Burnout is a major problem. Recruiter burnout is a more major problem. And small business recruiter burnout is an even more major problem than that. Here’s why – including a quiz to see if you’re battling burnout, and some suggestions to move forwards if you are.
Nearly two-thirds of UK workers are worried about burnout in 2025, with 62% saying they think they’ll be overworked this year.
Few jobs are as susceptible to that as recruitment. And few types of recruiter more so than SME recruiters, who are wearing all the hats with few of the resources.
Keep reading for the low-down on recruiter burnout, including a quiz to see if you could be suffering burnout and some suggestions on how to halt burnout in its tracks.
What is recruiter burnout?
Burnout isn’t stress. Some stress is part of life. And some stress is a good thing (technically known as ‘eustress’):
A certain level of stress helps keep your mind and body alert and ready to respond. It can be motivating and help you perform your best.
But burnout isn’t stress. Mental Health UK define burnout this way:
Burnout is a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. It can occur when you experience long-term stress and feel under constant pressure. Burnout can occur when you have repeated and prolonged high demands that exceed resources
In other words, burnout is what happens when you’re continually asked to do too much with too little.
For small business recruiters trying to spin plates while walking a tightrope while putting out fires and dodging bullets, that probably sounds familiar.
When you’re one of only a handful of recruiters (or you’re the whole hand), your workload is enormous. The scale might be smaller than enterprise recruitment, but the number and variety of tasks is pretty similar. And where enterprise recruiters have people, C-suite buy-in, funding, and tooling, SME recruiters often have tumbleweed.
Plus there’s the ever-present threat of redundancies. Nearly a third of employers say they’re planning to reduce headcount this year, and recruitment is unfortunately (and shortsightedly!) often one of the first on the firing line.
That’s grandma’s never-fails recipe for recruiter burnout.
What are the symptoms of burnout? A quiz for small business recruiters.
Recruiter burnout has physical, emotional, and behavioural symptoms – which then ladder into business symptoms.
Here’s a quiz, to see if you’re staring burnout down the barrel.
Am I burned out? A quiz for SME recruiters
1. I feel exhausted at work
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
2. My sleep is disturbed
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
3. I am often unwell (headaches; aches; gastro issues; flu; etc)
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
4. I feel helpless, trapped or defeated
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
5. I have an increased or decreased appetite
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
6. I suffer self-doubt and feelings of worthlessness
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
7. I feel detached, disinterested and demotivated
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
8. I feel overwhelmed
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
9. I feel anxious, stressed, and worried
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
10. I take longer than usual to do things
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
11. I struggle to concentrate
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
12. I am isolated and withdrawn from colleagues
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
13. I am irritable and short-tempered
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
14. I am often late or absent from work
Always – 4
Often – 3
Sometimes – 2
Rarely – 1
Never – 0
If you score above 30, there’s a good bet you could be suffering from recruiter burnout.
But why does burnout matter, apart from being awful for you personally? Because when you recruit for smaller organisations, there’s a huge proportion of responsibility on your shoulders.
If one person of 15 isn’t functioning at their best, you’ve got 14 other recruiters to help smooth things out. If you’re a team of one and you’re not functioning well, the organisation’s entire recruitment function is under threat.
And with it, productivity, profitability, and long-term market competitiveness.
Maybe it’s because you’re so used to caring for other people, but recruiters are often pretty bad at self-care. There’s so much to do and so little time – looking after yourself often falls to the back of the list.
But addressing burnout isn’t just about looking after your own mental and physical health. If you don’t put your own oxygen mask on first, it’s the organisation that suffers.
How can small business recruiters stop burnout?
Preventing, stopping, and healing recruiter burnout falls into two main camps:
1. Self-care
Are you doing the right things to look after yourself and guard your peace? For example:
- Setting clear work boundaries (AKA: “no, I won’t stay until 8pm organising onboarding and editing contracts”)
- Communicating limitations to senior leaders (AKA, “no, I can’t achieve that without sacrificing something more important – it’ll have to wait”)
- Taking regular breaks, ideally including some physical movement and getting outside (AKA, no more working through lunch)
- Managing stress with active mindfulness techniques (AKA, learning to breathe through the 72nd ignored email from that brilliant candidate or busy manager)
- Building a support network (AKA, find your people. You may be a team of one in your organisation, but you’re not the only SME recruiter).
- Make time for your passions (AKA, switch your brain off from candidate attraction and onto knitting or painting or cycling or whatever floats your boat)
2. Organisational support
Does your organisation support you with the resources to meet the demands of your role? That’s things like:
- Do you have the right workspace to do your job effectively? (AKA, a comfy chair, proper lighting, a good screen, etc, etc.)
- Do you have the right learning opportunities to grow? (AKA, the more confidence and skill you have, the less time and stress you spend)
- Do you have scheduled time for reflection and improvement? (AKA, are you constantly firefighting, or do you get bird’s eye insights into performance?)
- Does recruitment have buy-in and credibility? (AKA, are you wasting half your time trying to convince stuck-in-the-mud stakeholders to listen?)
- Do you have the right tools? (AKA, are you spending 100x too long navigating spreadsheets, or do you have a purpose-built ATS for SMEs?
If you’re not getting the right organisational support, burnout is hard to beat.
The fact is, you can’t do your job without the right resources, support, and tools. And yes, you’re trying your best because that’s what you do. But that’s what burnout is. Continually trying your best to meet unrealistic demands without the right resources.
Your team (or “team”) might be small. But you’re mighty. And like dropping a pebble into a pond, the outwards ripples of recruiter burnout spread far, into the metrics that keep business leaders up at night.
Tribepad Gro: An SME ATS to battle burnout
Not every organisation needs an ATS. But given you’re reading an article about recruiter burnout, there’s a pretty good bet yours does.
- If you’re overworked and under-resourced, an ATS can help.
- If you’re spending hours on manual admin, an ATS can help.
- If your recruitment costs keep spiralling, an ATS can help.
- If you can’t get applicants through the door, an ATS can help.
- If you’re overwhelmed with AI applications, an ATS can help.
- If your candidate experience needs attention, an ATS can help.
- If you can’t deliver the reports leaders want, an ATS can help.
- If you keep losing candidates to slow process, an ATS can help.
- If your employer brand is suffering, an ATS can help.
- If you’re desperate to make progress on ED&I, an ATS can help.
- If proactive recruitment marketing is a pipedream, an ATS can help.
If you’re getting the sense an ATS could help you, we’d love to chat about ours.
Tribepad Gro is a ready-built, ready-to-go version of our core ATS solution, perfect for SMEs. It’s got everything you need and nothing you don’t, with pricing that works for smaller budgets.
More efficiency; less banging your head against the wall. And that’s grandma’s never-fails recipe for less burnt-out recruiters, and more successful hiring functions that deliver true value for the organisation.
