Burnout Analytics 101
Everything you need to know about measuring burnout!
Last week, I recovered from burnout on my vacation in Mexico.
It came on fast. Right at the beginning of the year.
You know that feeling of exhaustion when you’ve been going full steam for a while?
When you fall asleep, as soon as you hit the pillow. When you don’t look forward to the sunrise anymore. When you are Tired with the capital T.
That was me in January!
And guess what I did?
I powered through for 2 months until last week!!! WTH?!
Bad decision. Don’t do it.
Now that I am fully recovered let me tell you how to measure burnout in your organization!
But before we go there, here are a few pictures of tacos I had in Mexico!
Okay, where were we?
Ah, yes! Burnout!
Burnout at work really comes down to 3 things:
Being exhausted from working (“I’m tired”)
Feeling negativity or cynicism about your work (“I hate this”)
Reduced professional efficacy (“Geez, I am not productive”)
If you don't take care of them early, you feel 1 or all 3! And trust me, they will affect your engagement, productivity, performance, and desire to call it quits.
In this post, I answer two questions:
How do you measure burnout?
What do you do after?
How do you measure burnout?
As with any psychological tool out there, there is a questionnaire for measuring burnout created by Christina Maslach. It’s about 15 statements, and you can purchase it here. The inventory is quick and easy, but without permission to use, pay, or both, this would not be accessible to you.
Of course, there are alternative solutions:
Find a copy on the internet and use it
It might not be reliable
Violates intellectual property rights
Come up with items of your own
Which would deviate from what is known as the “gold standard”
Not measuring burnout
This option will tell you just how much you really care about burnout
Naturally, as with many things in life, you can probably get a less reliable but directionally correct sense of burnout with option 2, coming up with a few simple items.
Here is a 3 item inventory that I just came up with on the fly:
Exhaustion: I feel exhausted at work
Cynicism: I feel cynical about my work
Efficacy: I am not productive
Each would be a robust and simple measure of the 3 components of burnout!
Sure, they may not be the same as described in the academic, peer-reviewed journal, but they will likely yield similar results for most purposes.
Now load them into the survey, and bob is your uncle!
What do you do after?
Now, as you measure these items, pay attention to the outcomes:
Engagement
Performance
Retention
These relationships should be tested if you truly believe burnout affects outcomes.
Even then, however, each of the items is something you can work on within your organization.
Here are a few simple action items:
Exhaustion:
Manage vacation-taking within the organization to drive recharge
Manage staffing to provide relief in productivity
Manage workload, making decisions about what you will and will not do
Cynicism:
Engage your management team in creating more engagement
Focus on rewarding your employees for the work they do
Re-align the organization towards the mission and vision
Efficacy:
Remove the blockers for employees to make work more exciting and fun
Reward good performance and instill a winning mentality
Re-align personal goals with those of the organization
All in all, you will discover more when you collect and start tracking the data consistently.
And if you are burnt out.
Take a break.
Disconnect.
Trust me.
You will feel better.
K
Learn People Analytics in a Practical Way!
Check out my new Practical People Analytics Course that covers the most common questions I get from HR professionals:
What metrics should I use?
How do I measure engagement?
How do I make sure there is no bias in my comp?
What is the best way to measure performance?
How can I use advanced analytics to drive action?
Which means… you will have everything you need to build your data-driven HR function.