4 Ways HR Can Help Employees Avoid Burnout
In any job, stress is an inevitable part of the package.
Whether it's meeting tight deadlines, completing complex projects, or dealing with the unexpected, no one is immune to it. And for the most part, it’s normal.
But when does it become unhealthy?
It’s important to note that employee burnout is more than just feeling tired or stressed out. According to the World Health Organization, burnout is defined as “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
Reduced professional efficacy.”
As a HR leader, you can’t prevent and solve every problem – but you can certainly create an environment where problems such as burnout aren’t frequently weighing employees down. Burnout from heavy workload and unrealistic expectations leads to:
Unproductivity
Absenteeism
Disengagement
Turnover
With 63% of burned-out employees being more likely to take a sick day (Gallup) and a third saying they quit their job due to stress (Personnel Today), it’s safe to say something needs to be done. But the worst part of it all is that only 21% of workers say they’re able to have open, productive conversations with HR about their burnout (FlexJobs).
So how can you, a HR leader, support your employees? Here are 4 ways you can help employees avoid burnout.
PROMOTE WORK-LIFE BALANCE
If you spoke to all your employees who were suffering from burnout, it’s almost guaranteed most of them would talk about work-life balance.
Too many companies are okay with not just allowing but encouraging environments to push the idea that “employees live to work”. And this probably isn’t pushed verbally, but instead, it’s pushed through:
Asking employees to check emails after hours, on weekends, or even on annual leave
Making sly comments when employees do go on annual leave
Applauding employees who stay late
Setting deadlines that can’t be met unless one works late and through weekends
Taking away hybrid working options (or constantly talking about how people should be in the office)
Doing any of these won’t just take away the freedom for employees to have a healthy work-life balance, but it will also make them feel guilty about having one in the first place.
Now you have employees who don’t take annual leave, who stay late and who never take a weekend for themselves. And unfortunately – these things don’t guarantee productivity, but over time they guarantee burnout.
As a HR professional, you won’t be around your employees every day, but their managers will be, and a lot of the time, it’s managers who are putting this pressure on employees over anyone else. So it’s your job to be in communication with the managerial staff about ways they can better support employees, as well as work to educate them that whilst they’re trying to maximise productivity, they’re decreasing it.
Not to mention, working in HR can sometimes mean you sit in the shadows – but it shouldn’t be that way. Get involved, sit amongst different teams and socialise with them to get a better understanding firsthand of the culture, the expectations, and how that impacts employee work-life balance.
SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Unrealistic expectations lead to immense stress amongst employees, and for many HR teams, it’s either:
They aren’t even aware it’s happening
They don’t realise the expectations being set are unrealistic
Both come down to taking ownership of employee development and communicating along the way.
Of course, as a HR professional, you will probably not be an expert in all the different departments employees work in, but you do have a better understanding of how performance should be measured, increased and maintained.
One structured way to do this is through performance management which is broken down into 5 subsections:
Employees value clarity and clarity helps with stress, but that’s not all.
Performance management works based on getting employees involved with their own progression. It works best in constant communication and transparency – something that many businesses don’t prioritise.
But where this plays a part in helping burnout is that many expectations are set without even running it past the employee and:
What they think they’re capable of
Where they need additional support
Work with employees to establish achievable goals whilst ensuring they have the necessary support to help them succeed. And once you’ve set those goals, don’t leave it there. Create a system where either you or managers regularly assess workloads and adjust expectations as necessary.
ENCOURAGE OPEN COMMUNICATION
We mentioned earlier that only 21% of employees say they’re able to have open communication about their burnout with HR… this is your job to change this.
In theory, HR departments are meant to be championing employees. They are there to ensure employees feel supported, safe and valued – meaning they should feel comfortable to reach out should they need it. But this is often not the case.
This is of course a prompting to promote and encourage honest communication, letting employees know you’re always there – but without reaching out yourself, it’ll be very rare for them to reach out to you.
Regular check-ins and 1-1 meetings can provide opportunities for employees to talk about their workload and raise any issues or challenges they may be facing. Not only can you be there to support employees if they’re already burned out, but you can help prevent it.
ENCOURAGE WELLBEING
Finally, encourage employees to prioritise self-care and well-being as part of their daily routine.
This is a topic that’s often not talked about enough in traditional workplaces because managers often assume it’ll lead to decreased productivity… but it’s the opposite.
As a HR leader, there are many simple and practical ways you can support employees with well-being:
Encourage employees to take their lunch breaks (away from their desks)
Provide resources on mindfulness and stress management
Provide flexibility
Get mental health support training and encourage others to do it
The reality is, so many employees don’t prioritise their own mental health and wellbeing, making them more prone to burnout. And whilst you aren’t fully responsible for that, you are responsible for the pressures that the workplace is putting on employees which in turn makes them prioritise everything but their wellbeing.
Doing this, won’t just lead to more transparency with HR around wellbeing, it’ll impact the way the overall company approaches it.
- Written by Tim Macmillan
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