Why you need to be worried about burnout culture in your organisation
Burnout doesn't just cause huge suffering to the employee that burns out, it also has significant impacts on the workplace too. Tackling the causes of burnout - typically organisational factors- will help not just individual suffering, but also the performance, productivity, reputation and profitability of your workplace too. Read on to find out more about why you need to be worried about burnout culture affecting your organisation.
Burnout culture causes reduced productivity and profitability
If you want to be purely mercenary and focus just on the bottom line and pleasing your shareholders, then organisations and companies need be invested in their employee’s health and wellbeing for this reason alone. A study conducted by the U.K. government shows that positive employee wellbeing results in improved performance, productivity and work quality, and another study conducted by IZA World of Labor claims that an increase in employee well-being leads to parallel increases in productivity.
Burnout culture increases staff turnover, and causes huge difficulties with recruitment and retention
Let’s use the NHS as an example, as I am a doctor myself, and we are really struggling with burnout culture in the NHS right now.
40,000 nurses left the NHS last year, an increase of 25% on the year previous (source: the King’s Fund). 57% of midwives are planning to quit (source: the NMC), and 4 in 10 junior doctors are also planning to quit (source: the BMA). The NHS staff survey of 2021 showed that just 42.1% of respondents were satisfied with the extent to which the NHS values their work, and not being valued at work is one of the direct workplace risk factors for burnout. UCAS figures just released show a 19% drop in numbers of people applying to study nursing in 2023.
These figures in the NHS prove that it is impossible to uncouple burnout culture from problems with staff recruitment and retention.
Furthermore, it costs your company more to replace an employee than it does to keep one. Research suggests that it costs up to 213% of an employee’s salary to replace them, so, it quite literally pays to get your working culture right and look after the staff that you have already (source: the American Center for Progress).
Burnout culture reduces employee engagement
It is absolutely crucial to have an engaged workforce, as an engaged workforce is one that will work hard and exert more effort and commitment to achieving their organisation’s goals. Disengagement translates to significant losses in revenue because of its adverse impacts on employee productivity and motivation. When employees are overworked or not given sufficient time for rest and relaxation, they are more likely to underperform. In effect, the productivity of the organisation is hampered as well as its potential to generate more revenue.
Burnout culture increases absences
Going back to the NHS, currently we are seeing staff sickness rates that are more than double the average (source: the BMA). We have a huge problem with burnout culture in the NHS presently with huge relentless demand and expectations on the service. Unfortunately this is reflected in our incredibly high staff sickness rates. High sickness rates then have a knock on effect on the quality of service provision, patient experience and safety of care, as well as higher locum/agency costs and further negative effects on the morale of the staff that are left.
Employees who burn out require, on average, 3.5 months off work with some needing up to a year (Bernier, 1998). It takes, on average, 1-3 years to recover completely, and significant adjustments need to be made at work in order for the burnt out employee to return to work well. These absences and period of reasonable adjustments will also have significant impacts on your organisation as well as the burnt out employee.
As with anything in medicine, burnout prevention really is better than cure. It quite literally pays to do the work to create a workplace that is supportive, psychologically safe, and promotes good mental health and wellbeing of its employees.
It is absolutely essential that companies not only recognise that burnout culture has a negative impact on the organisation itself, but also that it harms organisational reputation, productivity and profitability.
I help companies tackle burnout culture through consultancy, workshops, webinars and coaching packages. Please email drclaire@beatburnout.co.uk if you would like to know more about my services.