How to Reduce Burnout Among Your Employees

Workplace burnout impacts employees in ways they not notice but could start out as physical exhaustion at the end of a workday, detachment from co-workers and customers, and subsequently lead to extreme dissatisfaction with work.

Workplace burnout is both emotional and physical exhaustion and it can lead to loss of personal happiness and job dissatisfaction. Your employees may experience work burnout when they’re not sure about what you expect from them, poor work culture, lack of work-life balance, or when you over engage them.

How to Reduce Employee Burnout

Workplace burnout is a difficult reality that can lead to various negative consequences such as physical health issues, mental health issues, personal consequences, and professional consequences. Luckily, there are things that you can do to reduce employee burnout.

1.   Be Proactive About Employee Wellbeing

The covid-19 pandemic has caused organizations to transform their processes at unprecedented speed. The pandemic has also caused a global health crisis. Mental health has taken precedence due to economic uncertainties, remote working, social isolation, and so much more.

While you may argue that the pandemic has been in existence long enough for employees to have accessed strategies and necessary resources to handle their work burnout, the truth is, they may still be struggling. Focus on re-engaging the team to make sure that they remain happy, productive, feel safe, and have a sense of belonging. Another thing that you must implement is corporate wellness program for your employees.

Being proactive about employee wellbeing can help you nurture a transparent and inclusive workplace and boost your company’s resilience. To proactively engage your team, be more human-centered in your operations, focus on building a positive working culture, give feedback, don’t allow your employees to suffer in silence, and give them a voice.

2.   Ensure Fairness and Transparency

Transparency, fairness, and frequent communication can reduce employee burnout and improve productivity. To maintain transparency, link employees’ goals to your business priorities, invest in training programs that improve mentoring and emotional intelligence skills to help them become better arbiters of fairness, and reward performance that stands out while also managing converging performance for others.

As a leader, you’re likely to stumble upon employee concerns over pay systems, managerial favoritism, and equal recognition. However, through a thoughtful and comprehensive management approach, you can attain greater success and fairness. Reaffirm your employees that they will receive equal opportunities for recognition and that you handle promotions with fairness.

Implement an open-door policy to your employees understand that they are welcome to air their grievances. Create several upward communication mechanisms to ensure your team focuses on more rewarding and productive responsibilities.

3.   Value Rest Days

When employees push themselves to the limit, it only leads to burnout and less productivity. Prioritize employee rest days and vacations to reduce stress and promote work-life balance. Unfortunately, some employees are ‘workaholics’ and rarely take rest.

As an employer, you can help your employees maintain a healthy balance between their work and personal life by instituting policies, procedures, and expectations that will enable employees to appreciate their rest days. Teach your employees how rest days can improve their mental health, physical health, and greater wellbeing.

4.   Provide Remote Work Options

Avoiding commuting stress and having flexible work hours can help reduce stress among employees. Communication with your customers is an essential aspect of a business. For call center operatives, working remotely may be as simple as logging into their dashboards and carrying out the tasks assigned to them using their VoIP phone.

An option to work from home can save employees’ time and money spent while commuting and demonstrate how the organization trusts them. You can also outsource and still receive all of the benefits of call centers you would have in-house.

5.   Encourage Team Activities

Your employees need to enjoy coming to work. When your team is happy, they make the office a place of hard work and project positive energy that everyone can appreciate. Day to day routine can be boring. Incorporating fun activities can help change things up and give them a little break.

Things like surprising your team with breakfast at the office can be a great way to start your day and boost morale. Going out for lunch as a team or weekend wine tasting can also help you have fun without thinking about work. Taking a team workout class does a great job of encouraging your team to stay healthy.

Stop Burnout Before it Happens

Burnout is common in today’s workplace. It impacts employees across all industries and not just people in high positions or high-stress jobs. However, as a manager, you can mitigate the impact of burnout on your team by understanding the root cause, demonstrating empathy and compassion, and don’t forget to take care of yourself.