[January 09, 2017] |
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The Employee Burnout Crisis: Study Reveals Big Workplace Challenge in 2017
The biggest threat to building an engaged workforce in 2017 is employee
burnout. The newest study in the Employee Engagement Series conducted by Kronos
Incorporated and Future Workplace® found 95 percent of
human resource leaders admit employee burnout is sabotaging workforce
retention, yet there is no obvious solution on the horizon.
In this national survey, 614 HR leaders - including Chief Human Resource
Officers (CHRO), vice presidents of HR, HR directors, and HR managers
from organizations with 100 to 2,500+ employees - provided a candid look
at how burnout drives turnover, what causes it, and why there is no easy
solution despite 87 percent of respondents calling improved retention a
high / critical priority.
News Facts
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Organizations "burn and churn" talent, making it tough to build an
engaged workforce.
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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.
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Almost 10 percent blame employee burnout for causing more than 50
percent of workforce turnover each year.
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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.
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Too much work and too little pay are problematic, but many issues
fueling burnout are in HR's control.
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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.
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Still, HR leaders also identified key burnout factors falling
under talent management, employee development, and leadership that
should be in their control, including poor management (30
percent), employees seeing no clear connection of their role to
corporate strategy (29 percent), and a negative workplace culture
(26 percent).
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Insufficient technology for employees to do their jobs was
identified by 20 percent of HR leaders as another primary cause of
burnout. This is more prevalent at larger organizations with more
than 2,500 employees, where it was cited by 27 percent of
respondents.
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There are significant barriers preventing HR from improving
retention in 2017.
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Despite 87 percent of HR leaders calling improved retention a
critical or high priority over the next five years, one-fifth (20
percent) said there are too many competing priorities to focus on
fixing the issue in 2017.
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Outdated HR technology is another problem: nearly one out of every
five HR leaders (19 percent) reported their current tech as being
too manual - i.e., lacking automation of repetitive administrative
tasks - detracting from their ability to act strategically to fix
big problems.
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The C-Suite must step up their commitment, too, according to HR
leaders in the study, who say lack of executive support (14
percent) and a lack of organizational vision (13 percent) are
additional obstacles to improving retention in 2017.
-
Despite well documented costs of employee turnover1,
organizations are more apt to invest in recruiting new employees as
opposed to retaining existing talent.
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The survey found that 97 percent of HR leaders are planning to
increase their investment in recruiting technology by the year
2020, including nearly a quarter (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; 15
percent who say a lack of funding is the biggest challenge to
improving employee engagement; and 27 percent who say funding is
the biggest hurdle to implementing new HR-related technology, such
as tools that would reduce manual or administrative work to act
more strategically.
p>
Supporting Quotes
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Charlie DeWitt, vice president, business development, Kronos (News - Alert)
"Employee
burnout has reached epidemic proportions. While many organizations
take steps to manage employee fatigue, there are far fewer efforts to
proactively manage burnout. Not only can employee burnout sap
productivity and fuel absenteeism, but as this survey shows, it will
undermine engagement and cause an organization's top performers to
leave the business altogether. This creates a never-ending cycle of
disruption that makes it difficult to build the high-performing
workforce needed to compete in today's business environment.
Organizations should seek out and implement technology solutions that
provide a proactive approach to mitigating burnout, such as the
scheduling of rest during rolling periods as long as a year. Workforce
analytics can also identify and alert managers to trends in scheduling
and absenteeism that may indicate an employee is on the path to
burnout so changes can be made."
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Dan Schawbel, partner and research director, Future Workplace; New
York Times best-selling author, Promote Yourself
"The biggest
priority, and concern, for business leaders in 2017 will be retaining
employees in an even more competitive talent marketplace. 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."
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Mollie Lombardi, co-founder and CEO, Aptitude Research Partners
"Engagement
has been the workforce buzzword for the past decade. We talk about
ensuring that employees are challenged, appreciated, and in sync with
strategic objectives, but even when they have an intellectual or
emotional engagement with their work they sometimes still feel
overwhelmed. While not all burnout can be eliminated, much of it 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."
Supporting Resources
About Kronos Incorporated Kronos is a leading provider of
workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions.
Kronos industry-centric workforce applications are purpose-built for
businesses, healthcare providers, educational institutions, and
government agencies of all sizes. Tens of thousands of organizations -
including half of the Fortune 1000® - and more than 40
million people in over 100 countries use Kronos every day. Visit www.kronos.com.
Kronos: Workforce Innovation That Works™.
About Future Workplace Future Workplace is an executive
development firm dedicated to rethinking and re-imagining the workplace.
Future Workplace works with heads of talent management, human resources,
corporate learning, and diversity to prepare for the changes impacting
recruitment, employee development, and engagement. Future Workplace is
host to the 2020 Workplace Network, an Executive Council that includes
50 plus heads of Corporate Learning, Talent, and Human Resources who
come together to discuss debate and share "next" practices impacting the
workplace and workforce of the future. For more information, please
visit: www.FutureWorkplace.com.
Survey Methodology Research findings cited above are based
on a survey conducted by Morar Consulting fielded across the U.S.
between Nov. 14-19, 2016. For this survey, 614 HR professionals were
asked about their views on workplace innovation and technology used in
HR. The study targeted HR managers/directors, VP of HR and CHROs,
working at medium to large enterprises (minimum 100 employees) across
different industry sectors. Respondents were recruited by Morar
Consulting through a number of different mechanisms, via different
sources to join the panels and participate in market research surveys.
All panelists passed a double opt-in process and complete on average 900
profiling data points prior to taking part in surveys. Respondents were
invited to take part via email and were provided with a small monetary
incentive for doing so. All sample surveys may be subject to multiple
sources of error (i.e. sampling error, coverage error, measurement
error, etc.).
Footnote 1: Per the Retaining
Talent report in the SHRM Foundation's Effective Practice
Guideline Series, direct replacement costs can reach as high as 50
percent to 60 percent of an employee's annual salary, while the total
cost associated with turnover can reach 60 percent to 200 percent of
annual salary (page 3).
© 2017 Kronos Incorporated. All rights reserved. Kronos and the Kronos
logo are registered trademarks and Workforce Innovation That Works is a
trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. See a complete
list of Kronos
trademarks. All other trademarks, if any, are property of their
respective owners.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170109005377/en/
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