How To Identify and Prevent Employee Burnout

Employee burnout is a serious problem that can cause decreased productivity, absenteeism, employee turnover, and more. Learn how to identify and prevent employee burnout to keep your employees satisfied. Retain top talent by effectively preventing burnout.

Identifying Employee Burnout

Identifying a burnt-out employee can be difficult, but the Mayo Clinic lists burnout symptoms. Among them are cynicism and excessive criticism, trouble getting to work, difficulty staying consistently productive, lack of satisfaction from one’s job, difficulty concentrating, and physical symptoms like headaches and stomach troubles. If you notice these signs in yourself or another employee, burnout may be at play. But what can you do to prevent employee burnout?

Preventing Employee Burnout

Preventing employee burnout is no easy task. However, there are many simple steps you can take to reduce incidences of employee burnout among your team. Follow these simple guidelines to decrease employee burnout in your group.

Offer Employee Assistance Programs

Employee assistance programs can offer various benefits to employees like mental health counseling, substance help, and more. Offering an employee assistance program will help burnt-out employees seek the support they need to decrease their stress and get access to care. Offer an employee assistance program to your team to help reduce the chances of burnout.

Encourage Healthy Work/Life Balance

Encouraging a healthy work/life balance is vital for making burnout a thing of the past. Encourage your team to be off from work completely when they leave the office. Allow for fun activities at work to help employees decompress. Encourage a healthy work/life balance among your staff, and you’ll see the benefits in decreased employee burnout.

Manage Workloads

Some employees get burnt out because their workloads are so heavy. If an employee has consistently high standards with little room for a break, it may be perfectly natural for them to burn out. Allow for breaks and give employees time to decompress after high-stress projects. Manage your employees’ workloads and expectations to prevent the burnout of your staff.

Encourage the Use of PTO

Encouraging the use of PTO will allow your employees to enjoy their time off without feeling guilty. Create a culture at your place of work where employees can take PTO without worrying about the consequences. TimeTrakGO offers simple vacation request software that allows employees to request time off quickly. Streamline your time off request process with digital time tracking software today!

Increase Communication

Having little time to check in between employees and their managers can contribute to burnout. Allowing employees to be open and honest about when they are experiencing burnout will benefit your team immensely. Managers can know when an employee is feeling overloaded and adjust accordingly. Encourage open communication among your teams to help cut down on employee burnout.

Host Social Events

Hosting regular social events can encourage friendships among employees and further benefit their work/life balance. Social events are also a great way to increase communication and idea sharing among different teams. Host social events during the workday to allow your team to get a break and build friendships.

Train Your Management Team

Training your management team can help improve employee burnout significantly. Poor management can heavily contribute to burnout, with many employees saying they’d leave a job over a bad boss. Having a good management team will help your employees feel motivated to work effectively. Training your management team can help mitigate the risks of burnout, and you’ll avoid unnecessary loss of employees.

Go for a Walk on Your Meetings

Holding meetings outdoors is a great way to change the scenery and pace of the workday. Hold walking meetings with small groups and allow the team to get some fresh air while you share important news. Holding walking meetings is a great way to make a meeting feel like a refreshing break, and you’ll also improve communication. Try a walking meeting at your office today.

Incorporate Working From Home

Working from home is not for everyone, but most employees enjoy a bit of a break from their regular office work. Incorporating one day a week to work from home can vary employees’ schedules and help them feel like they are getting a break. Incorporate some work from home into your schedule to help prevent employee burnout.

Ask Employees for Their Ideas

Asking employees to contribute their ideas and suggestions is a great way to decrease burnout. They may have new ideas that make the workplace better for everyone. Allow open suggestions and encourage an open exchange of ideas among your employees to foster a better workplace.

Get Rid of Unnecessary Rules

Unnecessary rules may be a cause of stress and irritation in the workplace. If you have any unnecessary rules, nix them. Getting rid of arbitrary and meaningless rules will help keep employees happy in the workplace.

Create a Culture of Trust and Fairness

Creating a culture of trust and fairness in the workplace is an effective way to reduce employee burnout. Openly recognize employees who contribute ideas and succeed, and you’ll have a more fair workplace. Foster trust between employees by expecting openness and honesty in all work. Trust your employees with their projects and recognize them for a job well done, and you’ll help decrease burnout within your team.

Give Frequent Feedback

Giving your employees frequent feedback will help reduce burnout significantly. When employees don’t know if they’ve done a great job or okay, they’ll lose patience with their work. Give employees timely feedback on each task and let them know when they’ve done a great job. Recognizing employees’ work through feedback is one of the best ways to reduce employee burnout.

Offer Clear Paths for Growth

Offering clear paths for employee growth in your organization will help top performers create goals for themselves. Making it clear that you reward hard work and have room for growth will keep highly engaged employees from burning out. You’ll prevent employees from feeling like their work doesn’t matter if you make it clear that there is an opportunity for growth and give recognition to their work. Implement clear paths to leadership opportunities to help cut back on employee burnout.

Now that you know how to identify and prevent employee burnout, you’ll be able to create a better workplace for your employees. Manage your employees’ time with time tracking software from TimeTrakGO to make your payroll process a breeze. Keep employees motivated by rewarding them for their time today!