Recognizing and Preventing Employee Burnout: Keeping Employees Engaged

February 18, 2019 Employee Performance and Coaching

How to Prevent Employee Burnout

From time to time we hear stories about people who have done the same thing for years, even decades. But, frankly, that’s quite rare these days. Today, few workers stay in their positions for more than a handful of years because they desire career growth or just get bored and want change. As managers, we are accustomed to talking about employee engagement and morale issues – two very important components of the modern workplace. But there is another situation that we face from time to time that is not discussed nearly enough: dealing with employee burnout.

As we will discuss, dealing with burnout situations introduces a whole new layer of complexity that can challenge even the best managers. While some supervisors and business leaders adhere to a tough love approach where they expect employees to “get with it or get out,” this management style is actually counter-productive. After all, no one wants to work in an organization where their boss ignores the needs and career ambitions of his or her employees. With that, let’s dig in to some of the ways in which you can recognize and prevent employee burnout.

What Is Employee Burnout and Why Does it Matter?

Employee burnout is a term that is often used to describe the underlying dissatisfaction, fatigue or boredom that a person feels about their job. While you could liken it to something like an illness, burnout doesn’t have anything to do with germs or a virus. It does, however, have everything to do with things like motivation, inspiration and personal challenge, which is why managing employee burnout is so difficult.

Now, to be clear, when we’re talking about burnout, we are not referring to an employee who just needs a break or a vacation. Nor will splashing cold water on their face snap them out of it. We’re talking about those situations when an employee truly reaches a point where he or she is struggling to find motivation and interest at work on a daily basis. It could be that he or she needs a new project, or a new role. Or, it could be even bigger, and he or she may need a new environment altogether. Further, dealing with employee burnout isn’t just a conversation pertaining to junior staffers – it can affect managers, supervisors and executives just the same.

Here are some common causes of employee burnout:

Prolonged, excessive workload
Repeated and unvarying work assignments
A continuous feeling of being undervalued
Feeling unable to achieve results
Feeling stuck and directionless
Lacking a sense of fulfillment or ability to learn
Unable to feel success at work despite their effort

Of course, as a manager, we never want employees to get to this point, but it does happen. And when employees begin to feel this way, one of two things will occur. Either the employee (even the best ones) will begin underperforming because they are overcome by the burnout symptoms. Or, the burnout will drive good talent away from the organization.

Now, when dealing with an employee who is really struggling, some managers will simply say:

“He / She is responsible for their job satisfaction.”
“He / She should be doing more to snap out of it.”
“He / She is doing fine, they’re just in a rut.”
“He / She just needs to finish this project and then we can find another assignment.”
“He / She has opportunities for change, they just need to take the initiative.”
“He / She just needs to suck it up, that is the job.”

Whether or not some of these statements are accurate in a given situation is not the point. Instead, consider this: if a good employee is burned out and ultimately decides to resign, all of their talents, skills and experience will leave with them. Is that a risk you want to take? If you knew about it ahead of time, would you try to do something about it, or let them walk?

Clearly, a better approach is to deal with the situation before it becomes a problem in the first place. The hardest thing about managing employee burnout, though, is the fact that once it sets in it can be very difficult to fix. It is for this reason that preventing employee burnout is really the key objective for managers and business leaders.

Here are 10 things you can do to prevent employee burnout as well as tips for recognizing a looming problem.

10 Ways to Prevent Employee Burnout

1. Listen to Them

You’ll never be tuned in to preventing employee burnout if you are not even listening. For this reason, you must schedule regular one-on-one meetings with each employee in order to keep tabs on the situation.

Whether or not the employee realizes it, often times there are early indicators of burnout. For starters, you may notice the employee is complacent with regards to their current activities, yet, equally disinterested in pursuing something different. You may also observe a general sense of irritability, isolation, or even worse, disdain for their duties. Uncharacteristic sluggishness and expressions of exhaustion are additional signs of employee burnout.

