Discover why 50% of high performers with low resilience are actively job searching. Learn proven employee burnout prevention strategies and leadership development solutions that deliver measurable ROI for HR leaders and organizations.
Your top performers are quietly planning their exit. While you’re celebrating their latest achievements and relying on their consistent delivery, they’re updating their LinkedIn profiles and responding to recruiters. The reason? They’re trapped in what Keystone Partners’ latest research identifies as the “High-Performer Burnout Zone” – a dangerous gap between performance and resilience that puts your most valuable employees at the highest risk of turnover.
The Hidden Crisis in Plain Sight
Keystone Partners’ 2025 Creating Resilient Workforces Study, which I led to survey over 1,500 employees across 12+ industries, reveals a startling reality: employees with high performance scores but low resilience are five times more likely to be actively job searching compared to their high-resilience counterparts.
The numbers are stark:
- 50% of high performers with low resilience are actively looking for new opportunities
- Only 10% of high-resilience employees are job searching
- The average performance index across organizations is 31%, while resilience lags significantly at just 19%
This 12-point gap between what employees can deliver and what they can sustain represents a ticking time bomb in your talent strategy.
Understanding the Performance-Resilience Gap
Performance Index (PI) measures an employee’s output and productivity – their ability to meet and exceed performance expectations. Resilience Index (RI) assesses their capacity to recover from stress, adapt to challenges, and maintain well-being over time.
When performance significantly outpaces resilience, employees enter what we call the “burnout zone.” These individuals are:
- Delivering excellent work today
- Operating with a limited well to draw from
- Increasingly vulnerable to stress and change
- More likely to experience decision fatigue and emotional exhaustion
“All of us, including your highest achievers, have a limited well to draw from when our resilience is low.”
The True Cost of the Burnout Zone
The financial implications are staggering. Studies estimate burnout costs U.S. employers between $125-190 billion annually in healthcare expenses alone, with total costs including lost productivity and disengagement exceeding $322 billion per year. Beyond the financial impact, burnout leads to:
- 50% increase in safety incidents
- 37% increase in absenteeism
- Higher error rates and diminished productivity
- Increased voluntary turnover of top talent
But the most significant cost may be the loss of institutional knowledge and high-impact contributors who seemed “fine” until they handed in their resignation.
Understanding these costs is the first step—but what can organizations actually do about it? Our comprehensive ebook “Preventing Employee Burnout” provides managers with practical, actionable strategies for workload management, boundary setting, and fostering meaningful connections that can prevent these devastating costs before they occur.
Identifying High-Performer Burnout Zone Employees
Unlike traditional burnout indicators, these employees often mask their struggles behind continued strong performance.
Look for subtle warning signs:
Performance Patterns:
- Consistently high output with increasing effort required
- Less innovation or creative problem-solving
- Shorter, more transactional communications
- Declining participation in “extra” activities
Behavioral Shifts:
- Decision fatigue—avoiding or delaying non-critical choices
- Reduced collaboration or mentoring of others
- Working longer hours to maintain the same output
- Expressing feelings of being unappreciated or isolated
Engagement Signals:
- Less enthusiasm for new projects or challenges
- Increased focus on process over outcomes
- Reduced advocacy for organizational initiatives
- Subtle expressions of feeling overwhelmed despite meeting targets
Taking Action: Questions for HR Leaders
To identify and address high-performer burnout in your organization, consider:
- Assessment: How are you measuring resilience alongside performance? Do you have employees showing strong output but concerning engagement signals?
- Investment Strategy: Are your development programs focused on individuals or teams? What’s the ratio of employer-funded versus employee self-funded development?
- Early Warning Systems: What mechanisms do you have to identify when high performers are entering the burnout zone before they start job searching?
- Manager Training: Are your managers equipped to recognize and respond to resilience gaps in their team members?
For detailed frameworks and measurement tools to address these critical questions, download our 2025 research report “Cracking the Code – Understanding How Resilience and Performance Work Together.” This comprehensive study provides actionable strategies for closing the resilience gap and building a workforce that’s both high-performing and sustainable.
The Path Forward
The high-performer burnout zone represents both a significant risk and an opportunity. Organizations that proactively address the performance-resilience gap through development interventions will not only retain their top talent but create a sustainable competitive advantage.
As the research clearly demonstrates, resilience is no longer optional—it’s essential for organizational success. The question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in resilient employees and teams; it’s whether you can afford not to.
The bottom line: Your best employees are at your greatest risk. But with the right approach, they can also become your greatest asset in building a truly resilient organization.
Don’t Let Your Best Talent Walk Away
Your high performers are at risk, but it’s not too late. Keystone Partners helps organizations build resilient, engaged teams through proven leadership development and retention strategies.
Ready to close the performance-resilience gap and protect your top talent? Contact us today!
