Prevent the "Burnout" of Employees

Many have been there and some are probably there right now - work becomes overwhelming and the overall drive for being at work begins to dwindle down. Employee burnout within an organization has become the norm, in fact, it is such a common issue that management teams have to implement specific procedures that aid in the prevention of employee burnout in order to keep functionality and productivity within an organization.

With employee burnout being such a common issue, management teams have a far bigger job than just finding and hiring the right people for the right job. Hiring the right talent is not enough anymore. Management is responsible for making sure incoming and current employees have the right environment that not only retains and grows employees but prevents them from disengaging from their work.

The causes of employee burnout vary from person to person. Each individual's burnout situation is unique; personality factors, an imbalance between home and work life, and work-related stress (workload, people issues, lack of job security, etc.) all can play a part in burning out employees. When an employee starts to “burnout” the energy the employees gives off can be troublesome to an organization. It can decrease productivity, create interpersonal conflicts, and sometimes even cause the loss of talent.

How can you truly tell if employees are burning out? 

Burnt out employees become disengaged from their work, they reach a level of exhaustion, there is a drop in their overall performance, and there is a change in their overall level of communication.

It isn’t easy to keep an eye on every single employee. Here are some ways to begin best practices when it comes to preventing the burnout of employees within your organization.

Offer Resources

You may have hired employees that fit the position but if those employees are not given sufficient resources that ensure success in their role, they will ultimately fail which can cause frustration and self-disappointment.

In order to make sure your employees are performing as well as possible, involve them and ask them what tools they may need to perform their jobs better. Afterall, no one wants to be apart of a company that is not helping them with their overall personal and professional growth. 

Give them a Voice

Employees can often become fatigued when they feel like work is consuming their lives, they begin to become disconnected from their work/employer. Be sure to check in on your employees and give them a safe place that allows them to express their current frustrations.

Staying connected with employees on a weekly basis to not only conduct a standard assessment but talk to them on a personal level will aid you in helping prevent them from burning out. Allow your employees to help you understand their needs, they know themselves better than anyone.

Don’t Overload

Offloading some of your responsibility to your employees is simple to do but sometimes becomes to easy that we give them too much. 

Although offloading some tasks on your employees can position them for growth, when it becomes unmanaged, it increases the chance of burnout if the workload becomes too much to handle. There are star employees that can be relied on, but try to spread work duties out evenly so that better work management practices can be performed.