Change fatigue and burnout:
is it inevitable?

The risk of relentless change

A final area that deserves a special mention is change fatigue – the systemic depletion of individual and collective resources through the impact of rapid and or multiple change cycles. In fact, looking it up on Google generates 844 million results – reiterating its prominence within the world of work.

But are businesses doing enough to ensure change readiness and protect their people, as well as their transformation programmes, from fatigue? And what happens if they don’t?

With organisations facing a 500% rise in complex organisational change programmes since 2016, and the majority of these requiring novel solutions and complex thinking to be successful, change fatigue is understandably endemic across the workforce. When faced with so much change within a relatively short space of time, people’s resilience can be worn down, and so it comes as no surprise that 71% of employees say they’re overwhelmed by the amount of change they’re experiencing at work.

The number of major organisational transformations facing each business per year has increased to 10 per year

500%

increase since 2016

“You can't pour from an empty cup”

- Chinese proverb

A growing list of symptoms

Our own research found that 100% of HR leaders said they’ve seen change fatigue manifested within their business. Increased stress, burnout and sickness absence were all noted – clear signs that employees are struggling to contend with the demands of repeated change.

This includes building change agility in their people as a core strategic competence, and goes beyond simply developing an individual’s resilience to withstand change until they emerge on the other side.

Instead, it’s about enhancing the mindset, skillset and capabilities of employees to adapt to constant change and its challenges. Building this dynamic change readiness at all levels is going to be fundamental as work continues to evolve in unpredictable and complex ways.

And unless we act on this message soon, the UK is at risk of becoming a “burnt-out nation”.

Meanwhile Gartner found that 3 in 4 change-affected employees report moderate to high stress levels, and that they perform 5% worse than the average employee.

If leaders want to sustain a healthy and productive workforce capable of thriving in uncertain times, they need to consider their organisation’s readiness for each change. A complacency towards the human side of change risks an exodus of talent, with 54% of change-fatigued employees saying they're considering looking for a new job.

Key takeaways

High volumes of change are leading to fatigue
Capturing the change readiness of an organisation is a critical aspect of preparation
Considering the pressures and wellbeing impact of change isn’t just the right thing to do, but helps ensure the success of the project