One-on-one discussions offer uninterrupted time with your employee during which you can evaluate their job satisfaction. Directly asking questions periodically regarding their feelings about the work can open up an important dialogue and reveal some early indicators of fatigue or boredom.

2. …And Talk About Their Career

Far too many managers spend their entire one-on-one time with employees talking about tasks, assignments and due dates. By doing so – if you are in fact dealing with a burnout situation – you are holding an entire conversation about the very topics that are making the employee lose interest in their job.

That said, you can offset an employee’s current struggles by talking about the future. Helping employees make career decisions as well as provide mentoring and direction to achieve his or her career objectives links their current efforts to exciting opportunities down the line.

Discussing their future can also prevent employees from feeling trapped in their current situation if they are in fact struggling with burnout. Regular career discussions with your team members are not only motivational for the employees, but it also gives you a chance to identify and discuss potential new opportunities with your staff member.

While some employees may be more willing and transparent with their career ambitions, not all are. Let’s face it: it can be a little weird telling your own boss that you’re getting bored, and are interested in moving on to another position. For this reason, let the conversation start with you – make it clear to your workers that you support their career interests and openly discuss how you can help them follow those interests, even if it means they ultimately leave your department.

3. Be Proactive with Managing Workloads

A key cause of employee burnout is workload. Whether sustained over the long term, or excessive for a shorter period of time, both have the potential to make employees feel there is simply no path to success or nor an end in sight. Still, there are times when you need the team to kick into high gear, so what do you do?

To combat the negative effects of workload, you need to monitor it closely. Whether you do it by measuring an employee’s hours, shifts or projects, you need to find a way to ensure that what you are asking of your staff is both manageable (for the short-term) and sustainable (for the longer-term).

If you are entering a period of higher workloads, meet with those affected personnel to align expectations as well to identify any limitations he or she may have. As much as possible, limit overtime – especially for anyone you suspect may be overextended. If excessive workload is a chronic problem in your organization, work to secure more staff and increase your total capacity.

Once that period is over, give them a chance to catch their breath. Even your star players and top performers cannot sustain excessive workloads and need a break sometimes.

4. Provide External Training and Development Opportunities

Some years ago, as part of an effort to improve emergency preparedness in our workplace, I was one of a handful of employees in the office who was randomly selected to be trained to use the fire extinguisher. As exciting as it was to blast out a fire in the back parking lot, the training did nothing for my career.

In order to prevent employee burnout, you need to make a conscious effort to provide sufficient learning and development opportunities that are relevant to your employees’ needs. Whether in the form of formalized training classes, industry conferences or seminars, knowledge-building activities are highly effective in terms of keeping employees interested and engaged. In addition to the educational aspect of these events, employees are often eager to apply the new skills they’ve learned to their current duties.

And who knows, exposing your staff members to a given topic may unveil interests, opportunities or even a whole new career path that they had not previously considered.

5. Give Them the Flexibility They Seek

Because monotony can be a fairly significant contributor to burnout, one solution is to… well, make things not so monotonous. You can break up the regular routine by providing work flexibility, in the form of hours or location.

While not every organization has the ability to offer flexible work options to employees, it is certainly is something you should look into. Here are some modern workplace examples that can combat the repetitiveness:

Require only core hours for employees to be at work, letting them choose to come in early or work late
Allow remote work when possible
Set a 9/80 or 4/10 schedule to give employees a long weekend
Create a workspace that encourages collaboration, creativity and comfort

Flexible work arrangements such as these do more than just break up the workplace grind. They give employees the latitude to set a schedule and work in a way that best suits them. Flexibility also allows individuals to pursue personal needs or interests outside of work – family, hobbies, travel, etc. Ultimately, a little bit of flexibility can go a long way towards eliminating the “Sunday Saddies” or the “Monday Morning Moan,” by not making work not feel so much like work.

6. Offer Some Variety

Previously, we discussed the issue of excessive workload and its strong link to employee burnout. Another contributing factor is the lack of variety and your employees feeling like they are doing the same thing over and over.

