5 Tips to Prevent Employee Burnout in a Remote Workforce

MP INSIDER:

Preventing Employee Burnout in a Virtual Workforce

Most of your workforce has been relocated to working remotely – whether they like it or not. You may find that your staff engagement is low and employee burnout is hurting your companyʼs productivity. We have 5 tips on people strategy to start implementing today to prevent employee burnout.

Read this report to:

• Learn what employee burnout is and why it’s so damaging
• Find out the causes of employee burnout
• Attain 5 tips to fight burnout

Burnout is costing you!

2/3 of full-time workers experience burnout – Gallup 2018

Employee burnout has been an evergreen problem, one that employers have dealt with for decades.

In 2018, a Gallup study found that two-thirds of full-time workers experience some level of burnout sometimes.

However, two years later, in a pandemic world where work forces have been forced to go remote for longer than anybody expected, dealing with employee burnout is becoming more of a crisis for many employers.

At a time when many companies need the best from their employees so they can handle unprecedented challenges, they’re facing the real cost of burnout.

Burn-out employees are:

• Over 60% more likely to take a sick day
• 2.6x more likely to look for a new job

In a study by the American Psychological Association, burned-out employees are over 60% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times more likely to look for a new job.

They also struggle with productivity and could be sharing a negative attitude with coworkers, creating a cancerous effect on your company culture.

Too frequently, employee burnout is perceived of as the workerʼs issue. This approach pretty much guarantees failure, though. The real culprit of burnout is the employer.

Four Main Causes of Low Employee Engagement:

• Too many meetings, especially meetings that feel unproductive
• Too little time and space for creativity (and a general lack of autonomy)
• A stressful emotional atmosphere in the office
• The digital ‘always on and reachable’ mode that many companies operate by

The good news here is that all these items are also easily fixed with better people strategy.

Read on for tips that your company can start implementing today to make your staff feel happier and more motivated, whether working remotely or amidst the stress of a new COVID-19 workplace.

1. Reduce Unnecessary Meetings

This might also mean reducing the participants in the meetings you do keep. HR and payroll companies suggest that you think about who needs to be in this meeting and who does not. You can always send a quick catch-up email or have a phone call with people who did not attend.

Remember that most employees might not feel like they have the right to speak up when theyʼre being asked to sit through a meeting that isnʼt productive for them. Managers may need to step in and help facilitate this process.