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Are you employees doing a lot more with a lot less? Are they burned out? Do they tell you they are? Are they looking for a way out? Are you recognizing all their hard work?

HR and people management professionals are hopefully tuned in to their organizations and are aware of the stress, as well as trying to do something to alleviate it.

According to a recent study referenced in an HR Executive article, the University of Zaragosa in Spain found that two key factors — workplace stress (mainly monotony and feeling overburdened) and a perceived lack of recognition — are the prime factors in employee burnout.

And consider this from a recent TLNT post titled Survey: Half of Employees Want to Leave or Have Checked Out on the Job:

“Mercer, the global HR consulting firm, just released the results of its new What’s Working survey, conducted over the past two quarters among nearly 30,000 workers in 17 countries, including 2,400 workers in the U.S. It found that nearly a third (32 percent ) of American workers are seriously considering leaving their organization at the present time, up sharply from 23 percent in 2005.

As bad as that sounds, another 21 percent of workers say they are not necessarily looking to leave but view their employers unfavorably and have rock-bottom scores on key measures of engagement, meaning that when you combine the two, more than half of all employees (53 percent) are either looking to leave for a new job or have mentally checked out of their old one.”

I’m sure you’ve seen enough survey research recently to make you pass out from the stressed out and unhappy workers you deal with everyday.

But wait – there’s more:

The Spanish researchers surveyed 409 employees working at the University of Zaragosa, including administrative, services, teaching and research staff and interns. Among their findings:

• An employee who works more than 40 hours per week is six times more likely to develop the burnout than someone who works less than 35 hours;
• A worker who does monotonous tasks — creating the tendency to get bored and lacking personal-development opportunities — is more at risk than others of developing the under-challenged burnout profile;
• Employees who are in the same job for long periods often ignore responsibilities due to the lack of recognition they perceive in their environment, and frequently fit into the worn-out profile; and
• Workers with more than 16 years at the same workplace are five times more at risk of developing a worn-out profile than someone with fewer than four years at the same job.

Regardless of the type of burnout, however, the result is emotional exhaustion, cynicism and a lack of productivity, the researchers concluded.

Listen, you and the rest of your management team may not think about these things, or even care much, but the reality is you should care a little if staying in business with top talent means anything to you.

Here are some suggestions from the experts you should consider:

• Encourage authentic communication that fosters a sense of belonging.
• Periodically take the pulse of your employees to identify their specific areas of concern and link employee opinion to outcomes such as productivity and retention.
• Ensure your employees that their opinions make a difference, and mean it.
• Offer effective training, either within or outside of the company, to enable advancement opportunities and give employees a sense that it’s possible change their environments.
• Create “influence teams” who can look at ways to improve employee situations, including offering a paid month, 3-month, or 6-month sabbatical for long-term employees.

And one final sentiment from the experts: listen to your employees, recognize and share in their success, and never underestimate the power of caring in the workplace.

Never.

(Kevin W. Grossman, Guest Blogger)