Employee confidence in employers increased slightly in July, with the share of employees reporting a positive six-month business outlook inching up from 47.8% in June to 48.1%, according to an Aug. 6 report from Glassdoor.
Although employee confidence has increased from February’s record low of 45.1%, workers still express concerns about the future, the report found. A potential explanation could be an overwhelming sense of burnout, particularly after labor shortages, layoffs and slow hiring during the past few years.
“During the labor shortages era, burned out workers bore the brunt of being short-staffed,” Daniel Zhao, a lead economist at Glassdoor, wrote in the report.
“And now, even as workloads have normalized, many employers have pulled back on hiring, leaving many teams stretched thin,” he added. “Ultimately, workers have been on a roller-coaster ride since 2020, and burnout may be one reason employees remain weary with and wary of employers.”
In fact, current numbers show that the share of reviews mentioning “burnout” has increased to the highest level since Glassdoor began collecting the data in 2016, Zhao wrote. Mentions of burnout are now 44% above pre-pandemic levels and have remained high since the third quarter of 2021, when labor shortages surged.
In 2024, 34% of Glassdoor reviews that mention burnout have a positive business outlook, as compared with 54% of reviews that don’t mention burnout.
“Burnout is not just a function of how much business an employer gets,” Zhao added. “Employees also view it as a result of leaders’ decisions on resource allocation, and high burnout reviews report lower business outlook as employees lose faith in leadership decision making.”
Employee burnout continues to be chronically high, and employee workload remains the driving factor behind that burnout, according to an Eagle Hill Consulting report. Although employees in the firm’s survey have pointed to solutions such as a four-day workweek, increased flexibility and a decreased workload, employers may have “hit a wall” on reducing burnout, where burnout levels stay high and the “drivers remain virtually unchanged,” Eagle Hill’s president and CEO said.
For the rest of 2024, about half of U.S. companies plan to add new positions, according to a Robert Half report. Hiring managers surveyed by Robert Half said they’re implementing proactive strategies to reach talent and stand out from other companies, such as reconsidering requirements for years of experience if a candidate has the necessary skills.
For other companies, though, hiring has been pushed to the back burner, according to HR Dive’s Identity of HR 2024 survey. Many HR pros said they face not only tighter budgets but also higher expectations for maximizing those dollars.