their energy on what matters, feel valued and supported, and stay engaged over the long term. 

Work demands include:

• The volume of work
• The pace or time pressure to complete work
• The type of tasks (e.g. emotionally demanding, cognitively complex, physically demanding)
• The intensity, severity and frequency of those demands

Tolerable work demands, as defined in the SMART work framework, are those that comprise:

• A manageable work load with reasonable time pressure and work hours
• Work with manageable emotional, mental or other pressures that create challenge without unnecessary strain
• Work without excessively conflicting expectations or instructions

The Goldilocks dilemma – how do we get it just right?

When managed well, active workload is a powerful driver of engagement, energy and performance. But when it’s out of balance, it becomes one of the greatest threats to wellbeing, productivity and retention.

How can HR ensure workload is monitored in a way that is effective but not intrusive? This requires high levels of psychological safety to enable people to speak up about their work volumes without fear of reprisal.

So how can workload be measured consistently and fairly, to enable leaders and HR practitioners alike to appropriately manage any concerns?

It must be designed to generate organisational data that supports the case for change, while aligning with psychosocial risk assessments to inform targeted and meaningful controls for the highest-risk individuals, roles or groups.

When I work with HR practitioners, I start with exploring the 3 ‘M’s.

1. Monitor
2. Measure
3. Manage

You can begin deploying these to an area that’s already of concern, or a small team open to trialling new ways of working. Let’s jump into each step.

Step 1: Monitoring workload

Monitoring workload is about paying ongoing attention to what’s happening in the team. 

It involves structured check-ins and conversations where employees can share how they’re going, how sustainable the work feels and what support they might need.

On top of regular, casual catch-ups, HR should support the introduction of systematic monitoring activities, if these are not already in place.

Routine 1:1 check-ins

Scheduled one-on-ones are your first line of defence when it comes to monitoring workload. These conversations should be private, routine and, ideally, happening fortnightly. Use them to:

• Check on wellbeing and capacity – understanding that these fluctuate, 
• Clarify expectations and priorities – enhancing role clarity,
• Identify early signs of stress or overload – course correct early and instigate support as needed.

A template can be helpful to guide these discussions. You can download a template here.

Annual review of position requirements

Performance appraisals should include time to reflect on whether the role still fits. Is the position description accurate? Have work tasks expanded beyond what was intended? Are expectations realistic? Is the job designed to the SMART work framework?

HR can support leaders to ask questions that help finetune role design before it becomes a problem, amending appraisal templates if required to support this.

HR tips for success:

• If psychological safety is low, HR can support leaders to build this with their teams by creating an environment where leaders are open to hearing bad news, such as a team member not having capacity to take on another project despite its importance. If psychological safety is high, this could be openly discussed and other priorities negotiated without fear of any judgement or reprisal for the individual.
  
• Broader organisational support is helpful when new ways of monitoring are introduced. Consider communications from the CEO/MD which talk to the importance of ensuring sustainable and balanced workloads, and the introduction of tools to monitor, measure and manage them.
  
• Be sure to clarify ‘monitoring’ and what that will look like, to reduce any fear. You don’t want employees to feel like every move they make will be scrutinised – that’s a recipe for fear.

Step 2: Measuring workload

The model, based on regulator guidance material and work design frameworks, defines three workload states that help you consistently monitor work utilisation levels.

What you want to ascertain is:

1. Where they spend the “majority” of their time, 
2. What impact this is having on their wellbeing, and
3. What support may be needed to keep workers predominantly in the ‘green zone’.

It’s important to note that individuals may vary across states due to fluctuations in their work and life demands.

“It’s not only high workloads that we need to measure more effectively, but low job demands too. Those with not enough work to do, or work that is not stimulating or enriching, are also at risk.”

1. Well-utilised (green light)

This is the ideal zone – active. People feel engaged, appropriately challenged and have the capacity to stretch and grow.

They are energised and engaged in their work with stimulating tasks, activities and work demands that are tolerable.

They are safely stretched within their capacity levels and supported to overcome challenges. They experience peaks and troughs in their work demands and supports are put in place for these times.

