Employee voice prevents burnout and enhances work engagement of healthcare professionals

What is it about?

This study explores the impact of employee voice on health professionals’ work engagement and burnout. The study also looks for the role of relational outcomes (perceived organisational support, workplace trust, workplace recognition and meaningful work) in the aforementioned relation. Based on a sample of 3266 healthcare professionals, the results show that employee voice has a direct positive impact on work engagement, but employee voice’s direct effects on burnout still need to be confirmed. Relational outcomes are found to mediate the relationship between employee voice and burnout (decreasing it) and between employee voice and work engagement (increasing it).

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Photo by Online Marketing on Unsplash

Photo by Online Marketing on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This is the first study that assesses, at a European level, the importance that ‘giving health professionals a voice’ has on crucial employee outcomes: work engagement, burnout and relational outcomes. Practices of employee voice in the workplace are fundamental to promoting health professionals’ well-being. Trust, recognition, support and the feeling of doing meaningful work increase the influence of employee voice, especially in reducing the levels of burnout.