5 ways to reduce job burnout among your employees

Employee job burnout has always been a phenomenon that employers have had to face, but today’s employees report that they are more overworked, frustrated, and dissatisfied than ever before. In fact, one recent study found that job burnout is responsible for as much as half of all workforce turnover.

Here at SurveyMonkey, we recently conducted our own survey to take a closer look at the statistics on employee burnout and the factors that affect it. Using our specialized survey techniques, we asked thousands of employees across the United States about their feelings regarding job burnout and found that 47% of them had felt burnt out during the previous six months.

Using feedback from our survey, we’ve compiled the following list of five basic strategies you can use to prevent job burnout at your organization.

It may seem obvious, but employees who are satisfied with their jobs are happier at work and far less likely to experience burnout. While every employee has different ideas when it comes to job satisfaction, we found some clear trends in our recent survey. In order to increase your employees’ job satisfaction, you can:

Employee engagement has become the newest catch-phrase among HR experts and for good reason. Employee engagement is essential to a healthy work culture and leads to happier, more productive employees who are less likely to miss work. In order to increase employee engagement, you can:

Today’s employees want more than a set five-day work week or an eight-hour work day. The job benefits that employees currently care most about are those that provide them with greater flexibility, including telecommuting, four-day workweeks, and/or flexible hours where they can come in earlier or later than the standard nine-to-five shift, as long as they stay and work for the appropriate number of hours.

In today’s work world, a sense of purpose matters, particularly among Millennials. Companies with a strong sense of purpose and a values-driven work culture are more likely to experience lower rates of employee burnout.

While reducing your employee’s workload may sound counterintuitive, in reality, asking less of your employees –within reason– may just result in more productive workers. One of the primary causes of job burnout is stress–which is frequently related to impractical or overwhelming workloads. Among employees who reported feeling stressed often at work, 70% reported feeling burnout. Far too many of today’s employees find that even outside of the workplace, they are working on weekends and even during vacations. And a burnt-out employee actually accomplishes less– and is far more likely to leave for another job that offers them less pressure. That leaves you down one employee and in a far less productive position overall. Some things you can do include:

Find out whether your employees are satisfied with their work-life balance by sending them a survey. Create survey→

While decreasing job burnout may not happen overnight, and you may not be able to implement all of these strategies within your company, adding just a few of these to your work culture can create a far more positive workplace.

Whatever strategies you use to reduce job burnout in your employees, you’ll need to start by understanding how your employees feel about their current work environment. You’ll find that at SurveyMonkey, we provide in-depth information, flexible survey templates, and a number of customizable products that can help you to reduce employee burnout at your company.