It’s impossible to ignore the employee burnout statistics.
Did you know that 75% of all employees have experienced burnout, with 40% of them experiencing burnout specially during the pandemic (FlexJobs)? Or, the fact that burnt out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 260% more likely to be actively seeking another job (Gallup)?
Employees are the foundation of your business, and it’s important to take care of them. Burnout can cause many negative consequences such as depression, sickness, and lowered productivity – which of course, you want to avoid. Here are the 4 best ways to help employees suffering from work-related burnout.
-
Offer Small Incentives to Counteract Burnout
Little acts of kindness and small incentives are great to counteract burnout. In our world, employees are constantly questioning their worth. They think, “If I don’t make money for my business, am I worthless?”. While performance-based rewards have their place, some rewards should exist just because people matter. Small things like extra break time, yummy snacks in the break room, and gift cards can go miles to make your employees feel valued.
-
Consider the Off-Site Responsibilities of Your Employees
Of course, you already know that your employees have other responsibilities outside of working for you. But, are you actively honoring this fact? One of the fastest ways towards burnout is when employees are juggling several jobs at once – especially when it’s to make ends meet.
Other jobs should never conflict with what you pay your employees to do, but be considerate. Talk to your employees, be compassionate, and find out how you can work with them to handle their situation better. Clarify the requirements of the job, but also let them know what you aren’t demanding from them.
-
Normalize Mental Health Talk in the Office
It’s 2022, and talking about mental health in the office should no longer be a taboo. Create an open dialogue about mental health. When mental health is invalidated and treated as something wrong, things will surely turn for the worse. It’s important that you take the mental health of your employees seriously. At the same time, you don’t want to make your employees uncomfortable with invasive questions.
Instead of directing attention at one specific employee, talk to the whole group. Deploy an emotional rating system, and express that information will remain confidential and not used to penalize. It’s also a good idea to invest in workshops that teach employees to be mentally healthy and so that they can be prepared to handle stressors if they come.
-
Learn to Spot the Signs of Toxic Office Culture
Imagine the pressure, stress, and demand that comes with a toxic office culture. When employees are consistently immersed in this type of environment, they quickly burnout and hardly recover.
We’ve created an entire blog on spotting toxic office culture, but we’ll just recap some of the signs now. If there’s little to no employee enthusiasm, a rise in office politics, and there is a lack of trust between employees and upper management – there is something clearly wrong. Toxic office cultures need to be corrected because they make or break the daily experiences of your employees.