5 ways to prevent work burnout
Overwork or stress that leads to physical and mental exhaustion — AKA burnout — produces disengaged employees who are not only less motivated to be productive on the job but also more likely to quit. The prospect of replacing those workers in a tight hiring market such as this one is daunting for Canadian employers, especially if a company has earned a reputation as a tough place to work.
Work burnout doesn’t just affect workers – it also impacts their employers. In a Robert Half survey of more than 1,050 Canadian hiring managers, 39 per cent said work burnout among existing staff is a major challenge they face when unable to fill a necessary role. Other repercussions include decreased productivity (cited by 40 per cent of hiring managers), delayed project timelines (34 per cent), higher turnover (30 per cent), and lost revenue (24 per cent).
What can Canadian employers do to prevent work burnout? Here are five tips to help keep work burnout at bay in your organization:
1. Normalize setting boundaries at work
In a Robert Half survey of 1,500 professionals across Canada, one third – 34 per cent – said one of the best ways managers can help combat a corporate culture that leads to work burnout is to encourage time off and/or mental health days.
As a manager, establish professional boundaries between your work and personal life and advise your team members to do the same. Tell them to log off when they need a break, and let them know it’s OK if they need to fine-tune their schedule based on commitments outside of work to find the right balance. Emphasize that you want to hear from them if something isn’t working, so you can collaborate on a solution.
2. Ensure employees are energized – not stressed – by their roles
As a manager, part of your job is to make sure your employees are in positions that suit their strengths and interests, and provide them with clearly defined roles and expectations. This will help ensure they don’t become frustrated by tasks that don’t make the best use of their abilities.
When possible, strive to include employees in the planning process for new projects and initiatives so they will feel more invested in their success. By seeking out the expertise, perspectives and feedback of your team members, you’re also reinforcing their value to the organization.
Perhaps most importantly, managers should regularly communicate with their workers, keeping everyone on their team in the loop when assignments or priorities change. Making the extra effort to communicate information about changes is especially important if certain team members are working remote or in the office at different times.
3. Establish clear, reasonable workloads
Another way to set employees on the short track to work burnout is by burdening them with overly ambitious or unclear assignments. Nearly four in 10 – 39 per cent – of Canadian workers cited heavy workloads and long hours as one of the top factors contributing to employee burnout. Meanwhile, three in 10 said one of the best ways their managers can support them is by helping prioritize projects and managing timelines.
If your employees appear to have trouble finishing assignments or meeting deadlines, take a step back and ask yourself the following questions:
Are my instructions clear?
Am I assigning manageable workloads?
Do my employees have all of the resources and information they need to handle their duties and assignments?
If you conclude — either on your own or after speaking with your employees — that the answer to any or all of these questions is “no,” consider rethinking your current approach and adjusting priorities so that your team members can realistically and consistently complete good work on time without burning their candles at both ends.
4. Celebrate wins
Feeling appreciated can make challenging workloads easier for colleagues to shoulder. Remembering to say “thank you” can go a long way toward preventing work burnout.
Offering appreciation can be as simple as a shout-out during a staff meeting or as significant as nominating your team for internal and external awards.
If your employees do something well, acknowledge it. If you implement ideas submitted by employees, give them credit.
Short on ideas for how to recognize and reward employees, especially hybrid team members? Get tips in this post.
5. Consider enlisting contract talent to alleviate heavy workloads
One third of Canadian workers – 33 per cent – say that one of the best ways their managers can help combat employee burnout is by hiring permanent or contract professionals to ease workloads.
If you’re a manager and it’s clear that your team’s current projects are too much to handle but your organization doesn’t have the budget for new permanent hires, consider making the case to bring on contract talent to carry high-priority initiatives to the finish line.
Even short-term help can make a big difference in preventing employee burnout. And it doesn’t just help prevent work burnout – it might make the difference between retaining your best employees and losing them to competitors.
Need help finding contract talent to reduce your team’s risk of work burnout? Book a consultation with one of our talented staffing solutions experts today!
