In 2021, we experienced the Great Resignation, with 4.3 million Americans quitting their jobs in August 2021.1 In 2023, however, the Great Resignation devolved into a general workplace phenomenon described as “quiet quitting” or “bare minimum Mondays.” Many of the factors playing into the Great Resignation, including opportunities for higher pay, career advancement, and burnout, also apply to quiet quitting. The largest contributor to both phenomena is a lack of action regarding employee feedback. The bottom line is that employees want to be respected and feel their opinions are valued.2
- 78% of employees are eager to participate in company surveys.
- 50% received a survey from their employer in the past year.
- 45% did not feel their responses would lead to meaningful change.3
In our most recent work, we have found that while phrases like “quiet quitting” or “bare minimum Mondays” might be catchy, they fail to capture the magnitude of the change within the workforce. Our data tells a deeper story of the genuine disconnect between employers and their workforce, where frustration, cynicism, and absenteeism define the disconnect.
In the course of our work, we routinely field questions about “survey fatigue.” Specifically, executives are afraid of inundating employees with assessments and exacerbating employee burnout. But it is not surveying that is the problem. On the contrary, employees want to contribute, but the lack of action by employers is frustrating and plays a significant role in driving turnover.
What can your organization do to slow the rapidly growing rate of employee turnover? It’s as easy as following three simple steps:
- Ask for Feedback
- Surveys or assessments are an opportunity for company leadership to connect and open a dialogue with their employees—but, unfortunately, we find this is often a missed opportunity. A majority of employees say that surveys are their preferred method of providing feedback,4 and with modern survey technologies and communication platforms, they are easy to administer. Organizations should take advantage of the opportunity to open this dialogue with their people and tap into their ideas and desire to improve the organization.
- Analyze the Feedback
- Once the dialogue is open, organizations need to intelligently analyze the feedback to determine the root causes behind the challenges of burnout, change fatigue, and turnover. To answer these questions, organizations should deploy surveys that are grounded in behavioral science, statistically validated, and include both quantitative and qualitative questions that utilize artificial intelligence to analyze the results. When organizations obtain this level of root cause clarity, the areas for action are clear and a practical path forward emerges.
- Act on the Feedback
- Gathering feedback, analyzing results, and developing a plan to define the path forward are all meaningless if the plan does not turn into visible action—a combination of communication and activity. First, organizations need to communicate the lessons learned from data collection back to the employees and explain next steps. Second, put the lessons learned into action. Leadership will need to highlight and explicitly connect these actions back to the feedback provided by the employees.
Employee turnover and lack of engagement are real struggles impacting the effectiveness of the growth and efficiency initiatives so important to the business world, and undoubtedly driven by the burnout estimated to cause 20–50% of employee turnover.5 Its meaningful financial, strategic, and cultural impacts have left organizations wondering what to do, but the good news is there may be a silver lining. With the assistance of sophisticated analytics like those within FORVIS’ Clari3ty change analytics platform, organizations can follow three simple steps to help unlock the perspective of their people and use survey diagnostics to create the type of connection they did not think was possible.
Survey fatigue is not the problem; it is inaction fatigue that zaps engagement and frustrates employees. If you want to fight inaction fatigue—Ask, Analyze, and Act.
If you have questions or need assistance, please reach out to a professional at FORVIS or submit the Contact Us form below.
- 1The “Great Resignation” in perspective, bls.gov, July 2022.
- 2Explorance Employee Feedback Survey Report, https://explorance.com, September 28, 2021.
- 3Explorance Employee Feedback Survey Report, https://explorance.com, September 28, 2021.
- 4Explorance Employee Feedback Survey Report, https://explorance.com, September 28, 2021.
- 5"Burnout: What It Is, Isn’t, and Your Role," forvis.com, August 19, 2021.