Our weekly scorecard metrics are almost always green, but our employee turnover is creeping up, which is starting to impact our client service delivery. What leading indicator can we track to spot employee burnout before it leads to resignations?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A green scorecard can mask a burning house if you are only tracking output metrics. If your team is hitting their deliverables but working eighty hours a week to do so, they will eventually burn out and quit, taking your client relationships with them.

You must add a human capacity leading indicator to your weekly scorecard. The most effective metric for this is the employee capacity utilization rate.

Calculate this by tracking the ratio of hours worked to standard capacity. For a service business, if your standard workweek is forty hours, and your team is consistently logging fifty or sixty hours to hit their targets, you have a capacity crisis.

Another powerful leading indicator is the weekly team check-in pulse. Use a simple, one-question automated weekly survey asking your team to rate their workload stress from one to five. Track the average score on your leadership scorecard.

Your HR or Operations Leader must own this number. If the average stress level rises above a three, or if the capacity utilization rate stays over ninety percent for more than two consecutive weeks, it must be flagged as red.

This gives your leadership team the early warning needed to adjust workloads, hire freelancers, or pause new sales before your best employees resign.