Employee turnover is costly for organizations. It takes time and resources to identify, recruit, onboard, and train new staff—not to mention the institutional knowledge that may be completely lost when an employee leaves.
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While there are a wide range of reasons that employees may decide to leave their job or company, many leave simply because they have become burned out. Their work no longer energizes or motivates them. They no longer have a passion or even interest in what they do.
Not all decide or have the ability to leave their jobs, of course. But those who stay represent an entirely different problem—lack of productivity and low morale, which can spread to other employees and reduce the quality and quantity of that employee’s work.
In a three-part series for Gallup by Ben Wigert and Sangeeta Agrawal, the authors look at 15 workplace factors correlated with employee burnout. Their first article addresses five:
Unfair Treatment at Work
Wigert and Agrawal say that those employees who “strongly agree” that they are unfairly treated are 2.3 times more likely to suffer from high levels of burnout. What is unfair treatment?
While individual employees will have their own perceptions and form their own assumptions, common inequities center around pay, assignment of work tasks, and promotions. Employers can look at their own data around these decisions to see if actual inequities may be leading to feelings of unfair treatment and take steps to alleviate these drivers.
Unmanageable Workload
Most jobs require some level of multitasking and striving for a lot of throughput. But, at some point, employees simply aren’t able to keep up, leading to significant stress.
Identifying whether workloads are unmanageable can obviously be challenging. After all, it has become almost a badge of honor for employees to proclaim that they are “too busy.” Still, employers have an opportunity to assess workloads by comparing across functions and roles to develop standards and expectations.
In addition, ongoing conversations with employees provides an opportunity to hear their perceptions and to help find ways of increasing efficiencies, eliminating or changing tasks, or taking other steps to bring expectations in line with realities.
Lack of Role Clarity
“When accountability and expectations are moving targets, employees can become exhausted just trying to figure out what people want from them,” write Wigert and Agrawal.
Lack of role clarity is common but can be readily addressed by:
- Making it clear what expectations are from the time an employee is hired
- Ensuring that job descriptions are up to date and regularly reviewed to ensure their accuracy
- Being clear when making assignments or giving direction—indicating what specific outcomes are expected
- Having frequent conversations with employees to provide both positive and constructive feedback
Lack of Communication and Support from Manager
A manager can make or break an employee’s experience at work. Employees want managers who have their backs, who communicate well, and who are supportive. When this is lacking, burnout often results.
The appropriate level and type of communication will, and should, vary by employees. Some may prefer face time; others may be comfortable with e-mail interactions.
Unreasonable Time Pressure
Just as with multitasking, we all have to work with deadlines, and sometimes this can cause stress. But when the time pressure becomes unreasonable, that stress can turn into burnout.
Most of us feel burned out from time to time at our jobs. But long-term, chronic burnout can be extremely detrimental to an employee and his or her organization. Knowing the top causes of burnout is a critical first step in tackling the issue.