The Mayo Clinic defines burnout as a state of physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about one’s competence and work value. Yes, you should recognize the image of a furrowed brow, constantly yawning, and always-tense employees. These employees might include your workforce, your boss, or even yourself.
Employee burnout has reached record levels – and it’s beginning to sabotage the workplace. This 2016 survey, on behalf of Kronos Inc and Future Workplace, demonstrates how burnout is compounded by unfair compensation, unreasonable workloads, and poor management.
The impact on organizations is only now being realized – lower productivity, poor engagement and higher absenteeism can be the straw that breaks your businesses back. Fortunately, it’s possible to bounce back from burnout; here are some tips to help prevent burnout in both your workforce and yourself.
Explore flexible working
81% of employees polled in ‘Why your workforce isn’t working’ by Sage People, placed great importance on flexible working when considering how to improve their experiences at work.
There is too high an expectation in many workplaces that employees must clock into the office each day – from worrying about transport to the daily school run, undue stress and anxiety are forced onto employees. This creates a culture of working late into the evening, just to be seen as a ‘hard-worker’.
Thanks to the technological age, there are ways to work from the comfort of your own home. Why should parents miss out on time with their children just to be seen in the office? Why should commuters be forced to spend three hours on the train each day, when they could spend that time working from home?
Everybody is productive in different ways, at different times of the day and it is unjust that this is neglected in a traditional workplace. Flexible hours and remote working are simple but effective tools to avoid job burnout amongst employees.
Train managers to fully understand employees’ workloads
Unreasonable workloads account for more than a third of burnt-out employees. Nowadays, companies are devising new, agile ways of working in an attempt to keep pace with the ‘modern age’. Employees can work together from across the globe, maintaining contact with different teams and interacting with a variety of leaders.
Often, this prevents managers from truly connecting with their employees and having direct oversight of their day-to-day workload. Ensure managers are well-equipped to deal with this; prioritize a modern and flexible HR system that assists managers in understanding the extent of what their employees face in the workplace.
Regular check-ins and frequent performance evaluations can go a long way in making your employee feel appreciated and cared for.
Support employee wellbeing
It goes without saying that one tried-and-tested method to avoid employee burnout is actually considering their health and wellbeing within your company culture.
Good companies’ value and support their employees’ wellbeing – which is where the employee assistance program from Lifeworks comes into play. Using a philosophy of ‘support, connect, recognize, guide and reward’, Lifeworks ensures employees are connected through one unified platform that puts people first and foremost. As a mobile-first platform, avoid burnout with the mere touch of a fingertip.
Make sure you’re implementing such systems alongside practical benefits within your workplace – reduced healthcare costs, team-bonding activities and holiday pay all help to enhance wellness in the workplace.