How to reduce employee stress and prevent burnout

Set up regular communication channels

Regular communication between employees and their managers is crucial for detecting early signs of burnout. Make sure that managers and employees have weekly catchups to discuss and address workload and stress.

Manage reasonable workload

Make sure managers keep an eye on their team’s workload, ensuring that it is spread equally and within reasonable levels.

Make employees feel comfortable to set boundaries

Some employees find it difficult to decline work or ask for deadline extensions when they have a lot on. They might even think that they might get in trouble with their managers if they refuse to take on a task. When employees are working at maximum capacity and they receive extra work, they should feel safe to say ‘no’ and ask their managers for support.

Offer flexible working hours

Fixed working hours might not be ideal for all your employees. They might often clash with other engagements like picking up the kids from school or looking after an older family member. By offering flexible working hours, you contribute to improving your employees’ work-life balance and, consequently, reducing work stress and burnout.

Encourage teamwork

People who work in silos or on their own are more prone to feel stress and burnout at work. Encouraging teamwork between employees evens out workloads, reducing stress at the workplace.

Provide resources for dealing with burnout at work

You may have taken many measures to prevent burnout, but inevitably some of your employees may get overwhelmed by stress. This is OK, as people have different resilience, and sometimes burnout is fuelled by issues in their personal lives. Discuss with your Human Resources Officer what resources should be developed and made available for people experiencing work burnout. These can include mental health helplines, assistance programmes, therapist contacts, and reduced workload schemes.

Introduce mental health days

A lot of companies offer their employees a set number of mental health days per year. These are days off that employees can take, no questions asked, whenever they feel overwhelmed by work.

Encourage employees to use their full annual leave

Employees should be encouraged to use up all their annual leave days. This can be done by reducing the number of days that people can ‘carry over’ into the next year and by urging people to take days off during less busy periods.

Reward success (and do it fairly)

Employees can often feel burnout when they do not get recognition for their hard work and their achievements, especially if they see that managers are not fair delivering praise and commendations. Make sure your managers keep an eye on their teams’ achievements, and they give credit where credit is due.

We all have had this problem – we go on a work trip, but upon our return we are greeted by an inbox full of unread emails and pending tasks. Learn how to stay productive when travelling for work.

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