With about 50% of global employees experiencing burnout, it is about time that management teams accept that it is a huge issue and prioritise strategies to reduce it.
After all, employee burnout is costing Australian businesses an estimated $14 billion each year in direct costs and lost productivity due to an estimated 61% of Australian workers experiencing burnout in 2023. This equates to a staggering $950 per employee per year!
What everyone needs to realise is that to address the issue, and therefore benefit from the substantial increase in productivity, is more about management commitment and leadership than about throwing money at it.
So, firstly, what is employee burnout?
Employee burnout is a state of physical, mental & emotional exhaustion
due to chronic workplace and, I expect, private/home stress.
Employee burnout directly contributes to decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, increased employee turnover and a decline in overall workplace morale. All of these negatively affect revenue, profitability and customer service levels.
Typically, employee burnout is caused by overwhelming workloads, a sense of a lack of control, poor work-life balance, insufficient management support & leadership and unfair treatment.
Exacerbating the issue is that the employees who are disproportionately affected by burnout are Millennials, Gen Z and women. Our future business leaders!
Many managers continue to pontificate that the younger generations need to “toughen up”. But this outdated and totally incorrect summation of the burnout crisis is absolutely preventing the recognition of the challenge and, therefore, the implementation of initiatives that could reduce employee burnout.
The first stage of addressing employee burnout in your organisation is to ascertain which members of your team could be suffering, or on the verge of suffering, burnout. We have developed an Employee Burnout Evaluation Table for you to map your team:
Click here to download your Employee Burnout Evaluation Table
To prevent burnout, organisations must address the root causes by fostering a culture of support, promoting work-life balance, setting realistic goals, providing stress management, improving leadership capability and engaging employees in decisions.
Perhaps consider some of the following initiatives:
- Actively Promote Work-Life Balance
- + Encourage employees to use vacation time
- + Where possible, promote a hybrid work week (office & WFH)
- + Create policies that support a healthy work-life balance
- Manage Workloads
- + Set realistic KPIs and goals
- + Monitor workloads and activities
- Foster a Supportive Culture
- + Cultivate a workplace that encourages social support and interaction
- + Train managers, supervisors and team-leads to be mental health first aiders
- + Consider Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
- Empower Employees
- + Actively delegate tasks and responsibilities and refrain from micro-management
- + Engage employees in departmental and organisational decision-making
- + Promote change and innovation by allowing employees to try different approaches
- Provide Training
- + Implement management training that focuses on recognising employee burnout
- + Provide training to increase management and employee self-awareness
The organisational benefits, such as increased productivity, profitability and customer service levels achieved by reducing/eradicating employee burnout cannot be argued. Then, add in the extra benefits of increased employee engagement levels and a higher propensity to win the war for talent, this issue should be at the top of all senior management team agendas. And, might I add, near the top of the agenda for all company Boards.
To learn how your organisation can measure, design and implement a burnout reduction strategy, download our checklist or reach out to Peoplogica for a consultation.
Written by Mark Purbrick
