To tackle employee burnout, companies need to assess just how burned out their staff members are—and why. Many organizations conduct surveys to gain this sort of insight, but serious flaws in how those surveys are designed often lead to bad results. Well-intentioned leaders, following an inaccurate roadmap of where the problems lie, end up wasting time, energy, and resources on the wrong things. For example, they may ask people if overwork is an issue and then try to reduce the load, when the real problem is more psychological.
Where Employee Surveys on Burnout and Engagement Go Wrong
To tackle employee burnout, companies must assess the problem. But badly designed workplace surveys run into psychological hurdles that skew results. For instance, because of social desirability bias — the impulse to present oneself in a positive light — people are likely to say no to a statement like “I feel burned out.” It puts the focus on them rather than the firm. Another psychological hurdle, acquiescence bias, is the default tendency to agree with statements when knowledge is limited or none of the available answers fit. Other survey flaws to look for are ambiguous questions and double-barrel statements with two unrelated components, such as “I am motivated to perform my best work and we are good at holding people accountable.” By addressing such flaws and asking questions that give employees the clarity and psychological safety they need to be fully honest, organizations can identify the right problems to fix.