HR tips for success:

• Work demands ebb and flow, as do life demands. Keeping in touch with workers in the green zone is essential to monitor them to ensure they’re remaining active, engaged and appropriately challenged – without slipping into overload, which may have negative impact on their wellbeing.
  

2. Under-utilised (orange light)

These employees may not have enough to do, or the work lacks purpose and challenge for them.

Under-utilised team members may feel invisible, undervalued or stagnant, and that’s a horrible way to feel at work. Of the 500 people who I have trained, an average of 18 per cent of attendees anonymously reported being in this zone.

This is why creating open dialogue about work utilisation is so essential. People in this zone need to be supported to speak up.

HR tips for success:

For these employees, consider:

• What are they passionate about that they might not be getting to do?
• Are they doing tasks that feel unimportant or disconnected from the purpose or meaning of the organisation?
• Could a project, rotation or mentoring opportunity add more meaning or stretch to their work?

Sometimes it’s not about the volume of work being low, but the nature of the work they are doing. Enriching the role can go a long way.

3. Overloaded (red light)

This is about too much work happening for too long.

People in this zone may be at high risk – or already on the spectrum – of burnout.

In this situation, assessment and intervention are urgent. This isn’t just about a temporary peak demand, it’s a state of chronic, unmanaged and severe job demands.

Intervention efforts should focus first and foremost on reducing work demands for workers in this zone and providing immediate support and review.

Workers in this zone may be displaying dysregulated behaviours. It’s likely they have expressed – or tried to express – their overload previously, but interventions have not been sustainable.

HR tips for success:

• If you have a high number of workers in the red zone, it is likely there are broader contributing organisational factors. Consider the work culture, the external demands and the level of psychological safety that may be contributing to this current state.
  
• Consider mapping work activities and ‘ruthlessly rationalising’ priorities at the team or department level if this is a widespread issue.
  
• Consider if you have ‘active’ zone team members spending more and more time in the overloaded zone. Even if they’re returning to active, the frequency and duration with which they are in overload should be taken into account.  
• For more guidance on interventions, see step 3.
  

Hear more from Tanya Heaney-Voogt at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition – this year hosted in Sydney on 19-21 August – where she will discuss how to create psychosocial activators in your organisation. Secure your spot today.

Step 3: Managing concerns

Once you’ve identified a workload concern, the next step is to take action. 

Use these two sample checklists to guide your response.

Support checklist 

This focuses on immediate actions to acknowledge and address the issue:

• Show genuine support and commitment to addressing concerns.
• Reiterate available supports (e.g. EAP), without implying the issue is personal rather than work-related.
• Explore short-term solutions (such as reassigning tasks or adjusting timelines).
• Be mindful of personal and situational factors contributing and offer support if relevant.

Review checklist 

This digs deeper into the job design and contextual contributors. Consider:

• Has the role changed over time?
• Has the intensity or complexity of work tasks changed? i.e. additional direct reports, complex needs, complex work, etc?
• Are new processes or interdependencies increasing demands?
• What does a reasonable person test suggest?
• Is the role tightly scripted or does the employee have autonomy?
• Has the person been supported to undertake bottom-up job crafting?
• Can top-down job crafting initiatives be undertaken?
• Has a psychosocial risk assessment been undertaken?

If a genuine concern regarding work demands has been identified, it is imperative that suitable action is taken in both the short term and through a psychosocial risk assessment process, which includes identification of hazards (including all that may be interacting and compounding the job demands), assessment of the risk, implementation and review of suitable controls.

When you take the time to monitor, measure and manage workload, you’re not only preventing burnout, you’re building the foundations for a sustainable, high-performing and human-centred workplace.

Armed with these tools, supporting leaders and teams will become much simpler.

Tanya Heaney-Voogt is a speaker, author and consultant working across a wide range of industries, supporting organisations to build mentally healthy, high-performing workplaces and navigate the complexities of change in today’s fast-moving world of work.She is the author of Finding Equilibrium – Leading safely and effectively in the modern world of work, and two other books. 

She has been a contributing author for HRM Magazine and a guest on AHRI’s Let’s Take This Offline podcast, discussing psychosocial safety, and will be an upcoming speaker at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition speaking on how to create Psychosocial Activators in your organisation.