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Strong levels of employee engagement help improve revenue, deliver better levels of customer service and lead to a better profit margin.
However, according to a recent Gallup poll carried out in the USA, 45% of employees described themselves as ‘not engaged’ while a further 26% said they were ‘actively disengaged.’ This is an overwhelming majority of employees and has serious consequences as businesses strive to improve productivity, performance and efficiency.
Put simply, burnt out employees don’t perform and as the number of burnt out employees continues to rise the business, the employer and the employee themselves have a collective responsibility to avoiding burnout and treating the cause of the problem.
The good news is burnout can be avoided by simple habit changes. These small changes add up to big differences. Here’s five ideas to get you started…
1. Enjoy Work
It sounds simple yet enjoying work is the best way to avoiding burnout. Through effective communication with colleague to creating a positive and supportive environment, we find the people who love their work are highly unlikely to burnout. Enjoying work isn’t just about coming to the office with a smile on your face. It’s about taking pride in your job, respecting and valuing your colleagues, and relishing the opportunity to make a positive impact.
2. Enjoy lunch!
Working through lunch isn’t a secret measure of being successful. So quit eating on the go while plugged in to your computer. We need to eat to function and the better fuelled our body is the more likely it is to perform well. Get up from your desk and if you can take lunch with colleagues. This gives a significant boost to both physical and mental health.
3. Use technology to make your life easier
Embrace technology and use it to make your life easier. Cloud-based apps and software now make it easier than ever for us to work more efficiently and effectively. Technology can help ease the burden of pressure and lead to significant improvements in performance. Less is more and by simplifying key tasks, like time spent on administration, technology will boost productivity and reduce stress.
4. Break work into chunks
While the ongoing quest to avoid burnout should be seen as a long distance race, the projects and work that form part of our weekly routine should be seen as sprints. By breaking projects into chunks we have clear targets and goals to hit in set time periods which help maintain focus and drive.
5. Find the root cause of the problem
Sometimes burnout comes from a deeper problem. Identifying this and working to resolve it is a necessity. It’s from here that a plan for recovery and prevention can be put into place. Allocate regular time for review and reflection to help avoid burnout in the first place.
Improving productivity and efficiency are as much about the people who make up a business as to how that business operates. When the two are in harmony is when the best results come.
