Leveraging Commuter Data to Find the Next Great Franchisee; Franchisors Can Use Time as an Indicator of Frustration, Enhance Marketing Strategy for Franchise Development in These States

Interest in the concept of burnout has spiked since the start of the pandemic. For many, the uncertainty and instability that the pandemic caused in workplace environments only exacerbated the feeling of burnout. Employees have started looking for alternatives to traditional forms of employment to escape the lack of reward, recognition and human connection.

Recent research by Lensa outlined the connection between working hours per week, annual salary, mean travel time to work and searches for “Burnout” to determine states’ overall burnout score. The top four — Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee — have a “perfect storm” combination of high commute times and high working hours.

The 10 states with the longest commute times are: New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, Washington and Florida. States with the longest working hours include Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Louisiana, Georgia, Nebraska and Tennessee.

Overall, the Lensa scale finds the top 10 most overworked states are Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Virginia.

Some of the key aspects that inform whether a person begins to feel burnt out, including workload, autonomy and interpersonal relationships, are factors that can be very well controlled in scenarios like franchising when entrepreneurs are positioned to be their own bosses.

Thus, leveraging data like that found in the Lensa study is a great way for franchisors to better hone and target their franchise development efforts. For professionals who spend an excessive amount of time commuting and nearly 40 hours per week at their desks for subpar salaries, burnout is a real issue. 

Targeting prospects who have likely already shown awareness of their unhappiness at work or interest in other opportunities can level up franchisors’ efforts and allow them to market to populations that have, effectively, already self-selected.

For the full list of state data and rankings, visit lensa.com.