Why Do We Need A Burnout Survey?
Our director of Organizational Development and Employee Engagement answers some important questions.
We recently asked Cami Dragomirescu, director of Organizational Development and Employee Engagement, some key questions about the Burnout Survey to help us understand its importance.
Q: Why do we want or need to do a burnout survey?
A: The need has been identified analyzing different available data points. For example:
- Internal formal data - physician burnout survey in 2019, safety survey, turnover reports, exit interviews, patient experience survey.
- External formal data - burnout-related studies and trends with focus on health care industry.
- Informal data - employee feedback on their work experience that relate to burnout triggers, such as: unsolved work stressors, workload, leadership concerns, compensation and request for different types of organizational support in areas that connect to burnout.
Q: What is the intent or purpose of the survey?
A: Many of us might experience burnout. However, whether or not we do, how and why we experience burnout, and how we can address and prevent it, are questions we still do not have an answer for.
The overarching purpose for burnout interventions is to minimize its occurrence and support a preeminent team experience through an organizational ability and readiness to address and prevent burnout, gain a sense for its predictability and its controllable evolution.
Here are the main ways to achieve this level of maturity in addressing and preventing burnout:
- Establish a solid baseline in terms of organizational diagnostic, inclusive of clinical and non-clinical employees.
- The possibility to build results-driven interventions.
- Create a meaningful cause-effect cycle.
- Monitor progress.
Q: What does it gauge or measure specifically?
A: The Maslach Survey represents the gold standard in measuring burnout. We will use two sets of questions:
1. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI): The purpose of this assessment is to discover how our employees view their job and the people with whom they work closely.
The MBI-GS addresses three scales:
- Exhaustion measures feelings of being overextended and exhausted by one's work.
- Cynicism measures an indifference or a distant attitude towards your work.
- Professional Efficacy measures satisfaction with past and present accomplishments and it explicitly assesses an individual's expectations of continued effectiveness at work.
2. Areas of Work Survey (AWS): The purpose of the AWS assessment is to discover potential work-related burnout triggers for our employees.
Q: Why is it important that we know this type of information?
A: This complete analysis will help us create the cause - effect loop for burnout, indicating not only our burnout status at different levels, but also what are our opportunities to work on essential workplace components that are responsible for generating burnout, through targeted interventions.
Q: Why is now the right time for us to conduct this survey?
A: The need is here. This survey had been initially scheduled for 2020, but COVID-19 happened and we postponed it. We are not getting better, according to available data. Burnout aggravates in time, it’s not a “time will solve it” type of problem. Twenty minutes of fighting against survey fatigue and competing priorities, and taking the time to participate can have a huge impact on our workplace health and wellbeing.
Q: What will we do with the information we receive?
- Work on reports, data analytics and findings.
- Communicate results and findings at the system level, and cascade it down to specific groups, as relevant (by company, team, function, etc.).
- Create a system-wide strategy and associated interventions; plan and communicate with/to key constituents for prioritization and implementation.
- Monitor and communicate progress at the required levels
Q: Will there be department specific information?
A: Yes. However, no action is expected from supervisors, managers and directors, other than collaborating for successful implementation, as necessary.
Q: What else do you want people to know?
A: Each respondent will receive an individual report with their individual burnout profile and related recommendations. NOBODY ELSE will ever see that report. Its meaning is to increase individual awareness and promote individual care. Based on the results and the findings, we will implement system interventions post-survey. Individual care and system interventions are aimed to go hand-in-hand for the best results.