As a leader, your employees' well-being and productivity should be your top priority. Before burnout and overwhelm start to truly impact your employees' work, you'll need to determine the right strategies to combat these issues.
To help, 14 Newsweek Expert Forum members explain how they promote employee well-being at the first signs of burnout and kickstart productivity again. Here's how they work to identify burnout early and create a supportive atmosphere for employees.
1. Have Burnout Prevention Procedures in Place
It's better to set up procedures to prevent burnout. If the company has a culture of safety and support, employees will express their concerns before a crisis hits. There could be weekly check-ins with team leaders or office hours dedicated to burnout prevention. Employees can be empowered to monitor their own states and ask for time off when they really need it. - Paula Oleska, Natural Intelligence Systems
2. Promote a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Ensuring team members have time off to recharge and reconnect is a critical part of management. It is always better to proactively support team members to avoid more significant issues down the road. As a leader, modeling healthy work-life balance and making it a priority for all managers can help foster and support a true culture that cares about all team members. - Jacob Kupietzky, HCT Executive Interim Management & Consulting
3. Promote Healthy Boundary-Setting Practices
Modeling and sharing healthy boundaries is essential for preventing burnout. Leaders shape their team's culture. By honoring non-negotiables, setting clear expectations, prioritizing health and staying present with others, wellness becomes a priority. This shift empowers teams, fostering confidence in the respect for healthy boundaries and alleviating fear, unrealistic expectations and exhaustion. - Leah Marone, Corporate Wellness Consultant
4. Allow Open Communication
To address employee burnout, encourage open conversations. Actively listen to the struggles of your employees and brainstorm solutions, such as less work, flexible hours or validation. - Alan Wozniak, Business Health Matters (BHM) Executive Consulting
5. Create a Supportive Environment
According to Gallup's latest State of the Global Workplace report, employee stress levels are at an all-time high. Burnout and overwhelm continue to rise. With the war for talent raging and over half of employees actively looking for new jobs, leaders must get their employees feeling their best again by fostering supportive relationships, promoting work-life balance and recognizing contributions. - Lillian Gregory, The 4D Unicorn LLC
6. Allow Time for Creativity
Introduce creative sabbatical sessions. Once a week, allow your employees an hour to carry out non-work-related activities. This practice is rooted in the concept of positive psychology. These moments act as a form of mental rest, reducing burnout by rekindling intrinsic motivation and promoting a sense of autonomy. It further demonstrates care for the well-being of employees. - Dr. Kira Graves, Kira Graves Consulting
7. Make Flexibility a Priority
If you notice signs of burnout, take a step back to reevaluate your company's employee support systems. Focus on providing flexibility, such as options for remote work, flexible hours or additional time off. Top it off with support services like counseling and assistance emphasizing the importance of work-life balance. - Gergo Vari, Lensa
8. Find the Root Cause and Offer Solutions
When I sense burnout, I initiate open conversations to understand their struggles, followed by actionable steps to reduce workload and stress. Encouraging breaks, promoting work-life balance and recognizing their efforts rekindle their motivation and well-being. Connecting them to their core purpose and why they work in the first place goes a long way. - Bala Sathyanarayanan, GREIF Inc.
9. Practice Active Listening Without Judgment
I would encourage open communication and try to actively listen to my employees' concerns. By creating a judgment-free zone, showing empathy, offering support, collaborating on workload adjustments and investing in wellness initiatives, leaders can help reenergize their team, foster a positive work environment and boost morale and productivity. - Anna Yusim, MD, Yusim Psychiatry, Consulting & Executive Coaching
10. Adopt the Five-Minute Fix
We deploy the five-minute fix. The goal is to reclaim and repurpose five minutes at a time. From reducing meeting duration by five minutes to signing off for the day five minutes earlier, success begins by doing the doable. It's a game-changer, especially when the five minutes is repurposed to press pause and step away from work. - Karen Mangia, The Engineered Innovation Group
11. Acknowledge the Importance of Rest and Relaxation
Promote and support a culture of work-life balance to address the root causes of burnout. Start by acknowledging the importance of rest, recovery and personal time in maintaining mental and physical health. - Britton Bloch, Navy Federal
12. Lead With Empathy
It is important to demonstrate empathy and understanding towards employees' experiences. You should acknowledge the pressures they may be facing, such as heavy workloads, tight deadlines or personal challenges outside of work. It is essential to let them know that their well-being is a priority for you and the organization. - Tammy Sons, Tn Nursery
13. Directly Tell Employees to Take Time Off
Burnout isn't good for my employees or my business. Mistakes happen during burnout periods. I tell an employee with burnout to go take a day or half a day off. Their work can either wait or be reassigned. Some employees don't like that because they feel they are being punished but I explain it's a reward because they have worked hard, not a punishment. They need the break so they can come back fresh. - Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure
14. Allow Employees to Stop and Recharge
The steps a leader takes depends on the situation. Sometimes, a pep talk as a team or individually with food may work. Other times, if they are really burned out, you need to send them home to recharge with their families. We are not machines, so sometimes we need to stop and recharge. Have the empathy and sense to not just apply formulas to motivate people, but try to understand what they feel and why. - Zain Jaffer, Zain Ventures
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
