Full-Service HR

What Drives Employee Burnout

Ella Baker
What drives employee burnout
Reading time 5 Mins
Published on Jun 28
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Stay vigilant to address these common causes

While employees experience burnout for different reasons, understanding what drives employee fatigue can help you take steps to address the most common causes. Listen to your employees, take their feedback into account, and develop policies and procedures that can help your employees remain engaged and happy at work. Preventing burnout leads to a reduction in turnover, saving your business lost productivity and increasing your chances of long-term success.

Unreasonable workloads

Every company has at least one standout employee who seems to be able to accomplish anything and everything thrown at them. While that commitment and energy is commendable and should be celebrated, that kind of workload isn’t sustainable in the long-term. Even the most productive workers need reasonable goals.

If you reduced your workforce during the economic downturn or are a start-up with a small staff, you should keep a close eye on your employees for signs of work overload. It may be time to bring your staffing levels up, especially if employees are often unable to get all of their work done each week. Consider stopping by employees’ offices or workstations at the end of the work week to do a quick check-in. If employees still have a long list of to-dos left at the end of the week, it may be time to redistribute workloads or hire additional staff.

Make sure that your employees have access to the tools, resources, and technologies they need to complete their jobs. Stay up to date on the latest technologies for your industry and budget each year for purchasing new software and tools that your employees need to boost productivity and better accommodate workloads.

Lack of career growth or development

When an employee joins your staff, the odds are that they’re not seeking to stay long-term in their starting position. Think ahead and manage your employees with their ultimate career growth and development in mind.

While initial job descriptions are often narrow on purpose, consistent lack of diversity of job function drives monotony and burnout. To combat this, many companies have begun to encourage collaboration within departments and with other teams. These cross-functional teams are not only able to creatively tackle new projects with additional insight, they also create opportunities for cross-training employees.

Companies should also invest in career development for employees. While some of these development opportunities may include hard costs, like industry event fees, conference fees, and memberships in networking group, business owners can also get creative with soft cost programs. Many businesses have set up mentorship programs for their employees. These mentor programs can include manager-employee relationships or allow younger employees to mentor veteran employees on new technology and tools for their jobs.

The most important way to prove to employees that there is opportunity for career growth or development is to make a conscious effort to put these issues front and center. Managers should make growth and development discussions part of regular performance evaluations and help the employees set forth steps to achieve those goals. Whenever possible, companies should always strive to promote from within, giving employees tangible goals to work toward within the company.

No input

One of the most frustrating aspects of any job can be the lack of voice that regular employees often experience. Top down management styles often don’t take into account the thoughts or ideas of employees who are on the front lines of their business.

This lack of input leaves employees feeling less valued by their companies. This undervaluing of employees not only drives burnout, but also often results in lower productivity. Address these issues head on. Utilize your existing talent to farm the next big idea in your industry or new angles to generate more business.

Managers and owners should use a mixture of face-to-face discussions and anonymous surveys or suggestion opportunities for employees to chime in. Your employees are the driving force of your company and their opinions and ideas should matter greatly. When they don’t, employees will disengage and turnover will increase.

Lack of reward

Whether it’s the absence recognition for a job well done, feeling taken for granted, or being undercompensated, lack of reward is a huge factor in employee burnout. Celebrating your employees’ accomplishments and offering competitive compensation goes a long way to ensuring that your staff is happy and boosts retention.

Recognizing employees’ work in a tangible way is often overlooked in the day-to-day hustle of the workplace. Taking a few minutes to ensure that commitment and work ethic are celebrated can go a long way to creating a more productive workplace. When an employee or team reaches a milestone or achieves a goal, send a company-wide emailing acknowledging the individuals and describing their accomplishments. Alternatively, you can also put up an employee recognition bulletin board in a common area or start a simple electronic newsletter that gets emailed out weekly or biweekly.

For compensation, consider re-evaluating how you determine what constitutes fair pay for each position in your company. Starting salaries may be based on specific parameters, but future pay increases should be based on regular performance appraisals, individual job performance, and other factors of each individual employee.

Let the Sheakley team help

While some causes of burnout are more difficult to address, many common factors can be eased by implementing more consistent and responsive human resources policies and procedures. If you’ve begun to spot some of the signs of burnout in your company, it may be time for you and your management staff to seek the help of Sheakley’s Human Resources experts.

Schedule your free consultation with Sheakley’s HR professionals. Stay up-to-date on all things Sheakley by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media. Join in the discussion by commenting below.


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