Everything You Need to Know about Employee Burnout to Battle It Effectively
In the post-Covid era business leaders worldwide face various issues in the pandemic aftermath as a consequence of the tectonic changes that affected the workplace and the way of life in general.
Besides the Great Resignation wave that boosted turnover rates making it hard for leaders to retain top talent, burnout emerged as a serious issue that can ruin your employee health and productivity, affecting your business in the long run.
Employee burnout is a well-known issue. However, the fast-paced digital workspaces that mushroomed during the pandemic and the rise of remote work have caused many employees to feel overwhelmed by their workload while feeling isolated from their colleagues. So they slipped into burnout, harming their health and productivity alike.
Identifying burnout signs may be demanding, but it isn’t impossible. Especially if you rely on sophisticated software for employee monitoring to gain detailed, real-time information about employees’ daily performance. This data can be indicative when it comes to identifying overworked employees needing help and support.
But besides technology, you can use some answers on what burnout is, how to recognize it and how to prevent it and help your employees tackle this serious issue. Keep on reading to find out everything you need to know about burnout and learn effective ways to battle it, keeping your work environment safe, supportive, and productive.
What Is Burnout and How to Recognize Its Signs
The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined burnout as “a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress that hasn’t been managed successfully.”
Employees experiencing burnout won’t be interested in learning and professional growth opportunities. Most of the time they’ll feel exhausted, drained, and unmotivated, finding a way to go through their day by investing the minimal effort.
They also spend most of their time detached from their colleagues and work, unable to focus on their tasks. Burnout causes employees’ productivity and performance to drop significantly.
If the employee monitoring data show that one of your top achievers has been struggling with a regular workload recently. In that case, they may be slipping into burnout, and need your support to overcome this issue.
These alarming burnout effects may motivate you to take decisive action and prevent this from happening to your employees.
Employees experiencing burnout state that
- 63% of them are more likely to take sick leave
- 23% will visit the emergency room
- 50% of burnout employees will consult their managers about the ways to reach set goals.
- 13% of them will feel less confident about their work and efficiency.
- They are 2.6 times more likely to search for new jobs
These defeating statistics can change only if managers worldwide become aware of the burnout causes and apply effective methods to create an optimal burnout-free work environment focusing on employee well-being.
Source: Getty Images
Identify the Causes of Burnout
The business world has become hectic with the rise of digital workplaces. Employees are facing numerous challenges trying to communicate and collaborate with their colleagues seamlessly while working remotely. Also, they often have to tackle complex yet unclear tasks wondering – what the responsibilities and expectations are. And the technology that helps them achieve all this can often blur the line between work and life, pushing employees to work long hours and neglecting their private life and well-being.
Gallup research shows that the top four reasons for employee burnout are
- Unfair treatment at work
- The lack of or miscommunication with managers
- The lack of support and development opportunities
- Unrealistic, tight deadlines
Employees constantly experiencing unfair treatment at work, whether it’s bias, favoritism, or inadequate compensation, are 3 times more likely to fall into the burnout trap. Also when they feel they don’t have open and honest communication with their managers, they may lose their trust and confidence, not knowing what they are expected to do. The issue becomes more detrimental when these employees don’t get the much-needed support and guidance to improve their performance and reach set goals.
After all stated, it seems that managers are to blame if burnout gets the best of their employees ruining their health and productivity. Luckily, you can fix all these issues by taking decisive steps toward improved communication and project management, doing your best to create an inclusive and supportive workplace for all employees.
Source: Getty Images
Hustle culture is so entrenched in businesses that it’s not surprising that burnout has become a burning issue. The feeling that every minute of every day needs to be productive makes employees feel exhausted, always thinking about endless to-do lists. The truth is that working long hours and sacrificing private time won’t make your employees more productive.
Quite the opposite. They will be overwhelmed with their workload, tired, frustrated, and stuck. Also, putting work before their needs and the time with family and friends may make them feel isolated and depressed, ruining their productivity and engagement.
So if you want to change the perception of work, you need to show your employees that you put their well-being above results. You can do this by putting an end to working long hours. You can also offer remote or hybrid work opportunities, letting your employees choose when and where they want to work.
Then, you can keep track of their time at work via an employee tracker only to find out that they’ve become more productive after these positive changes.
You can also help them manage their time better using different time management techniques and gadgets like Luxafor Pomodoro Timer. In this way, your employees can break their work time with much-needed breaks and become more effective without slipping into burnout. All these changes may make your employees feel relieved and more in control of their workload. This enhanced work flexibility and autonomy may make them less stressed and more motivated to achieve set goals.
Encourage Discussion about Work-Related Problems
You may think that you’re a good listener and are always in sync with what’s going on in your employees’ lives. But many managers admit that regular check-ins with employees aren’t incorporated into their company culture.
But if you want to recognize and prevent burnout you need to foster open and honest communication with your employees. Employees who can talk about the struggles they experience at work are 62% less likely to slip into burnout.
So if you want to help your employees battle burnout you need to express genuine interest in their feedback and endless support. If you just talk the talk but fail to walk the walk, you may make things work because your employees may feel betrayed and become even more detached from their work and your company.
Source: Getty Images
Provide Positive Feedback and Opportunities for Professional Development
Employees like to know how managers rate their work, especially when they achieve a significant goal. When managers fail to provide objective and detailed feedback after the completion of major projects, employees may feel that their contribution is overlooked or ignored. On the other hand, if you don’t point out work aspects that need improvements and offer support and training to help them grow.
Besides helping them develop new skills and grow if you want to lead happy employees satisfied and engaged in their work you need to celebrate their achievements, showing them how important they are to the company.
Final Words
You may have already heard about employee burnout before but this work stress-related issue became a burning topic in the past couple of years during the Covid-19 pandemic. You can see your employees are heading for burnout if they suddenly lose interest in training and developing their skills, participating in meetings or any social activities, and keeping their work efforts to a minimum.
The reasons for burnout can vary from work overload to feeling unappreciated at work. And its results can be devastating for your business success and brand reputation alike.
If you want to keep your employees away from slipping into burnout that can destroy their health and productivity, try to foster open communication about work-related issues.
Create a psychologically safe environment where employees will feel free to talk about their potential struggles at work, knowing that they’ll get much-needed support.
Also, use advanced solutions to boat employee productivity and time management skills so that they can tackle their work effectively and feel better about their results. Most importantly always put people before results.
Your employees are crucial factors for your company’s success and your responsibility is to keep them healthy and happy about their work. Only by encouraging your workers to thrive can you run a thriving business.
LUXAFOR HELPS PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE THEIR GREATEST PRODUCTIVITY LEVELS WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF OFFICE PRODUCTS. LET’S BE PRODUCTIVE TOGETHER!
Do you want to build and maintain new habits? Get your free PDF version of the Don't Break The Chain calendar and start today!
Do you want to build and maintain new habits? Get your free PDF version of the Don't Break The Chain calendar and start today!
Author's Bio
Dmitrijs Bazhanov is a writer, editor, and blogger from Ventspils who enjoys an active lifestyle. He works with Australian Writings, and if you need IT assignment help, he is the best person you can ask. He is also into sports, arts, and great time spent.
