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As the business world continues to navigate the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis, workers (both onsite and remote) in different industries are experiencing immense pressure. Now, more than ever, leaders need to be acutely aware of workforce frustrations and learn how to avoid employee burnout.

In 2019 the World Health Organization defined burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”¹ In the past, the term burnout was applied most frequently to healthcare workers who worked too many hours in incredibly stressful conditions. Today, however, burnout can happen to any employee in any type of job and in any industry. And it is incredibly widespread: in one recent survey, 82 percent of respondents reported experiencing it.²

Burnout has tremendous costs. Annually, it contributes to 120,000 deaths and $190 billion in healthcare spending.³ Even mild employee burnout can have detrimental effects on companies, to the tune of a “220 percent decrease in the probability of highly engaged employees” and a “210 percent decrease in the probability an employee will be a promoter of the organization.”⁴ And burnout may be responsible for up to 50 percent of employee turnover annually.⁵

Burnout can happen to anyone. Although certain jobs and industries might lend themselves to higher levels of physical or mental exhaustion, the type of job or number of hours worked does not cause burnout. Burnout occurs in both white collar and blue collar jobs, and workers of all generations experience it. The primary causes of burnout are (as the World Health Organization pointed out), chronic, unresolved culture issues in the workplace.

How can workplace culture cause burnout?

There’s a clear relationship between workplace culture and burnout: as the first decreases in quality, the latter increases in incidence. When a company fails to adequately support the six essential aspects of workplace culture, the chance of burnout skyrockets:

• Purpose: “Companies with a nonexistent or uninspiring purpose can increase odds of burnout by 39 percent.”
• Opportunity: “A lack of learning opportunities . . . increase[s] odds of burnout by 23 percent.”
• Success: “Increased perception that the bottom line is more important than people leads to an 18 percent increase in the odds of burning out.”
• Appreciation: “A reduction in giving and receiving recognition leads to increased odds of burnout by 45 percent and 48 percent, respectively.”
• Well-being: “Decreased work-life balance, feeling like work has a negative effect on health, or a decreased sense of belonging can increase risk of burnout by 22 percent, 40 percent, and 56 percent, respectively.”
• Leadership: “Decreased trust in leaders can increase burnout by 29 percent.”⁶

Under such conditions, employees are more likely to experience exhaustion, avoid their work, and feel that their jobs are futile. Over time, all of this leads to burnout.

How can companies prevent employee burnout?

First, organizations should focus on creating positive employee experiences that strengthen the six essential elements of workplace culture. But these efforts can’t be generic, top-down, company programs and initiatives. True culture change considers employees’ specific experiences and follows from the implementation of the following four strategies.

Rethink leadership. Leadership no longer entails telling employees how to work and what to work on. The modern workforce demands leaders who inspire, not micromanage. Employees want leaders who will mentor, coach, and advocate for them. Leaders who successfully connect their people to purpose, accomplishment, and one another can reduce burnout by as much as 56 percent.

Utilize one-to-ones for connection. More than just times for employees and leaders to catch up with each other, one-to-ones offer connection and help identify issues that might lead to burnout. With every member of their teams, leaders should have ongoing one-to-ones that are cocreated conversations that cover not only the employee’s current projects but also mentorship and coaching, opportunities for growth and development, praise and recognition, and the employee’s well-being. Regular one-to-ones with their leaders help employees feel more connected and make them significantly less likely to burn out.

Build autonomous teams. Help employees feel psychologically safe and empowered to do great work by creating an environment in which they can share ideas, opinions, and feedback without fear and in which they have the flexibility and freedom to create and innovate. Tools such as peer-to-peer conversations allow individual team members to share feedback and ideas, learn new skills from each other, and network. Teams that use such interactions see their “odds of employees experiencing moderate-to-severe burnout” drop by 67 percent. When thriving teams feel a strong sense of purpose, opportunity, appreciation, and success, employees feel less stressed and feel more like they are doing meaningful work.

Use active listening. Too often, companies utilize annual surveys and pulse surveys to get employee feedback and then do nothing with the information. Active listening means soliciting employee feedback, paying attention to what it says, and making and communicating changes and improvements based on that feedback. In fact, employing a multimethod listening strategy (including focus groups, surveys, town halls, suggestion boxes, one-to-ones, etc.) can lower burnout by 28 percent, and using several communication methods and taking action based on the feedback can lower significant burnout by 54 percent. Through these processes, employees will feel heard and listened to and companies can flag causes of potential burnout early and fix them quickly.

Today’s employees are more burned out than ever. By paying close attention to the workplace culture factors that can cause burnout and by using four key strategies to change how leaders interact with their people, organizations can mitigate (and even prevent) many of the issues that cause employee burnout. The result will be employees who are healthier, more engaged, and more inspired to do incredible work.