11 Game-Changing Tips to Keep Employee Burnout at Bay
Ever found yourself feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and that you just can’t catch up, no matter how hard you try?
Then, you’ve experienced burnout, along with 89% of American workers this past year, according to Zippia.
It’s a nasty mix of mental, emotional, and physical fatigue – a direct result of extended periods of stress. When our workload feels like a monstrous, relentless wave that keeps coming, burnout can happen.
And sadly, if you’ve got burned-out employees at your workplace, that relentless work-wave can be enough to make workers jump ship and leave the company. 🌊⚠️
High levels of workplace stress among your team members are bad for their engagement and productivity and generally leads to an all-round negative workplace culture.
But don’t fret! We’ve put together 11 handy tips to share to reduce stress, keep levels of burnout down, and help employees feel relaxed and valued in their work.
1. Prioritize Mental Health 🧠
Just like in physical health, the mental health of all employees is crucial. It will affect their work and their well-being, their personal and professional lives, so everyone should take it more seriously and speak transparently about mental health in the workplace.
Yet, we know there is still a stigma attached to discussions around mental health for many people, so it could be better to talk to them as a group rather than individually.
Let them know that if our minds aren’t in the right place, our work and personal lives can really take a hit. Consider introducing an anonymous rating system to gauge your team’s emotional state and mental well-being.
You could also bring in an expert to chat about mental health if you feel underqualified to speak to these issues.
Even though it may be hard to know if a person has a mental health problem, try to observe your teammates and figure out if they need help or encouragement.
If someone opens up to you, listen to them and be supportive and empathetic. And remember to keep it confidential because if it ever leaks, the employees may lose trust in you.
Employees engaging with their own mental health is often the first step to preventing burnout.
2. Embrace the Art (and the Right!) of Taking Breaks
We’re not machines, and even machines need a cool-down period from time to time! 🤖
You could organize a morning meditation or breathing exercise for employees and encourage coffee breaks or brisk walks to split up the day. ☕
If you feel like an employee is too burnt out and needing a breather, recommend that they take a day off to recover.
Source: Gitnux
3. Encourage Work-Life Balance
Work-life integration is crucial to prevent employees from burning out, and it’s so much more than just a trendy catchphrase.
Commitment to work should not intrude on an employee’s personal life too much. Time to relax outside work to do whatever they please and spend time with loved ones keeps their mental health in check. It improves their emotional state and personal relationships.
And here’s the thing – the keyword is balance. 🧘
This is not just about giving people time off. It’s achieving a balance to let people work their best without sacrificing their sanity for it! Happy, emotionally balanced workers make better colleagues!
And guess what? Work-life balance is incredibly important to workers, too!
4. Adopt a Flexible Schedule
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to work schedules. Allow some wiggle room for your employees to work during their peak productivity hours. If that’s not feasible, at least find a schedule that doesn’t lead your team toward the burnout cliff.
And, just like work-life balance, flexibility is something modern workers embrace:
Source: Quickbooks
5. Avoid Overtime ⏰
Having overtime and long work hours is not only physically exhausting; it’s also the likeliest road to burnout.
Try to avoid stressful situations where extra hours are needed with effective project management and planning ahead to avoid these periods of high activity. Stretching out that time will be much better in the long run than forcing your team to work long hours.
Only allow overtime if it’s essential. Consequential shifts may also cause burnout too, so avoid them if possible. You can track your employee scheduling effectively with Tommy’s smart tools.
These offer an immediate intuitive overview of all worker schedules, giving you quick insights into who may be overworked at any given time.
6. Communicate With Them 📢📢📢
How to help a burned-out employee? Talk to them!
Ask them how they are feeling, how they’re handling their workload and schedule, and what you can do to help.
This transparency is immensely valuable in the modern workplace.
Therefore, by opening a discussion about burnout in a transparent manner, you’re empowering employees to take action.
Be a safe space for your employees so they can share their comments, opinions, struggles, and grievances. Try to provide valuable actionable advice and tangible solutions that may help them.
This could mean time off, a shift in their responsibilities, or new techniques to help with time or stress management.
Source: HBR
7. Promote Fun Activities
Teambuilding can be fun, honest! 🍕⚽🎨🧩👊
Building a collaborative team relies upon forging close relationships with colleagues. Allow opportunities for employees to relax and socialize together.
This will help them destress, boost positivity, improve teamwork, and reduce burnout. 📈
There’s also a business case to teambuilding, since it’s generally accepted that effective teambuilding exercises correlate to successful teams.
For extra buy-in, don’t impose these activities on them, but ask for suggestions on what they would like to do as a team.
If your employees work from home, maybe you can make virtual events and contests so that they can still bond with their workmates in the comfort of their homes.
8. Give Rewards 🏆🥇
People like to be rewarded for the things that they do. Receiving meaningful praise tells your employees that they are valued and that their work contributed to a broader goal.
A little recognition can go a long way. It gives your team a sense of accomplishment and can keep burnout at arm’s length. And this doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, either. Even a note of appreciation can make someone’s day.
9. Provide Passion Projects
A way to make employees happy and reduce burnout is by providing tasks they like or are passionate about.
Assigning tasks that align with your team’s interests makes people eager to come to work and makes the whole thing much less of a chore. This way, they’ll love what they do, and you’ll love the results.
Not everyone can have the responsibility that they want. But it will help if the employee knows that you give importance to their preferences. It may help boost their mood, improve their trust, and improve their working relationship with you. It will also help them grow professionally.
10. Set SMART goals 🎯
It’s critical to set SMART goals that give employees something realistic to work towards.
These are:
Ensuring your goals fit these restrictions should mean that employees come to work knowing they are working towards something within reach and meaningful. This should reduce stress while providing motivation, and therefore lower the chance of burnout
Another way of looking at SMART goals is to consider them ‘Goldilocks goals’ – goals that aren’t too high and aren’t too low, but just right.
11. Consider Other Obligations
You should be aware if your employees have other commitments. Your employee might be a working student, someone who has multiple jobs, or a single parent. Whatever their other obligations might be, try to give them consideration. 👪🧑🎓
You need to talk to them and inform them of their responsibilities, and at the same time, try to empathize with them and their circumstances.
Always remember that an employee also has another life outside of your company. That’s why you should help your employee maintain balance.
Final Thoughts
A burnout-free workplace isn’t a pipe dream. It’s a reality you can create by putting these tips into action. With a little care and consideration, you can ensure your employees remain happy, healthy, and ready to conquer their workday.
You can also leverage the use of various tools to help minimize the possibility of burnout in the workout.
Mytommy offers a whole suite of tools to help things go smoothly in the workplace.
Whether it’s smart employee scheduling to manage projects or a streamlined communication tool to reduce the stress of several apps on the go at once, Mytommy is your go-to employee solutions app to help fight off the underlying causes of burnout.
Check out our pricing plans today.
- 11 Game-Changing Tips to Keep Employee Burnout at Bay
- 1. Prioritize Mental Health
- 2. Embrace the Art (and the Right!) of Taking Breaks
- 3. Encourage Work-Life Balance
- 4. Adopt a Flexible Schedule
- 5. Avoid Overtime
- 6. Communicate With Them
- 7. Promote Fun Activities
- 8. Give Rewards
- 9. Provide Passion Projects
- 10. Set SMART goals
- 11. Consider Other Obligations
- Final Thoughts
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