From Burnout to Balance: Strategies for Reducing Employee Stress

Employee burnout is emotional or physical exhaustion that brings a lack of motivation and a reduced sense of accomplishment. True burnout is not a casual, occasional thing. Rather, it is specific to one’s job or occupation and is more concerning and detrimental than the daily irritations everyone experiences and most of us manage.

A recent survey by employee wellbeing company Sonder showed that almost half (49%) of Australian and New Zealand employees are experiencing feelings of burnout or exhaustion. This is a truly frightening statistic, especially when we understand what burnout in employees can cause.

According to research and advisory company Gartner, burnout is known to result in:

• High levels of absenteeism – 63% more likely to take sick leave

• Employee turnover – 2.6 times as likely to seek new jobs

• Lower productivity – 13% lower confidence in performance

The challenge for employers is that burnout can occur from a wide range of factors. Loss of control, lack of communication and psychological safety from managers, unreasonable time pressures, insufficient social support, isolation, and unclear job expectations are common causes of employee burnout.

Because of this, efforts in the workplace to prevent burnout need to tackle a combination of organisational, positional, cultural and individual factors. The good news is that tackling this will likely also make significant inroads to being proactive in compliance with the new Right to Disconnect legislation as well as the Psychosocial Hazards guidelines.

Raechel Gavin, Chief People Officer at Sonder shares 4 practical ways to prevent burnout in the workplace:

1. Be clear to be kind
   “In times of uncertainty, role clarity becomes even more critical. Be clear in explaining what is expected, what needs to be done, and what success looks like. If we don’t create clarity, the risk is that people second guess themselves. They feel stretched and they can feel directionless. All of these things can start to lead to burnout, anxiety, overwhelm and stress. Once you create this clarity it’s key to stay connected with regular dialogue and feedback” 
2. Cultivate empathetic leadership
   “The leadership of yesterday is not enough to help us navigate the complexities of work and life today. We need to constantly refresh and add to our tool kit. One example is, incorporating high empathy into your leadership. Understanding and working with the whole person, demonstrating authentic, genuine care.” 
3. Create an open forum around psychosocial risks
   “Psychological safety is not about lowering performance standards. It enables candour, openness and is fundamental to talking about psychosocial factors. Performance standards and psychological safety are equally important and need to be treated separately to allow employees to feel comfortable asking for help, and expressing concerns without fear of repercussions. Introduce measures that balance high performance and psychological safety to unlock those important conversations.” 
4. Design productive workflows, that allow for rest
   “We need a job design that enables reflection and rest. Communicating expectations around responsiveness can help, so people know it’s okay not to respond to that Slack message or email. There’s no pressure to respond out of hours. It’s a very simple thing to do, but often we forget the need to set that expectation clearly with others.” 

As with so many things in the workplace, our people managers/leaders play a crucial role and have a massive impact here. We need to support our managers to:

• know and spot the signs of burnout in their people
• establish and respect clear boundaries for work and personal time
• effectively assess priorities and demonstrate time management prowess
• create a safe space for their people to come to them to talk
• and equally importantly – be able to apply all of this to themselves as well. Learning when we need to put on our own oxygen mask is crucial.

How can we help?

Focus HR support businesses create great workplaces in so many ways. When we think about burnout in particular though, we know we are able to have positive impact through:

• Time management training
• Developing Leaders skilled in the art of having meaningful conversations with their people
• Creating a values driven culture
• Fostering team connectivity through DiSC

For a conversation on how you might proactively support your people as we head into 2025, please reach out to talk with one of our consultants.