November 2, 2022
Job burnout is at an all-time high. Numerous studies talk to work-related stress and pressure causing staff to become demotivated and impacting their energy at work. Trina Jones, Co-founder of Cultivate explains some key steps you can take as a business to help mitigate or support employees who are feeling these affects.
If we cast our memories back to pre-pandemic workplace burnout wasn't really talked about, interestingly back then we also operated in a less flexible setting with far less work from home options on offer.
What's changed?
Well 2 years on, we've seen burnout reported locally and internationally in workplaces. Even WHO (World Health Organisation) have classed it as a medical diagnosis having:
• Feelings of energy depletion, exhaustion and fatigue
• Increased mental distance from your job
• Feelings of negativism or cynicism related to your job
• Reduced professional efficacy
Job burnout is at an all-time high. Numerous studies talk to work-related stress and pressure causing staff to become demotivated and impacting their energy at work. Perhaps not helpful, when we're working at home feeling like this, missing the social connection and managers picking up on cues, all of which has an impact on your mental health.
The term 'quiet quitting' has been trending on social media through 2022. This isn’t about leaving your job, but rather not subscribing to the hustle culture that work is your life, choosing to not go above and beyond. The pandemic for many of us contributed to us thinking about what was important and therefore focusing on achieving greater work life balance.
Gone are the days where employees will just work overtime over a sustained period and respond to emails at all hours. Baby boomers, who’s work attitudes were engrained in a different era of working to get the job done, may still be applying this approach. However our younger emerging generations are simply not prepared to do the same.
What's happening in Aotearoa?
Employers Manufacturers Association (EMA) latest report on burnout provided some interesting insights - Including the fact just under 50% of respondents are thinking about a role change in the next 12 months. Workplace pressure, staff turnover was high, volume of workload increasing, mental health issues and anxiety were all on the rise.
According to an AUT study, one in three Kiwi workers are burnt out.
Why should we be worried?
Burnout has a significant impact on productivity, motivation and energy levels. It can seriously affect employee wellbeing and result in higher absenteeism and hinder productivity. The adverse impact on wellbeing can have consequences affecting employee engagement, impacting both their professional and personal life.
Burnout decreases productivity and therefore work efficiency. Not reaching full potential, falling short starts to really impact the business wide output and people’s confidence.
Outside of the above, burnout can cause people to leave. Most studies are clear that due to burnout employees are already thinking or have left employment for that very reason.
Strategies to tackle burnout?
Many businesses have invested in wellbeing initiatives, which is a great start and can make a meaningful difference to keep your employees happy and healthy.
We've outlined some of the common options we are seeing on offer:
• Hybrid / remote working (on average 2-3 days WFH)
• Flexible working hours
• Ability to work overseas (in order to visit family)
• Wellbeing workshops & programs
• Wellness rooms in the office
• Yoga
• Meditation
• Healthy snacks
• Mental wellbeing webinars, apps and inhouse events
• Funded sports teams, gym memberships
• Wellbeing leave
• Great physical work environment
• Encouraged to take sick leave when not well
• Employee assistance program
We know burnout can have a big consequence on your people’s wellbeing, however the answer doesn't lie solely on producing a whole host of wellbeing initiatives to solve the problem.
Giving people a psychologically safe environment is also key to ensuring your team can be upfront and honest with how they're feeling and a safe setting to do it in. If we take a closer look at employee burnout, some of key contributors centre on how employees feel about their role:
• Large workload
• Unreasonable time pressure
• Lack of role clarity
• Unfair treatment
• Lack of communication or support from their manager
We've put together some suggestions that focus on addressing workplace pressure:
• Empower your leaders - to address and take responsibility for addressing burnout early when they see the signs. Organisations like St John’s do some great training on how to recognise symptoms and support staff.
• Clear Expectations - ensure the needs and structure of roles make work more manageable and engaging
• Deadlines - ensure workload and time pressure to complete tasks are reasonable
• Team Work - encourage collaboration and shared accountability, where people can work together and support each other, therefore the work feels more do-able
• Ideal work environments - create office space that allows people to come together and are comfortable and inviting as possible
• Wellbeing - ensure initiatives form part of your solution and ingrained as part of your culture
Wellbeing programs and policies have been key HR initiatives that are being reimagined or implemented, however it's crucial they're not looked at in isolation. The symptoms of burnout really stem from workplace pressure which inevitably returns once you return to your role, if no changes are made.
If you're keen to learn more about becoming an EMA member you can reach them here or reach out to us here and we can share what we are seeing across our customers that's working well in practice.
