Burnout assessment tools compared
How the CBI stacks up against the Maslach Burnout Inventory, BAT, and OLBI when you are choosing an instrument.
The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory
Understand how the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) measures personal, work, and client-related exhaustion, how scores are calculated, and how to interpret benchmarks before you take the burnout test.
What the CBI measures
An open screening instrument developed at the National Institute for Occupational Health in Denmark. It looks at exhaustion in three domains.
- Personal burnout
- How persistently tired, drained, or unable to recover you feel overall.
- Work-related burnout
- Exhaustion that stems from workload, task design, role clarity, and organisational factors.
- Client-related burnout
- Strain that appears when you work with patients, clients, students, or service users.
Each scale uses the same five-point response set, which keeps the questionnaire quick and comparable across roles. Scores are converted to a 0 to 100 scale so you can see at a glance which area feels most intense.
How scoring works
Answers are recoded to numbers, averaged within each scale, and rounded to the nearest whole number.
Always counts 100, often 75, sometimes 50, seldom 25, and never or almost never 0. The CBI literature suggests these interpretive anchors:
| Score | Level | Typical interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 49 | Low | Low exhaustion. Daily recovery is working. |
| 50 to 74 | Moderate | Moderate exhaustion. Watch triggers and add recovery buffers. |
| 75 to 89 | High | High exhaustion. Consider workload redesign and additional support. |
| 90 to 100 | Very high | Very high strain. Prioritise rest and consult a professional if symptoms persist. |
These thresholds come from the original validation paper and follow-up occupational health studies. Your context matters. Compare trends over time and combine results with conversations about workload, support, and health.
Benchmarks from other groups
Because the CBI is open, many organisations have published reference values.
Common findings across healthcare, education, and knowledge-work cohorts:
- Healthcare staff often report personal burnout scores in the high 50s, with client burnout peaking in emergency and oncology teams.
- Teachers and social workers typically sit in the mid 40s to low 50s, with work burnout climbing during peak seasons.
- Knowledge workers with high autonomy tend to score in the 30s or 40s, but spikes above 60 frequently mark crunch periods or unclear priorities.
Use these numbers as orientation, not a diagnosis. Persistent scores above 60 merit a conversation about workload and health with your manager, HR partner, or clinician.
Why we use the CBI
We chose the CBI because it is validated, openly available, and separates personal, work, and client demands. Licensed tools like the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) or the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) require paid access and are harder to offer in self-guided settings.
Curious how the CBI compares to other instruments? Our burnout assessment guide sets them side by side.
Take the CBI yourself
Personal, work, and client burnout scores in about five minutes, using the full inventory.
Keep reading
What is burnout?
How burnout is defined, how it differs from depression, and what managers can do to respond early.
Articles
Practical pieces on recovery habits, compassion fatigue, and workload design for teams.
Who writes and checks this
Guidance here is drawn from peer-reviewed research on stress and recovery. We name the studies we rely on and invite independent clinicians to review updates.
Last reviewed
- About Burnout Editorial Team Writers & researchers focused on occupational wellbeing
- Cross-disciplinary team that translates peer-reviewed burnout research into accessible guidance for individuals and organisations. Includes experience in organisational psychology, employee wellbeing programmes, evidence synthesis, and workload design.
- About Burnout Research & Insights Data and literature review contributors
- Responsible for maintaining the burnout assessment, reviewing validation studies, and curating emerging evidence on job demands and recovery. Monitors Copenhagen Burnout Inventory research, stress and resilience studies, and job demands-resources frameworks.
- Clinical review External clinical reviewers (in progress)
- We are actively recruiting licensed clinicians with stress and occupational health expertise to review new content. Reach out via editor@about-burnout.com if you are interested in contributing.
Studies referenced
- Kristensen TS, Borritz M, Villadsen E, Christensen KB (2005). The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: A new tool for the assessment of burnout. Work & Stress, 19(3), 192–207. View study
- Milfont TL, Denny S, Ameratunga S, Robinson E (2008). Burnout and wellbeing among New Zealand secondary school teachers. Work, 30(4), 357–367.
- Schaufeli WB, Bakker AB (2004). Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3), 293–315.