Employee Burnout

Everyone agrees that employee turnover is disruptive and expensive. The Society for Human Resource Management estimates the total cost of turnover can be as high as 200 percent of annual salary.

Then consider that half of employee turnover is due to burnout. It’s a problem worth solving.

Many factors contribute to employee burnout. Among the most obvious are heavy workloads, short deadlines, and the ever-present mobile phone, which makes employees available around the clock.

But HR leaders say that burnout is also fueled when employees don’t see a connection between their role and their organization’s purpose.

Another top cause is a negative corporate culture, which I will address in the next post.

If these are conditions that describe your organization, more focus is needed on the fundamentals of community, engagement, and living the organization’s purpose. Providing employees with the foundation I introduced in the first post — belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization — is the best defense against burnout.