HR Steps to Prevent Work Burnout in Employees

Employee burnout is one of the common mental health issues found among the employees in the workplace. It has a big impact on the workforce during the economic slowdown or epidemic times.

What are the causes of employee burnout?

Discrimination at Work

Employees who count themselves as one of the victims of discrimination are likely to feel a high level of burnout at work. Discrimination includes biased behavior from coworkers or manager, favouritism, unfair treatment or policies for specific employees. Discrimination between employee and manager, if not controlled on time, it will break the trust between them over time.

Increased Workload

High workload adversely impacts the performance of employees. The Unmanageable workload can make them unproductive over a period of time. Besides, the excessive workload disturbs the balance between their personal & professional life that eventually increase the stress levels.

Improper Communication and Lack of Manager Support

Corporate employees facing a lack of managerial support and communication do experience burnout most of the times at work. They quickly find themselves as the victims of ignorance, loneliness and discrimination.

Unclear Work Responsibilities

Employees who have clarity in their accountability at work with well-defined goals and responsibilities perform better and remain productive for the long term. However, when they are not satisfied with the work allotted or the job responsibilities are not as per their expectations, they start feeling burnout.

Ways HR should Handle Work Burnout in Employees

Although HR or employer cannot fix the employee burnout problem completely yet it can be minimized to a certain extent by following a preventive approach. Here are some of the basic practices for HR professionals to manage employee burnout at the workplace.

Clarify Work Responsibility of every employee

This is the first most step from HR towards the direction of reducing employee burnout. As an HR when you create job descriptions for new hiring, be clear and detailed about the job responsibilities & your business expectations without any confusion. You should also try controlling the delegations of the work which is out of the scope of employees’ responsibility as defined in their job descriptions.

Ask employees to leave office on time

Many employees work overtime owing to the dedication toward the company or pressure of performing better. HR should eliminate the total working hours as one of the predictors of employee performance. Employees should be explained the value of leaving the office on time for better work-life balance.

Build a Culture of Health & Well-being in the Workplace

If your company supports a culture of health & well-being, rewarding employees on achieving small business or well-being goals, valuing work-life balance, there will be a strong foundation set to prevent employee burnout. So, build a culture that takes various initiatives to keep employees healthy & fit. Additionally, including flexible working hours, work from home as the employee benefits will boost the happiness levels of employees as well.

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