If you’re sitting at your desk feeling overwhelmed by the amount of overtime you should put in this week, you’re not alone. Employee burnout is now the biggest threat to those building an engaged workforce in 2017, according to a press release published early this year. A study conducted by Kronos Incorporated and Future Workplace found that 95 percent of human resource leaders admit employee burnout is hurting retention, with no obvious solution on the horizon.
“The biggest priority, and concern, for business leaders in 2017 will be retaining employees in an even more competitive talent marketplace,” said Dan Schawbel, partner and research director, Future Workplace, in the press release. “As the economy continues to improve, and employees have more job options, companies will have to provide more compensation, expand benefits and improve their employee experience. Managers should promote flexibility, and ensure that employees aren't overworked, in order to prevent employee burnout that leads to turnover.”
The survey was conducted in the U.S. and included 614 HR leaders (chief human resource officers, vice presidents of HR, HR directors and HR managers from organizations with 100 to 2,500 employees). The goal was to look at how burnout drives turnover, what causes it and why there is no easy solution in sight.
The release called out four key points related to the burnout:
- Organizations “burn and churn” talent, making it tough to build an engaged workforce. According to the survey, nearly half of HR leaders (46 percent) say employee burnout is responsible for up to half (20 to 50 percent, specifically) of their annual workforce turnover. Though burnout touches organizations of all sizes, larger organizations seem to suffer more. One in five HR leaders at organizations with 100 to 500 employees cited burnout as the cause of 10 percent or less of their turnover while 15 percent of HR leaders at organizations larger than 2,500 employees say burnout causes 50 percent or more of annual turnover.
- Too much work and too little pay are problematic but many issues fueling burnout are in HR’s control. Unfair compensation (41 percent), unreasonable workload (32 percent) and too much overtime/after-hours work (32 percent) are the top three contributors to burnout, per the study.
- There are significant barriers preventing HR from improving retention in 2017. Despite 87 percent of HR leaders calling improved retention a critical or high priority over the next five years, 20 percent said there are too many competing priorities to focus on fixing the issue in 2017.
- Despite well documented costs of employee turnover, organizations are more apt to invest in recruiting new employees as opposed to retaining existing talent. The survey found that 97 percent of HR leaders are planning to increase their investment in recruiting technology by the year 2020, including 22 percent who anticipate a 30 to 50 percent increase in such spending. However, budget was continually cited by HR leaders as a deterrent to programs that would benefit retention of existing talent. This includes 16 percent who say a lack of budget is the primary obstacle to improving employee retention in the next 12 months.
While organizations might not be able to put an end employee burnout, Mollie Lombardi, co-founder and CEO, Aptitude Research Partners, said in the press release, “Much of it (burnout) can be avoided using critical strategies that balance consistency and personalization of schedules and workload; leverage managers as models for how their team can achieve work/life balance; and implement tools and technology that proactively manage burnout or otherwise support these efforts.”
To read the press release in its entirety, and dig deeper into the research findings, visit: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170109005377/en.