4 Ways Leaders Can Prevent Employee Burnout

Mar 18

Many leaders are concerned about their staff experiencing burnout. And leaders have every right to be concerned.

Before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations are recognizing the exhaustion, disconnection and feelings of ineffectiveness that plague the people they support. Employee burnout and capitalist fatigue are impacting employed people in a variety of work settings. And many mangers, directors and professional leaders are stumped on what to do to prevent it.

Fortunately, there are many things that people in positions of power can do to prevent employee burnout. Here are 4 ideas to get you started:

Support and create more opportunities for staff to take (paid) time off.

This may seem like a no-brainer to some, but the impact of employed people having more opportunities to tune-in to their life outside of work is profound in preventing burnout.

Many employed people feel pressured to work beyond their capacity due to financial scarcity and economic concerns. Financial security is vital and due to the pressures and limitations of late-stage capitalism, many employed people are put into the position to sacrifice their well-being to make it happen.

Being able take time away from their professional roles and pour into their personal lives is a key way to prevent future instances of employee burnout. Prioritize encouraging staff to take time off, use sick days and establish mental health days off. Review, adapt and update policies that prevent staff from taking care of themselves and the people they care about.

Strengthen your ability to organize priorities by urgency & importance.

Being able to appropriately prioritize the tasks you assign to your staff is essential to preventing employee burnout. When delegating tasks, consider:

The time-sensitivity of the task. How urgent is this task? When does it need to be completed?
The importance of the task. Is this task highly valuable to the mission and vision of your organization? Is it more “busy work”? Is this task a good use of the employee’s time, energy and effort?
“Best-fitness” of the task. Is this employee the best person to complete this task? Do their current skills and abilities fit the needs of this task? Is a team approach more helpful?
The season and current events. Can any tasks and responsibilities be re-prioritized following tragic events and/or policy changes that effect your employees?

Learning how to better organize which tasks are and are not time-sensitive and which tasks are and are not high value can decrease (unnecessary) work to create more room for community care and self-care.

Check in on your staff’s capacity, workload and work difficulty.

Ask your staff how they are doing on a regular basis. And not just as a polite greeting — create space to actively listen to their concerns & make necessary changes. Many employed people are dealing with challenges and difficult adversities outside of the workplace. Be mindful of all that may be sitting on their shoulders, regardless of if they decide to disclose what they are going through to you.

Similarly, notice the hard work they are doing! Take the time to genuinely appreciate them out loud & open the floor to hearing their ideas on how they want to be appreciated. Sincerely appreciating, acknowledging and celebrating employed people has been proven to help reduce employee burnout and increase organizational morale.

Respect “out of office” boundaries.

Try your absolute best to avoid contacting your staff when they are off work — especially if you are contacting them with non-urgent, low value work tasks. Sending emails, texts & Slack messages are included here.

Many employed people feel obligated to always be available to their respective work places and their professional leadership. Be mindful of the power you have in your role and avoid invading or occupying their time away from work — this can add to their existing stress and decrease their ability to actually recharge & rest away from work.

Which of these ideas do you want to start implementing?

Need hands-on support in preventing burnout with your staff? Let’s work together! I facilitate a series of burnout recovery and stress relief workshops, designed to empower leaders and support employed people in recovering from burnout. Click here to learn more.