Nobody wants burnout and yet it seems in the UK it is still on the rise. The latest Burnout Report by Mental Health UK found that 20% of people had to take time off work due to stress in 2025, with a further 39% of that absence taken by young adults.
It’s not as though employers are scrimping on the benefits to try and keep their employees in good mental health. Gym membership, private health schemes, free biscuits in the office… you can have all of the fancy benefits on offer – and many companies do – but if you’re not looking at fixing the root cause all you’re really offering is quite a nice plaster over a much nastier problem.
People get burnout due to stress, difficult working conditions and poor management. But nearly all of this can be fixed with a stronger foundation built on connection. Let us explain how…
First, a little back story: We’re Thomas and we’re people science experts. Our team is made up of Psychologists and Data Scientists, and we’ve spent the past 45 years creating and honing assessments in behaviour, aptitude, personality and emotional intelligence. We love getting into what makes your people tick, using people science to help people feel happier at work. And this is how we started researching the power of connection.
Connection in the workplace refers to the quality of relationships, trust and sense of belonging employees feel with colleagues and the organization. Unlike engagement surveys, connection explains why people feel motivated – or why they don’t.
When employees feel connected, intrinsic motivation thrives. They collaborate more, trust each other and commit more deeply to shared goals. When they feel disconnected, motivation declines, resilience drops and retention risk rises. The impact is measurable.
Through our research, we found that connection captures six essential human needs:
- Trust
- Well-being
- Cohesion
- Contribution
- Appreciation
- Belonging
Everyone needs these to feel connected and psychologically safe at work.
So, we took these findings and built The Connection Measure – our tool for figuring out how individuals and teams are feeling – and how managers can help.
Workers feeling the weight of burnout are most likely to feel a lack of appreciation, decreased well-being and often, a dented sense of belonging.
The Burnout Report found that one in three workers did not feel comfortable speaking to their manager about stress. That’s problematic – because Google’s Project Aristotle found that teams with high psychological safety are 76% more likely to engage in strong collaboration practices and 27% more likely to report higher performance.
Our Connection Measure can help open that conversation by giving personalised tips and guidance that help managers adjust their approach, based on the profiles of those involved. And taking the Connection Measure with your team can highlight where connection is strong — and where it may be breaking down — giving managers clear, practical guidance on how to respond.
Every Thomas profile provides insight into how someone prefers to work, communicate, handle feedback and approach conflict. When teams share that insight, collaboration becomes easier and misunderstandings reduce. Instead of guessing how colleagues prefer to work, teams gain a shared understanding of each other’s strengths, working styles and motivations.
Once your team has this information about you, you’ll stop receiving impromptu calls from Steve, as he’ll know you prefer an email instead. You’ll know that as a team, you all like to brainstorm and collaborate – so you can do more of it. You’ll even be able to ask our coach, Thom AI, who on your team would have the best skills for a new piece of work – a common reason for burnout is trying to complete tasks that don’t feel manageable – but they could be a breeze for someone else in your team. With your profiles, Thom will be able to tell you who works best with numbers, who loves words, who is a whizz at strategy and who is the energizer ready to deliver the pitch.
All these factors mean you can help your people manage workload according to their needs and notice warning signs ahead of time. And with Thomas providing the extra support managers often don’t have time for, you can lessen the chances of burnout before symptoms become a drain on performance.
Our platform creates trust, belonging and cohesion, as it provides the tools and understanding colleagues need to work together to deliver their goals. When the work really doesn’t feel manageable, people now have the tools to help tackle those conversations too in a safe space.
The Burnout Report states that the risk of burnout at work remains stubbornly high, and our own research shows us that connection represents 56% of why employees leave. If you put connection at the heart of your well-being strategy, then you’ll keep your employees happy, psychologically safe, and enjoying their work within their teams whilst thriving, together.
But keep the free biscuits in the office too, everyone enjoys a biscuit.