To that end, make a conscious effort to change it up for your staff. Just because Johnny is really good and experienced at Task A doesn’t mean he should be the only one who ever does it. From time to time, give him Task B, or Task C and reassign Task A to someone else.

Further, you may wish to give an employee a special assignment or project, the results of which benefit the organization, but one in which the activity benefits the employee. It could be solving an internal business challenge, evaluating options for a response to external market trends, or even identifying ways to improve internal processes – doing anything out of the norm can prevent burnout.

To consistently operate on a high level, some employees need variation, and benefit from different assignments. While practice does make perfect, excessive repetition can also have drawbacks.

7. Provide Career Coaching

There are high expectations out there for managers; tracking metrics, managing budgets, onboarding new staff, keeping morale up and after all that, getting results. While the managers may be experts in their respective fields, it is a well-known fact that not every manager is an expert career coach. How many times have you or someone you know said “He knows his stuff, but he’s a terrible boss?”

If your organization is able to do so, consider having a dedicated team or individual focus on employee career development. This is more than just an HR Department. This is a role in your organization (often referred to as Organizational Development) dedicated to helping employees work through challenges as well as to provide career coaching, mentoring and insight specifically related to their career interests.

8. Company Sponsored Events

Nothing will drain morale and promote burnout like boredom. Same thing, day in, day out. No variety. To shake things up, host events and simple activities that get employees away from their desk from time to time. Company picnics, volunteer days, and community outreach programs are all simple examples of ways to provide a little spice at work for your employees.

Little benefits and activities such as these serve as motivators and nuggets of excitement amidst the regular 9 to 5.

9. Offer Career-Focused Workshops and Seminars

To reinforce your support for employees to advance their careers and pursue career ambitions, an excellent way to prevent burnout of your staff is to offer career enrichment in the form of personal and professional improvement. Again, because burnout is often a byproduct of ‘feeling stuck,’ conversations about their future can prevent employees from feeling they are trapped. Example of this can include offering regular workshops such as:

An Executive Led Career Discussion – Have a company executive speak to groups of employees about his or her own career growth and progression.
Outside Guest Speakers – Employees love to learn. Bring in outside speakers to discuss and present topics that may interest your staff.
Host a Resume Writing Workshop – Though helping employees improve their resume may seem counter-productive to retaining your talented workers, it can also encourage them to apply for internal positions.
Offer a LinkedIn Profile Building Seminar – Encouraging employees to keep their credentials up to date can boost their morale as well as help them network to bring on new talent.

10. Create a Formal Mentoring Program

Similar to career coaches, a formal mentoring program gives employees a connection to someone outside their team or department, perhaps in a department they’d like to work for in the future.

Unlike career coaching, formal mentoring programs give employees a chance to learn other aspects of the organization as well as to obtain feedback and guidance from someone they do not work with on a regular basis. Additionally, while career coaching is strictly career growth focused, a mentoring relationship is more personal and those conversations will often extend beyond career moves.

Lastly, a formal mentor relationship also provides an outlet to employees who may be struggling with burnout-related symptoms, but do not feel comfortable talking to their boss about those concerns. Mentors are in a position to give unbiased input to employees who need help getting out of a rut or a boost in confidence.

Burnout is Real

Burnout is often the product of fatigue and boredom, combined with a feeling that there is nothing that can be done about it. An underlying theme throughout these points is the fact that every employee has different needs – both in terms of their work responsibilities, their career interests and their sources of motivation. While some staff members are happy with the typical 9 to 5, some are not. All of them, however, are at risk of burnout if you do nothing.

Now, to be fair, there is absolutely a job to do and businesses cannot spend all their time and hard earned profits on company events and employee perks. However, there should be a sufficient amount of opportunities for employees to learn and grow, as well as resources to help them when they begin to feel stuck.

Preventing employee burnout comes down to creating a healthy work environment that includes the necessary tools and resources to give today’s employees the opportunities they need to have a fulfilling career.

Looking for More on Employee Engagement and Morale? You Might Like…

coaching, teams