Research shows that 66% of employees experience burnout in the United States. This is a serious problem for business owners because workplace stress and burnout lead to reduced productivity, morale and retention. To maintain an effective workplace, business owners, HR professionals and team leaders must collaborate to foster an environment that supports employee well-being and minimizes the risk of burnout. In this article, you’ll discover five of the best strategies for preventing employee burnout in small and large businesses.
Employee burnout is a mental and emotional state characterized by feelings of exhaustion, mental distance from or cynicism toward work, and a reduced sense of accomplishment at work. Potential causes of burnout include:
The more of these factors are present for a prolonged time, the more likely an employee is to suffer from burnout.
Ready to help your employees thrive? Here are our top five ways to improve employee well-being and prevent workplace anxiety.
Excessive workload is one of the primary causes of burnout. When employees experience high demands on their time while feeling low control over their situation, they are also at increased risk of depression, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Ways to support healthy workload management include:
Keeping workloads within healthy limits enables employees to be more effective, resulting in greater and more sustainable productivity.
Clear boundaries between work and personal life are essential to maintaining a healthy balance and sense of autonomy. These boundaries erode when employees feel pressured to meet deadlines by working after business hours instead of spending time with family, relaxing or sleeping. You can empower your team to uphold proper boundaries by:
Even during high-demand seasons, employees can stave off burnout if they have a supportive environment around them. For example, workplaces that encourage collaboration could see employees encouraging each other and sharing tasks more evenly.
One of the most potent aspects of a positive workplace is recognition. Ensure managers keep track of employee achievements and reward them with praise or other incentives. Recognition should be fair to all employees and departments. It’s also best to tie recognition to effort and attitude to preserve motivation and foster a growth mindset.
It’s also vital to help employees feel safe at work. This means upholding a transparent ethics policy with firm disciplinary actions when necessary and taking a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and discrimination.
Another way to create a supportive environment is to share resources for dealing with stress and burnout at work. These could include mental health helplines, therapist contacts and support groups. Consider creating a list of local and online resources and making it accessible to all employees.
The final ingredient in a supportive workplace is active listening. Employees want to know that leaders hear and value their voices. Use team meetings, one-on-one touchpoints and anonymous surveys to seek feedback about your workplace culture, processes and employee experience. Then, implement viable proposals and close the loop by presenting the changes to employees, explaining how they relate to feedback you’ve received and showing appreciation for feedback that isn’t feasible to act on right now.
Team leaders and managers have a major impact on employee well-being. Training your leadership to recognize early signs of burnout and share appropriate resources can help your employees get the support they need. Beyond sharing resources, managers should encourage employees to take advantage of them, emphasizing that the company values them as whole individuals. Remember that managers are also vulnerable to burnout, so equip them for proper delegation and work-life balance to help them thrive and nurture the teams they lead.
Handling calls and customer queries can be a major contributor to workplace burnout. The sheer volume of calls can be overwhelming, as can putting core functions aside to prioritize calls. Calls from dissatisfied customers can be especially taxing on employee morale. Recognizing and addressing this problem can benefit workplace well-being.
The most effective solution is outsourcing call management to a call answering service. Look for a customizable plan, like AnswerHero™, that can adapt to your needs and budget. For example, you could forward all your calls to professional live answering agents or only forward calls during lunch or after business hours. This helps you keep employee workloads manageable and support work-life balance so your employees can bring their best selves to their key functions.
The benefits of outsourcing call answering for reducing employee stress include improved well-being, enhanced productivity and confidence that you’ll maximize revenue potential by capturing every call.
By managing workloads, maintaining boundaries and creating a supportive workplace, you can help your employees flourish and stave off burnout. One of the most impactful strategies you can use is outsourcing your calls to a live answering service. For high-quality live answering at competitive prices, choose AnswerHero™.
All AnswerHero™ highly trained answering agents are 100% bilingual in English and Spanish, and we have agents available to take your calls 24/7. We can handle your calls around the clock or during specific hours, with no extra fees after business hours or on holidays. Our agents will manage every call according to your protocols, and after each one, we’ll send you a report of everything that was discussed, so you can refer to the information if and when you need it.
Schedule a consultation with AnswerHero™ to discuss a call answering plan that promotes employee well-being while advancing your business goals. Every call. Every time.
Never miss an important call again with AnswerHero. Our team of professionals will answer calls 24/7/365 based on the information you provide about your business. We handle basic processes like taking messages and routing calls, but we can also make appointments and provide translation services. See the difference AnswerHero makes — choose your plan or contact us today.
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