Dive Brief:
- More than half of employees report feeling overworked and burned out (53%), but the overwhelming majority (86%) are still happy at work and motivated to rise in their organization. These results are from the inaugural Workplace Index conductedby Staples Advantage, the business-to-business division of Staples, Inc.
- The Staples Advantage Workplace Index is a comprehensive look at trends in the rapidly evolving workplace in the U.S. and Canada. It was created in conjunction with Dan Schawbel, founder of WorkplaceTrends.com, a research and advisory membership service for HR professionals, and the managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm.
- About half of employees surveyed acknowledge they receive too much email, with about one-third of those saying that email overload hurts productivity. Inefficient meetings are also a major productivity drain, with some employees spending more than two hours a day in time-wasting meetings.
Dive Insight:
"With the rise of the mobile workforce and the resulting ‘always on’ work culture, it’s not a surprise that employees are feeling overworked and burnt out,” Schawbel says. “While many are still happy at work, we have to ask whether it’s because they’re truly inspired and motivated, or simply conditioned to the new reality?”
Though employees say they are happy, about one in five employees still expects to change jobs in the next 12 months (and flight risk is slightly higher for millennials). With employees working longer days and on weekends, the biggest request for employers is to provide more flexibility. Other steps employers can take to improve happiness include adding more office perks, improving office technology and providing better office design.
Work-life balance was one of the most important aspects to employees when looking for a new job (46%), second only to salary. Additionally, one in five employees cited work-life balance issues as a reason for considering a job change, while close to a third identified it as a leading contributor of loyalty.
