Recognizing and Avoiding Burnout Among Employees

We are currently in a crazy professional world of staffing issues, hybrid work environments, and increased communication outside of the standard nine to five. To keep up, we are seeing many employers ask employees to wear more hats and balance tasks outside of their daily jobs. It’s no secret that balancing more tasks for equal pay often leads to high stress and potential burnout.

We are seeing now more than ever that the efficiency of employees is important but so is retention and positive culture of the workplace. A better culture and understanding of employees can lead to less burnout. Here are tips to identify and prevent burnout among your team.

Happy Employees Decrease Burnout.

Oxford released a study identifying that happy workers are 13% more productive. Every employee is different and has different triggers to increase happiness. As a manager, the best way to understand your employee’s happiness is to speak directly with each employee regularly. Each manager should communicate with employees on culture-specific items. A great place to start is a few simple questions such as:

-What are your favorite things about working here?

-What could we stand to improve to better suit your goals?

Get Creative: Create a Positive Environment to Reduce Burnout.

Feel free to try and get creative with perks for your employees. By offering a few half-day Fridays or a monthly catered breakfast in the office you could increase company culture without adding much extra effort.

When getting creative with perks, keep in mind that in the WFH world, some employees would prefer to gather and socialize. Therefore, it’s important to not make assumptions about employees' perks without surveying employees.

We cannot overstate the importance of checking in with your employees face-to-face. You will then see and hear firsthand the immediate signs of burnout. Do you have employees who are working more hours now than pre-pandemic? Many are, and it’s important to look for the triggers of frustration, fatigue, anxiousness, and edginess.

Preventing Future Burnout.

There are a few things you can do to prevent burnout. Checking on the status of your employees is the first step and we recommend starting with the following:

-Check your timecard system and identify who hasn’t taken PTO in weeks.

-Who is taking more sick days? -Who is sending emails after hours regularly?

Connect with those employees as soon as possible. Take them to lunch and simply see how they are doing. Begin conversations with appreciation and chat with them about how you can help them create more balance.

Life happens and people will experience periods of negativity and the feeling of being overwhelmed. Create an environment and culture where your people help one another and listen. Turnover will also take place so do your best to track it and keep documented exit interviews for why your employees were dissatisfied.