Half of HR leaders surveyed say they're burned out and job hunting

Dive Brief:

Roughly half of HR leaders responding to a recent survey said they're burned out, and a similar number said they are looking for a new job. The February results from AllVoices, an anonymous reporting service for workplaces, identified a connection between those two findings, too: of those experiencing burnout, 72% are job hunting.
HR pros said their most challenging duty is managing or implementing leadership demands. Although respondents said they generally feel supported by leadership, there's often misalignment on objectives and goals, AllVoices concluded.
Respondents said they were most excited about the impact they can make in their organization and the people they can positively affect. "They want to see employees thrive, do their best work, and stay engaged, so they're excited to implement ways to do that," the report explained.

Dive Insight:

Workforce reports continue to point to employee burnout, and it seems HR pros haven't been spared.

There are a number of factors at play, sources say. In HR Dive's 2021 Identity of HR Survey, nearly half of respondents said they regularly perform duties outside of HR tasks. This likely includes tasks related to the push to serve as a strategic business partner, sources told HR Dive last year. Industry pros are increasingly assisting other departments with broad business planning, they said.

The coronavirus pandemic added myriad tasks to HR's plate, too. Nearly every issue that emerged during the pandemic had something to do with HR, one industry expert told HR Dive in a November interview. For many employers, HR became a corporate "hub" and industry pros were tapped to do "heroic" things, sources said — characterizations of day-to-day pressures that could certainly drive burnout.

HR pros can combat burnout in a variety of ways. Many, for example, have outsourced day-to-day tasks to make room for more strategic duties. Still, AllVoice's results show that the primary key to job satisfaction for those in the industry may be a sense of purpose. An understanding of how one's role advances an organization's mission is crucial for any employee, research has shown, so it may be no surprise that HR professionals similarly benefit from seeing how their efforts affect both the organization and its employees.