Helping Employees Experiencing Burnout

Employee burnout is something more companies are becoming aware of and moving to help their employees prevent and overcome. Between the “act your wage” and “quiet quitting” movements, more employees and companies alike are realizing the importance of a healthy work life balance and its impact on overall employee satisfaction, productivity, and health. Even the most dedicated employees can suffer from burnout and you may end up losing them completely if not handled well. 

Signs an employee is suffering from burnout can include: decreased productivity, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating, irritability, fatigue, feeling overwhelmed, changes in eating and sleeping habits, physical aches and pains, and increased absences from work. It’s important to remember that burnout is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign that an employee is overwhelmed and needs help. If you notice signs of burnout in an employee, it’s important to reach out and provide support. Here are a few ways you can help employees who are suffering burnout

Encourage Breaks

One of the simplest and easiest things a manager can do to support their employees going through burnout is to encourage them to take regular breaks. Encourage them to step away from their workstation regularly and disconnect for a few minutes. Burnout comes from overworking and just like with a physical injury, pushing too hard can keep an employee in that state. Even if it means a few weeks of taking extra breaks to get back to a good mental place, retaining a great employee is worth it. 

Encouraging breaks is also a great way to help prevent burnout. If your employees feel as if they can step away when they are too stressed or feeling the tell tale signs of exhaustion, they are much less likely to end up with full blown burnout that may require them taking time away from the company or even to leave your company completely. 

Allow Flexibility

We recognize the importance of teamwork and collaboration, but sometimes people aren’t suited to the same working hours. One thing that may help prevent and even correct burnout is allowing flexible start and end times for your day. If you offer this option you can make sure most of your employees are all working for the same few hours in the middle of the day, but you aren’t forcing a late riser to be there and productive at the same time as someone who likes to watch the sun come up. 

Removing the stress of fighting against one’s natural circadian rhythm can go a long way to soothing an overwhelmed nervous system. 

Provide Mental Health Support

Access to mental health care can be a huge benefit your company can offer that will attract and help you to maintain top tier employees. This can be as simple as making sure mental health services including therapy are covered by your benefits, or you can contract with a therapist to be able to send your employees to them. 

Provide Resources

Lastly, you can provide your employees with resources for handling stress. This can include lunchtime yoga classes, a meditation room, mindfulness breaks, or even a gym membership to a gym that would have some of these things and making sure your employees have the time to use them. 

These are just some of the things you can do to help combat employee burnout once it has happened as well as a few ideas to help prevent it. You should also make sure that you have adequate staffing to make sure none of your employees are overworked, which is a huge factor in burnout. If you need help navigating employee burnout, or with managing staff levels, contact us for more information on how we can help. 

0 Comments

Sign Up for Our Monthly Newsletter

Name(Required)
Email(Required)
Newsletter(Required)
white converge hr logo

Reducing time spent on HR operations

Allowing you to focus on growing your business

info@Convergehrsolutions.com

610-296-8550

1055 Westlakes DR, Suite 300, Berwyn, PA 19312

Skip to content