Three Keys to Reversing Burnout

Imperative

November 30, 2021

In the battle against burnout, HR leaders have tried a slew of strategies from extra time off to added benefits and everything in between, but we’re still seeing unprecedented rates of burnout. A whopping 89% of employees have fallen victim to burnout, according to a survey conducted this summer (2021) of 1,000 full-time U.S. workers by workplace analytics firm Visier.

So, the age old question: what actually works? According to Gallup, this is the key to combating burnout: “When people feel inspired, motivated and supported in their work, they do more work — and that work is significantly less stressful on their overall health and wellbeing.”

Let’s break this down into the three pieces Gallup mentions: inspiration, motivation, and support. These are relatively straightforward needs for employees to have, yet challenging for HR leaders to deliver across a large organization.

Reversing Burnout Key #1: Inspiration

To feel connected to the work they’re doing every day, people need to uncover their personal purpose and understand how they can find purpose in their day to day work. Because no type of work is inherently meaningful, this type of inspiration happens only when people have an understanding of what drives them personally.

Reversing Burnout Key #2: Motivation

Reversing Burnout Key #3: Support

After discovering what inspires them, people need to have a clear picture of where they’re going and how they’re going to get there in order to tap into their motivation. This is different for each person and changes over time, so a personalized approach is key. Peer support (compared to mentoring) is especially crucial in the battle against burnout. Peers can uniquely provide empathy, understanding and support that is highly relevant and supportive.

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Maintaining The Burnout Reversal

Burnout needs to be continually addressed to stem the ongoing tide of stressors people face in today’s workplace (and world). These key drivers to reversing burnout must be made available in an ongoing way to meet employees where they are and reverse the waves of burnout.

Imperative’s peer coaching platform reduces burnout by activating all three of these burnout reversal keys on an ongoing basis:

1. Inspiration

At the core of Imperative’s peer coaching platform is personal purpose discovery. Each person completes our research-based purpose assessment that unlocks their personal purpose and measures their current fulfillment at work. Imperative is then personalized for them based on what gives them confidence and clarity to navigate work—from a psychological place of optimism instead of fear.

On Imperative, 85% of employees report the ability to connect their purpose to their work.

2. Motivation

Every two weeks peers are guided through a personalized conversation that is scientifically engineered to be psychologically safe, positive, reflective, and energizing. Each peer leaves having made a specific commitment to align their work with what fulfills them before the next conversation. ‍

On Imperative, 78% of employees report peer coaching made them more successful

3. Support

Based on years of research and expertise, Imperative matches peers across a company for regular guided coaching conversations. Because they’re being matched with a peer from their own company, they instantly have a shared understanding of the culture and potential challenges they might be facing.

On Imperative, 89% of connections created build a meaningful and sustained relationship

Solving Burnout Simply

Reversing burnout doesn’t have to be complex, but it does have to be human-centered, personalized and ongoing. Providing your people with inspiration, motivation and support in the flow-of-work is the key to increasing their wellbeing, fulfillment and success.

Our mission at Imperative is to humanize work and make work more fulfilling for every person. Let’s chat about how we can bring this to life for your company: hello@imperative.com

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