Employees are the most valuable intangible assets of any company. Therefore, one has to do everything to ensure that the employees stay productive and satisfied. Often, too much work or a poor work-life balance can cause employee burnout. A valuable employee not working to his/her full potential can easily affect the working of important business operations.
A year ago I had a subscription to local Internet service for my company upon shifting to a new location. But the slow speed caused a lot of delays and put stress on my team. Therefore, I had to switch to Optimum Internet plans upon my friend’s recommendation. Soon things got better. So, employee burnout can greatly affect a company’s performance. To avoid such a scenario, here are a few tips to help you out:
Design Bearable Workloads
Make sure that the workload is bearable and flexible. An overwhelming workload can exhaust the employee in no time. Empower your leaders to challenge the authorities in case of a regular assignment of a huge workload to your employees.
Offer Flexible Work Hours and Remote Working
‘Long work hours’ is another big factor in frequent employee burnouts. Allow your employees to shorten their work hours as long as they can complete the tasks within due time. Commuting to the office daily can add to employee anxiety. So, allow them to work remotely so that they can spend more time with their families.
Make Sure They Take Adequate Breaks
Stop your employees from having lunch in their workspaces. Make sure that they take at least a 30 minutes long break and socialize with their colleagues or family. This can make them feel relaxed and enhance their performance as well.
Don’t Permit Overtime
Overtime can exhaust your employees and can decrease their productivity. So, don’t permit overtime unless it is really important. Ask your employees to leave after normal hours and spend time with their friends and family.
Prevent Your Employees From Taking Work Home
It is better to have a larger workforce than asking your employees to take their work home. Taking work home can severely disturb the work-life balance and make your employees feel lonely and worn out in the long run.
Regularly Monitor Employee Performance
Regular monitoring of employee performance is necessary to prevent them from exhausting themselves. If you are not satisfied with an employee’s performance of a certain task, take time to sit and provide guidance to him/her regarding it. It’ll save both your and your employee’s time and will improve his/her performance in the long run.
Reward Your Employees
Keep your employees happy by offering them rewards now and then even when you have a small business. These rewards don’t have to be very expensive. It can be as simple as taking care of your employee’s Optimum bill pay online so that he/she has one less thing to worry about. Rewards like these can go a long way to ensure employee loyalty and satisfaction.
Raise Awareness Regarding Burnout Signs
Educate every employee on this matter so that whenever such an issue arises, the right measures can be taken to address it. Ask employees struggling with anxiety and stress to approach their managers and develop an action plan to manage these conditions.
Equip the Staff With Tools to Manage Stress
Through the use of various apps and the right team, work stress can be managed with ease. Call a meeting with your staff to discuss it. Encourage your staff to use the right tools like a calendar, a workout session or a quick call to manage their stress.
Encourage Strong Communication
You would not be able to do anything about employee burnout if you don’t promote strong communication levels among your team members. Encourage your employees to effectively share their concerns with the managers so that the issues can be resolved timely.
Create a Well-Being Policy
To help employees stressed from work, you can create an effective policy. Ask every team member to contribute a small amount and save the collected funds to help employees in the time of need. Also, encourage everyone on the team to share such a person’s burden to help him/her recover fast.
Have Zero Patience for Bullying
Bullying can be very dangerous for a person’s mental health. So, make sure that your company has effective policies regarding harassment and discrimination so that your employees can do their job without losing their focus.
So, to make sure that your employee’s work-life balance doesn’t get disrupted, make sure that you have the right strategies and policies in place for them.