How to tackle employee burnout and build a better workplace

Today, employee burnout and high attrition rates are pressing challenges for every organisation. To sustain productivity and reduce employee turnover, organisations need healthy and inclusive workplaces. The need for such workplaces has never been greater as mental health issues have risen dramatically since the start of the pandemic. To tackle these challenges, organisations have been building wellness programmes, access to mental health experts, incentivising employees to participate in social interactions and designing workspaces for inclusivity.

At the start of the pandemic, employees had to transition to work from home overnight. Then, after a few gruelling months of lockdowns, they had to transition to hybrid work. These seismic shifts in how people work, have taken a toll on employees’ emotional well-being and mental health that has led to increased burnouts. A study by Kronos and Future Workplace, has listed burnout as one of the main causes of employee attrition, with 95 per cent of human resource managers citing it as the top challenge to employee retention.

Employees’ mindsets have changed post-pandemic. Consider that Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene theory posits that two factors affect employees’ motivation – hygiene and performance at work. Hygiene comprises of company policy, general management, employees’ relationships with their managers, and working conditions. Motivating factors comprise of job satisfaction including employee achievement, recognition, responsibilities, and growth opportunities. Post-pandemic, it was found that in organisations where motivating factors were given less importance than hygiene factors, employees were more inclined to leave the organisation. This is a clear shift from the pre-pandemic paradigm, where hygiene factors were considered equally important by employees.

Recognizing burnout and its root causes

“The Great Resignation” and “Quiet Quitting” are symptoms of a wider phenomenon – employee burnout. This stems from excessive workload being placed on employees, poor management practices, poor allocation of resources, lack of effective communication with employees etc. Employees who are micromanaged or given responsibilities without consummate power, feel like they’re not in control. Also, when employees are not adequately rewarded for their work, not compensated fairly, or find that their work is not recognised, they’re more likely to burn out.

How organisations can retain employees, keeping burnouts at bay

Organisations can build a healthy workplace environment by promoting a healthy work-life balance. This entails giving employees the freedom and flexibility to not only fulfil their professional duties but also their personal ones. An effective way to bring about a better work-life balance among employees is by educating them about the options and amenities available to them so they can better utilise their time and increase productivity, both at work and in their personal lives.

Effective management and communication practices can also help build a healthy workplace environment. Managers must lead with empathy and compassion. Doing so creates a safe space, in which employees feel comfortable to communicate their pain points. If employees are suffering from mental health issues or other problems, they’re willing to share these in safe spaces. Good communicators know that communication is a two-way street.

Recognising employees also leads to a healthy workplace environment: Employees who feel recognised are far less likely to leave an organisation. This leads to more productive and engaged teams in the workplace.

While in the post-pandemic era, the issue of burnout is more pervasive than ever before, organisations can take action to shield themselves from it. However, there is no blueprint approach that every organisation can implement to guard against this.

Each organisation must find an approach that works the best for it. Successfully doing so will lead to increased employee wellbeing, an optimum work-life balance, and most importantly, minimal employee burnout and attrition.

(The writers is Regional Managing Director- North India & UAE, The Executive Centre)