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Assessments

Who is the BAT for? Workers, people not working, and organisations

The BAT is for working adults, with a general version for people who are not currently working. The manual says it can be used for individual and group assessment. [2] It was developed and tested in Flanders, so its norms and cut-offs are Flemish. [3] It should be used for personal reflection and group understanding, not to judge individual staff.

Who can use the BAT?

Workers use the work-related version, and people who are not currently working use the general version. [2] The official site lists several language versions. [1] The manual does not set an age range in the parts we read.

Which groups has it been studied in?

The development paper used 1,500 employees from the Flemish working population, drawn from an online panel and split at random into two groups of 750. [3] Its Discussion refers to later studies in a representative Japanese sample and in seven cross-national samples from Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, and the Netherlands. [3] The authors note that it was tested only in a Flemish cultural context. [3]

Can employers use it with staff?

The manual says the BAT can be used for group assessment, and gives norms so that organisations can compare their employees with the national workforce. [2] It also warns that a score higher than average does not necessarily mean someone has burnout. [2] Using it to judge an individual employee goes beyond that. If you want to understand work stress in an organisation, use a work-design approach followed by conversation.

When is a different starting point better?

If you want to compare exhaustion, cynicism, and efficacy, the Maslach Burnout Inventory. If you want to know how drained or detached you feel about your job, the OLBI. If you want to compare exhaustion at work with exhaustion in general, the CBI. If you want an overall stress snapshot, the PSS-10. If you are in distress, talk to someone first.

Sources and further reading

These links open external research and health-information websites.

  1. Burnout Assessment Tool: official website (KU Leuven)
    What the BAT is, that it is free and non-proprietary but must not be modified and the 2020 paper must be cited, where the manual and language versions are, and that the site hosts no online test. Read on 2 November 2026.
  2. Schaufeli, De Witte, and Desart (2020): User manual, Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT), version 2.0. KU Leuven, Belgium (internal report). Copy read from the Australian and New Zealand Society of Occupational Medicine
    The versions, the dimensions and item counts, the five-point scale, how to calculate and interpret scores, the Flemish norms and cut-offs, and the three principles of use. Read on 2 November 2026.
  3. Schaufeli, Desart, and De Witte (2020): Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT): development, validity, and reliability. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(24), 9495
    The development paper: 1,500 Flemish employees, the dimensions, reliability, limitations, and the statement that no clinically validated cut-offs were yet available. Read through Europe PMC; the last 2,097 of about 202,000 characters not read.

This page is educational. A questionnaire score cannot establish a diagnosis or explain the cause of your symptoms. If you are struggling, speak with a doctor or mental health professional, whatever your score. Read when to get help for work stress or find a helpline in your country.