What COMPANIES Can Do to Decrease EMPLOYEE BURNOUT
1
Improve transparency & keep your employees informed.
Employees can burnout when they’re frustrated with their company or they don’t feel like their company can be trusted. They can also burnout when they feel that their company doesn’t trust them. It can be incredibly frustrating when employees aren’t kept in the loop. And I’m just theorizing here. I strongly considered quitting my day-job at several points during my first 12-18 months on the job purely because there was a lack of transparency and there seemed to be an expectation of trust when no trust was given. I know how much it can cause employee fulfillment and productivity to suffer.
So, wow can you keep them in the loop? Well, let’s look at some of the positive changes the company I work for in my day-job made that really helped mitigate my burnout:
Run frequent - preferably quarterly - company-wide calls. Especially in the age of virtual work we’re currently living in, it’s important to keep your employees informed on the bottom line, especially if they’ve noticed a considerable drop in their work hours. They might be fearing for the stability of their job. It will make them feel like an important part of the company not a cog in a wheel.
Share revenue improvements and projections. Again, if your employees have experienced any shift in their hours, they’re aware that there are changing happening in the company. Instead of leaving them guessing and concerned, tell them what’s happening. In my day-job, we made a massive shift to academic from test prep-focused tutoring and there was a big lull in hours for a while. But, this shift was communicated and helped put a lot of fears at ease.
Share difficulties and unanticipated struggles. Even if you have predictable “slow” times in your business, it’s important that new employees are aware of them and old employees are reminded of them. This is not only important for transparency, but it also helps your employees be proactive about mitigating that burnout.
Share your goals (+ the way that hitting them will benefit your employees). Again, this is another one where just sharing this information will help your employees feel like an important part of the company and not just part of the larger machine. Plus, if your employees have bought into your company goals, they’re more likely to help you hit them.
2
Reward your employees
And when I say reward them, I mean reward them for the overall company growth and reward them for personal achievements. My company did - for the first time since I’ve worked there - a profit share after 2020. If we hit our biannual revenue goals, they gave us a cut of that. That was amazing! For the first time since I started working there, it made me feel like the company’s success was my success too, and that felt incredibly fulfilling and rewarding.
Plus, we always do biannual reviews and bonuses. They check-in on KPIs and performance and they not only reward high-performing employees with bonuses, but they also use these reviews to evaluate promotions and announce company-wide honors, which allows the top performers to feel honored and celebrated.
3
Don’t just tell them, SHOW them.
I’m going to keep this one short and sweet cuz here’s the deal…
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen supervisors, superiors, and higher-ups in companies say things like: “Hey! We care about you” or “Hey! You can trust us…” but have done nothing to actually make their employees believe that.
It’s not about saying. Talk is cheap. Show your employees you care and show your employees you trust in them and that in turn will help them trust and champion you.
4
Train your LEADERS to MODEL better BOUNDARIES.
I cannot tell you how frustrated it makes me when I see corporate wellness consultants and Forbes articles saying something like “communicate to your employees that they don’t have to work so much or so late…” because - in my opinion - that isn’t going to do shit until your leaders actually start modeling that behavior.
Why is this so important? Because your leaders, superiors, and higher-ups in the company are the ones who - from an employee’s perspective - have “made it” in the company. They’ve excelled. They’ve got the raises, promotions, and paychecks, and - even though it’s easy to say that we shouldn’t be motivated by these things - many of us still are. Your employees? They want that success and validation, too. So, if they see that the leaders of the company are logging on at 11 pm, working 12+ hour days, and are available on weekends and vacations, they’re going to be too.
So, in a nutshell, this is the important takeaway. It’s one thing to tell your employees not to work late or work on weekends, but if they see their leaders and supervisors doing it, they’re going to feel like that is the expectation. They’re going to feel like that’s the only way to advance within the company. If that’s not what you want, your leaders need to model better boundaries.
You set the expectation in your company not in your words, but in your actions and in the behaviors your employees see modeled to them. If you don’t want your company culture to be one of burnout, you need to make sure that your leaders and higher-ups aren’t modeling that to your employees.
BONUS Tip…
Show your employees support
This is a tip I’m adding after the fact. I had a situation at work wherein, for a period of time, I felt very isolated. I wasn’t getting the support I was supposed to when dealing with a customer from the people who were supposed to support me. It left me feeling isolated, abandoned, and if I had no one to back me up when it came to an upset client. The entire time period left me feeling like I was carrying a huge weight on my shoulders. It was emotionally draining and it came to a head when the stress of the whole situation affected my work and my ability to serve my other clients.
Perhaps I reached out for support too late, but it made me realize that when employees are struggling and the usual channels of support aren’t working, the importance of a company continuing to be there to support their employees is crucial.
Burnout isn’t just physical. It’s emotional too and if an employee feels alone in dealing with a difficult client or a difficult personal situation, that emotional burnout is going to skyrocket. Companies need to provide that support and not just in communicating their support, but in portraying it.
For example, in Sheryl Sandberg’s book Option B, she communicates some of the disconnects in employee support. Some of my favorite quotes on the subject from the book were:
“Compassion at work shouldn’t be a luxury; it’s important to develop policies that give people the time off and support they need so we don’t have to rely on the kindness of our bosses.”
“…many women and men don’t have access to the sick and bereavement leave they need to get through difficult times - which makes it more like that personal struggles will lead to work struggles.”
Bottom line, we’ve gotta support our employees so that, as Sandberg said, personal struggles don’t lead to work struggles.
