If you’re running a business, you will understand how much hard work and effort goes into keeping it up, running and generating profits. But it’s important that you remember your team may feel the same way too. Burnout is a phenomenon that is on the rise and you need to do what you can to reduce cases of burnout in your workforce.
It’s important for employers to understand how employee mental health impacts the organization and the products and services you make.
Here’s some more information on the subject that should help you to avoid and effectively manage burnout amongst your own employees.
What Is Burnout?
If you haven’t experienced burnout yourself before, you may be wondering what it actually is. Put simply, burnout is a type of exhaustion that people will generally experience when they feel swamped by life, its demands and its responsibilities. Burnout is usually the result of excessive and prolonged emotional, physical, and mental stress. People experiencing burnout generally report feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained and unable to keep up.
Why Take Measures Against Burnout?
As an employer, it’s important that you do your utmost to maximize your employees’ health and wellbeing. These are the individuals building your company and driving its success. They’re building your fortune on your behalf and you need to take steps to ensure that they are as happy and healthy as you can help them to be during this time. Helping your team to avoid burnout benefits them massively on a personal level, but it helps your business too. Burnt out employees are not productive, exhibit low rates of job satisfaction, can foster a negative workplace atmosphere and can ultimately quit their role, leading to expensive recruitment and training costs on your behalf. Happy employees are much more productive and likely to stay on board for longer.
Steps to Preventing Burnout
There are many steps you can take to prevent your team from burning out. Here are a few that you might like to try out!
Know How Your Employees Feel
Getting honest feedback from your employees can help you to see whether they’re experiencing burnout and how you can help. A simple online assessment can help with this. If possible, make your assessment anonymous, as this way, you’re more likely to get honest and open feedback.
Set SMART Goals
It’s important that your staff know what is expected of them and what isn’t expected of them. Setting clear goals can help your team to manage their work load much more effectively. Consider setting goals at the start of each quarter with the deadline of the end of the quarter. This can then allow your staff members to separate out projects, create manageable timelines, and hit their goals without ever having to overexert themselves or work extra last minute. When setting goals, it’s important that you set SMART goals. SMART stands for “Specific”, “Measurable”, “Achievable”, “Relevant” and “Time-Bound”. Let’s look more into this.
Specific - setting a specific goal makes sure that your team can focus their efforts on the right area, without projects snowballing, getting out of hand orl leading them down a time-consuming and non-productive rabbit hole. When setting your goals, make sure to explain to your team member what they need to accomplish, why this goal is important, who else will be involved in the project, and what resources are required.
Measurable - being able to measure goals is important, as it allows your team members to track their progress and stay on track. If they find themselves falling off track, they can realize this sooner rather than later and put wrongs to rights. Decide what they will be judged on to determine whether the project was completed to your satisfaction or not.
Achievable - setting unrealistic and unachievable goals is not motivating. Instead, your team will find themselves overworking, pushing themselves to their limits and, ultimately, burning out, all in vain. You need to make sure that your team can realistically meet the goals you’re setting for them.
Relevant - goals need to be important to your team and their position. This will give them a sense of purpose and give them a reason to work productively. People working on projects that don’t fall within their remit burn out easily through boredom and having to pick up new skill sets that aren’t relevant to their role or career progression.
Time Bound - having an end point in sight is important for your team to perform well. It also ensures that they have the opportunity to arrange their work so they can plan accordingly with their other projects/tasks.
Provide lunch
Keep your employee's spirits high by providing their next lunch on the house. Order from a nearby restaurant and have it delivered to the office. Your employees will appreciate the break from their normal routine, and you'll love having a happy workforce that's ready to take on anything.
When it comes to keeping your employee's morale high, there's nothing quite like providing them with a free lunch. Ordering from a nearby restaurant and having it delivered to the office is a great way to show your appreciation for their hard work. Plus, they'll appreciate the break from their normal routine. It's a win-win for everyone involved!
Mobile ordering table service is a convenient way to order food and drinks at restaurants without having to wait in line. Guests can place their orders using their mobile phones and then pick up their food and drinks at the restaurant when they're ready. This type of service is becoming increasingly popular, as it saves time and hassle for both guests and businesses.
Consider Remote Work Options
If your team doesn't have to work on-site or on a face-to-face basis, why not consider extending remote working options to them? This mode of working has become extremely common since the coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic when many businesses and employees didn’t have any choice but to work from home. During this period, many people found that they experienced less burnout when working from home due to a variety of factors. For most, cutting out the morning and evening commute conserved a lot of energy and reduced stress significantly. Adding unnecessary travel time to people’s work schedules can hugely lengthen their day and use up energy unnecessarily. If possible, use the best tools for remote work to extend remote working options or - at least - hybrid working options to your team. This helps provide a better work-life balance and reduce fatigue.
Consider Flexible Working Patterns
The stress of maintaining personal responsibilities around work can be draining for a lot of people - especially those with commitments such as children, pets, care of elderly individuals, and more. Flexible working patterns can reduce this stress and lighten the load on their shoulders, preventing them from having to cram activities into specific hours and undergoing unnecessary trips back and forth at awkward times. As long as your team is hitting their contracted hours, and as long as their role isn’t time sensitive, it shouldn’t make much difference what time they complete the work asked of them. Flexible working patterns can boost employee happiness and reduce cases of burnout significantly.
Set Incentives and Rewards
Staff members are often much more motivated when they’re working towards an incentive or goal. Work that could feel draining or dull can feel like a positive challenge with light at the end of the tunnel if you offer some sort of reward or incentive from the get-go.
Hopefully, the information above will help you to manage burnout in your workforce and maximize your business’ productivity!