A recent Gallup report showed that 76 percent of employees have admitted experiencing symptoms of job burnout. As an employer, what are you doing to help prevent an issue like burnout from occurring in your business?
• Bridging the Gap
There seems to be one outstanding factor in a successful employee wellbeing programme: having a work culture that prioritises wellbeing. In short, this means that if you provide your people a workplace where wellbeing is valued as much as performance, their stress levels will probably decrease.
• Preventing vs Reacting
With everything going on with our world today, in some cases your people are likely to have not taken the usual breaks away from work that they would have normally done in the past. However, it is still important to prioritise rest. Have a discussion with your employees and come up with a plan together on how taking regular breaks away from work can be a mutually beneficial option for both parties.
• Encouraging People to Care for Each Other
This can include anything that brings people together in a pleasant and meaningful context — ranging from holidays or volunteering in the local community through to events that celebrate employee tenure or shared successes such as product launches — all in all this helps to build both a sense of common identity and strengthens social bonds with one another.
Giving people more control over their work life and providing them with social support fosters higher levels of physical and mental health. A culture of social support also reinforces for employees that they are valued, and thus helps in a company's efforts to attract and retain people.
■ Gemma is an HR consultant and employment specialist in BDO Gisborne's People & Performance team.