Staff burnout is a worrying phenomenon widespread in corporate organizations. It is a condition caused by emotional and physical exhaustion, which is a negative response to a stressful working environment. Unfortunately, organizations often treat burnouts as a personal or capacity management concern rather than an extensive organizational issue. This is a serious mistake. 

After conducting an extensive study, Professor of industrial and organizational psychology, Dr. Michael Leiter, suggested that between 5% and 7% of the Australian workforce experience burnout. But what effect does this have on businesses? Although estimates may vary on the impact of staff burnout, the major dangers include a decrease in productivity and an increase in turnovers, which in turn represents an increase in payroll costs. And the financial issues don’t stop there, as the cost of replacing an employee is almost twice their annual salary. So what can HR do to manage the problem? 

1. Staff education on burnout signs 

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There are several signs before a total burnout. Are your employees struggling to focus when they are at the workplace? Are they sleeping well, or do they appear continually stressed? It is not simple for a manager to identify burnout, so it is practical for managers and supervisors to go over indications of burnout during staff meetings. Organizational leaders must urge their team to seek assistance when they realize they are struggling. Together, they can then build an actionable plan towards helping staff re-adjust to work life. 

1. Excessive organizational collaboration 

This is a typical ailment in organizations with an excessive number of leaders and many decision-making nodes. Extreme collaborations reveal themselves in the need to meet frequently and hold many conference calls to guarantee that every stakeholder is heard and adjusted. Surprisingly, numerous corporate businesses engage in many collaborations way above what’s needed for work. This overload can be addressed by changing routines and reducing unnecessary complexities in the organization’s structure, which can often slow down decision-making. 

1. Remote and flexible working 

Remote working and flexible working hours is a simple yet vital tool to promote employee productivity. The increasingly high expectation at the workplace, coupled with the need to be physically present daily, often places undue anxiety and stress on staff. This also often leads to the culture of employees staying late into the night to ‘display’ signs of being hardworking. Advancement in technology means team members can work from home, beating the stress of commuting to and from work and wasting valuable hours. Working parents, for example, shouldn’t miss school run to be present in the office. 

1. Provision of staff support 

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Businesses are often guilty of placing staff in an aggressive environment with high expectations, without providing them with the needed support to accomplish the targeted objective. Organizations can build the capacity of their representatives, increase profitability, and reduce the chance of burnout by providing the necessary devices and resources. Organizations like Adesso Digital provide automated business solutions that execute recurring tasks, thereby minimizing costs, enhancing staff support, and improving staff efficiency.

Staff burnout was officially recognized by the World Health Organization in 2019, and since then the responsibility for preventing it has shifted towards the workplace and away from the individual. Business leaders are now expected to include a burnout-reducing approach in their work processes.