By Dr Anthony Renshaw
The ongoing permacrisis has amplified burnout risks, especially for crisis management teams under immense pressure. This article highlights their challenges and offers strategies to mitigate fatigue, including clear roles, training and mental health support. Proactively addressing burnout is vital for resilience, safeguarding employees, and navigating today’s unpredictable risk landscape.
Navigating the Era of Permacrisis
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, a series of global crises have impacted an already fragmented risk landscape, making employee burnout a pressing concern for organisations worldwide. The growing frequency and intensity of crises, driven by escalating geopolitical tensions, cyber threats, climate change, and other challenges has fostered a state of permacrisis leaving little opportunity for recovery.
This persistent wave of disruptions has heightened the risk of crisis fatigue and its fallout, particularly for teams responsible for helping their organisations to manage crisis events. To navigate these challenges, organisations must adopt proactive strategies to support their crisis management teams and mitigate the risks of burnout across their organisations.
Understanding the Burnout Epidemic
Modern crises are becoming more complex and frequent, requiring multifaceted responses that strain existing resources as employees often find themselves juggling multiple roles and responsibilities, working extended hours, and struggling to maintain a balance between professional and personal life. Such factors contribute significantly to the escalating challenge of burnout, as highlighted by the International SOS Risk Outlook Report 2025, which found that 78% of senior risk professionals believe burnout and stress will significantly impact their business and/or people in the coming year.
Crisis Management Teams: The Frontline Burden
While burnout impacts employees across the board, crisis management teams are particularly vulnerable. These teams operate under intense pressure, tasked with conducting risk assessments, managing communications, and making high-stakes decisions within accelerated timelines. The need for constant vigilance and rapid adaptation can quickly lead to fatigue, diminishing team morale and motivation. Human Resources (HR) professionals also shoulder a heavy burden during crises. Responsible for managing the human aspects of organisational resilience, they play a pivotal role in supporting employees through tumultuous times. This dual responsibility of addressing individual needs while maintaining overall organisational stability places HR personnel at a heightened risk of burnout.
Strategies for Supporting Crisis Management Teams
In our experience supporting countless crisis management teams across multiple industries, organisations can counter the effects of burnout and support the resilience of crisis management teams through several tailored strategies. Adaptive leadership techniques are one technique1; however, its nuances are by their nature fluid and hard to define for some. Our hypothesis is that a number of simple recommendations can help counter the impact of crisis fatigue on leadership teams.
1. Defining Clear Roles and Escalation Processes
Establishing well-defined roles and escalation protocols is fundamental to the success of crisis management teams. When responsibilities are clearly outlined, teams can operate more efficiently, reducing the cognitive load on individuals and mitigating potential challenges otherwise faced. The crisis team does not need to be hierarchical. But needs to know where to go to validate its findings. In one successful pandemic crisis team International SOS supported, the crisis manager had been appointed based on demonstrated significant prior experience in managing crises and coordinating stakeholders, not on his formal position within the leadership team. Empowering the team to make decisions based on evidence and guidance helps to alleviate tension. Clear escalation processes also ensure that critical decisions are made at appropriate levels, alleviating undue pressure on frontline personnel.
2. Providing Regular Training
Continuous training is essential to enhance decision-making under pressure. By regularly updating crisis management protocols and conducting realistic simulations teams can build confidence and familiarity with response procedures2. Such preparedness not only improves operational efficiency but also fosters a sense of control and competence, mitigating potential stress, anxiety and burnout risk3.
3. Allocating Adequate Resources
Ensuring the availability of sufficient resources is a cornerstone of preventing burnout and maintaining high performance as crisis management teams require not only the right tools and infrastructure but also adequate staffing to manage workloads effectively. Access to advice on how the crisis may play out or where epidemiological trends are going can help crisis leaders make decisions more rapidly and ease the cognitive overload. Flexible staffing models, such as rotating personnel or creating surge capacity teams, allow employees to recharge and prevent exhaustion during extended crises.
Allocating additional resources for professional development, equipment, and team support enhances overall efficiency and morale. By prioritising these investments, organisations demonstrate a commitment to their teams’ well-being and resilience, which in turn strengthens their capacity to manage crises.
4. Integrating Mental Health Support
Mental health support should be embedded into every stage of crisis management. Providing employees with access to counselling, stress management programs, and resilience-building workshops can significantly enhance their ability to cope with high-pressure environments. Equally important is fostering a culture where seeking mental health support is seen as a strength, not a weakness through normalising open conversations about mental health and addressing stigma create an environment where individuals feel supported and valued. Proactive engagement with mental health resources ensures that teams remain mentally strong and equipped to navigate prolonged challenges. In our experience having a clinician advising or as part of a health crisis management team can help provide welcome support.
5. Leveraging Technology and Innovation
The integration of advanced technologies can significantly enhance crisis management capabilities while reducing stress on personnel. Real-time data analytics and virtual collaboration tools enable seamless communication and information sharing among geographically dispersed teams. These technologies streamline operations, improve decision-making, and provide data-driven insights critical for navigating complex crises.
Conclusion: Turning Challenges into Opportunities
The ongoing permacrisis environment presents unprecedented challenges, but it also offers opportunities for organisations to strengthen their crisis management capabilities4. By prioritising the wellbeing of their teams, investing in preparedness, and leveraging innovative technologies, organisations can navigate crises more effectively while safeguarding the mental and physical health of their employees. As 64% of Risk Outlook 2025 survey respondents highlight increasing employee expectations regarding Duty of Care, organisations must embed proactive health, safety, and security measures into operations to address current and emerging risks. By doing so, businesses can transform challenges into opportunities, ensuring resilience and success in an unpredictable world.
Addressing burnout is not just a moral imperative but a strategic necessity. Today’s interconnected risks require a move from reactive to predictive strategies meaning organisations must harness intelligence-driven insights and foster cross-functional collaboration to manage these multi layered risks. This systematic approach not only safeguards people and operations but also builds resilience in an era of unpredictability.
Dr Anthony Renshaw
