Recent studies have showed that the American workforce is working harder than ever before. This comes even with the invention of modern technology that should have made tasks easier.
This phenomenon has led to higher attrition rates due to employee burnout. According to Workplace Trends, a study conducted by Kronos Incorporated and Future Workplace found that 95 percent of human resource leaders say that employee burnout is having a significantly negative impact on workforce retention.
614 Chief Human Resource Officers (CHRO), vice presidents of HR, HR directors and HR managers from organizations that have 100 to over 2,500 employees participated in the survey. They were asked to give their feedback at how burnout drives turnover, what causes it as well as why there is no easy way to solve it even when improved retention rates are a critical priority.
Nearly half of the HR leaders admit that employee burnout plays a key role for 20 to 50 percent of annual workforce turnover. Employees at larger organizations, those that have over 2,500 workers, are said to suffer more from burnout; with 50 percent or more of annual turnover.
Some of the reasons for employee burnout are unfair compensation, unreasonable workload as well as too much overtime work. However, not all issues are under the control of the HR department. There are burnout factors that fall under the responsibility of talent management, employee development and leadership.
Quartz reported that, even when outside of the office, American workers continue to work. Sometimes, they even work during vacations. A study by Project: Time Off noted that over half of employees did not use their vacation time in 2015, adding up to 658 million unused vacation days.
The unused vacation days has caused the U.S. economy to lose $223 billion in total economic impact. It also led to the loss of 1.6 million jobs. The workers also forfeited 222 million of the 658 million unused days, which cannot be rolled over, paid out or banked for other credit.
