Work can be detrimental to your health, not just in terms of physical dangers, but regarding your mental health too. Burnout is a very real problem that overworking, too much pressure, and too many deadlines – all without enough downtime – can cause.
Of course, your business has to provide results, but overworked personnel are more prone to make errors, miss deadlines, and even leave the company altogether, and this is sure to have a negative impact on your bottom line. Employee mental health is something that should be taken very seriously by employers, and here are some proactive ways to prevent employee burnout that will enhance your business and your employees’ lives.
Have Good Communication
One of the most common causes of overworked staff is a lack of attention to their concerns, whether that’s real or perceived. In order to address this, you need to set up a space in your workplace where workers feel comfortable approaching you with any problems they may be experiencing. Take the time to speak with them and go through the issues with them; they might be worrying for nothing, but they could have a valid concern that needs to be dealt with and that, if left unattended to, could lead to stress and burnout.
Employees who have an open line of communication with their supervisors and managers are more likely to tell you when their work schedules need to be adjusted or when anything in the workplace is causing them stress.
Set Realistic Deadlines
While deadlines help keep everyone on track, setting them too high might lead to unnecessary stress. Setting a deadline of one day for work that takes three days to complete is unrealistic. Longer deadlines mean less work and more focus on the task at hand.
If there is just not enough time for your team to get the work done when you focus on more realistic deadlines, subcontracting the work out to experts will guarantee it is done. You won’t want to or be able to outsource everything, but for highly important and specialized tasks such as water bore drilling, it might be the best option overall for your team, your business, and your clients.
Choose The Right Work Hours
Work hours can be a big problem for employees, and it might be making them unhappy without them or you realizing it. If you expect everyone to be at the office at a certain time and leave at a certain time, and you’re not flexible about any of this, your employees are going to become disillusioned, tired, and miserable. Although it might feel strange at first, having flexible hours is a much better route to work on. In this way, your team can start and finish when they need to, some days working more, some less, and as long as they meet their deadlines, everyone is happy. It’s a different way of working, but it allows for an outstanding work-life balance, and it means that your team is far less likely to burn out, so despite the potentially odd hours, they get more done.
