How to Help your Employees from Burning Out
Burnout: “the extinction of motivation or incentive especially where one’s devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results.” The article Job Burnout: Job Factors That Contribute to Employee Burnout by Elizabeth Scott outlines how highly stressful work environments can lead to burnout. According to the article, here are a few things that you can do to prevent burnout in employees:
- Give Clear Requirements: It’s hard for employees to enjoy their jobs and feel a sense of accomplishment when their requirements are unclear and/or if they keep changing. Be clear when assigning tasks, especially those that are more extensive than others.
- Empower Your Employees: Employees find work more exciting when they are able to do tasks creatively in their own way. Remember to let them give input and watch as a personal touch adds to their productivity. Allowing them more freedom and tolerating a few experiments does wonders for one’s enjoyment of their work and reduces their risk of burnout.
- Accompany Crunch Times with Breaks: Having a brief period of longer work hours and increased pressure can be a good thing to boost productivity and meet vital deadlines, as long as it’s reasonable. However, without the addition of frequent breaks, this most likely multiplies the risk of burnouts and sub-par outputs. Make sure that employees have frequent recovery periods to channel their true potentials.
- Recognize Employees: When employees know that they are making a contribution to their company it can make a huge difference to preventing burnout. Awarding, praising, and other rewards can be beneficial in making them feel a vital part of their organization.
