HR Guide: How to Prevent Employee Burnout

Earlier this year, Indeed surveyed 1,500 workers to compare employee burnout before and after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It found that employee burnout rates, which were already high before the pandemic, are now on the rise. 

At 52%, more than half of the survey participants reported feeling burnt out, a 9% increase from January 2020. Although the report revealed generational differences, Gen-Xers, Millennials, and Baby Boomers all showed increased burnout rates.

This increase comes as no surprise to HR professionals. During the pandemic, US employees experienced longer work hours, new stressors at home, and diminished work-life balance. 

What did come as a surprise was how many employees resigned as a result. In September 2021 alone, 4.4 million US workers resigned from their jobs. This surge of resignations, now dubbed “The Great Resignation,” has led to turnover and labor shortages like never before. 

For HR leaders, the Great Resignation has spurred a renewed focus on reducing burnout among employees. In this article, we’re sharing key strategies to prevent employee burnout. 

Defining Employee Burnout

According to the Mayo Clinic, burnout is a medical diagnosis. Mayo Clinic defines burnout as, “a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.”

How to Recognize Employee Burnout

To understand how to prevent burnout, companies have to understand the signs of burnout.

Signs of Burnout

Not all signs of stress are signs of burnout. According to the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), there are three broad categories of symptoms of burnout: 

1. Total exhaustion
2. Alienation from work-related activities or cynicism
3. Reduced performance

According to Professor Christian Dormann, an organizational psychologist, the most important of these symptoms is the feeling of total exhaustion. This is exhaustion “to the extent that it cannot be remedied by normal recovery phases of an evening, a weekend, or even a vacation.”

The signs of burnout that can help you determine whether an employee feels so exhausted that they’ve become burned out:

1. Changing sleep habits
2. Coping with food, drugs, or alcohol
3. Difficulty concentrating
4. Difficulty getting to work and getting starting at work
5. Emotional detachment
6. Feeling cynical at work
7. Feeling disillusioned with their job
8. Lack of energy that interferes with work productivity
9. Lowered immunity
10. Moodiness or impatience with others at work
11. Not feeling satisfied with achievements 
12. Unexplained headaches and other physical complaints

Burnout vs. Stress

Mayo Clinic considers employee burnout to be a type of work stress. Because they’re similar, employees may not recognize the difference between feeling normal work-related stress and feeling burned out. 

The biggest difference between stress and burnout is the employee’s ability to recover. When an employee experiences normal work-related stress, they can recover with rest and time off. Burnout, on the other hand, feels like insurmountable exhaustion and disillusionment. Prolonged high levels of work stress can lead to burnout, but they are still separate diagnoses.

What Causes Employee Burnout?

Burnout is usually caused by the employee’s work environment. According to the Mayo Clinic, burnout can be caused by:

• Dysfunctional workplace dynamics
• Extreme monotony or chaos at work
• Feeling isolated at work
• Lack of control over their work
• Poor work-life balance
• Unclear expectations

The Covid-19 pandemic exasperated these potential causes. Remote employees in particular felt more isolated, experienced poor work-life balance, and had difficulty understanding expectations while working from home. 

How to Prevent Employee Burnout

Companies have an important interest in preventing employee burnout. Without safeguards against it, burnout will lead to lower employee engagement, increased turnover, and decreased company performance. 

The following are three strategies to reduce the chances of burnout in your workforce:

1. Consider Adjusting Employee Compensation Packages

Audit Pay and Raises

There’s no arguing that base pay is important to employees. Employees in all lines of work often view their pay as a reflection of their self-worth. If employees are paid under the market average or denied a raise, they may feel unappreciated and more cynical about their work. When combined with other work stressors, this can lead to burnout.

Auditing base pay and raises can help you confirm that your compensation practices are competitive and fair. Informing employees of the audit will also increase transparency and trust among employees. 

Consider Other Compensation

Although pay is important, it’s not the only type of compensation that employees value. Surveys show that employees would accept a compensation package with benefits and perks that match their life circumstances over higher base pay. 

For example, working parents often want childcare or backup care benefits. Younger employees tend to want help with their student loans or tuition reimbursements. Benefits and perks like these help reduce stress for employees and also increase the value of their compensation package. 

1. Help Employees Disconnect from Work.

Helping employees disconnect from work is essential to preventing burnout. Unfortunately, many employees won’t do it on their own, even when they have benefits intended to help them disconnect. These “disconnecting” benefits include paid time off, vacation benefits, and sick leave.

The reasons why employees don’t use disconnecting benefits vary, but studies show that employees feel discouraged from using them by their employers. Employers may discourage employees directly or indirectly. It can also be the result of martyr work culture, which is a culture that explicitly or implicitly encourages employees to work longer hours to be valued.

So, how do you get employees to disconnect? 

There are many approaches to helping employees disconnect. The following approaches have been shown to work: 

• Create incentives to use vacation time. Creating incentives promotes vacation time and sets and shows employees that their company WANTS them to disconnect from work. Incentives may be, for example, a vacation stipend.

• Establish mandatory time off. Mandatory time off is a newer, and more aggressive approach to getting employees out of work. Companies have found success implementing company-wide mandatory days off like mental health days and artificial holidays.

• Reduce the length of the workweek. Reduced workweeks have been shown to increase productivity and job satisfaction. They can be organized into four-day weeks, or reduced hours per day.

• Regular communication that encourages benefits use. Companies that regularly encourage their employees to use their time off are more likely to get their employees to disconnect. Regular communication like this will show that the company prioritizes time off.

1. Promote Mindfulness and Team-Building at Work

Encouraging employees to take some time to practice mindfulness and connect with coworkers reduces stress and improves workplace culture. 

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of being in the moment. It includes checking in with yourself and being present in conversations. Here are some ways to promote mindfulness at work: 

• Host wellness activities at work.
• Create relaxation spaces for employees.
• Encourage employees to participate in mindfulness exercises.

Team Building: It doesn’t have to be awkward.

Team-building helps employees build connections by taking them out of their usual individual working environments. Unfortunately, team-building exercises have gained a reputation for making employees feel awkward.

Here are some useful, awkward-free team-building activities: 

• Office Raffles
• Fundraisers
• Fantasy Leagues
• Community Service Projects
• Recognition Boards for Team Members

Don’t Wait for Burnout to Happen

The best way to reduce burnout is to prevent it from ever happening. Stay proactive, and check in with employees if you see any signs of burnout. Also, check in with managers and employees to make sure employees are receiving enough manager support.

If you think an employee is experiencing burnout, reach out. If they need additional help or would like to speak to a therapist, provide them with your company resources. This may include a referral to your employee assistance program.