With overwhelming workload, a busy schedule and looming deadlines, it’s very likely that your employees — perhaps sooner or later — will head for hard times. There is a word to describe the phenomenon in a professional environment: burnout. When this happens, efficiency typically gives way to lack of productivity, while the ability to handling multiple tasks is replaced by tendency to procrastinate and failure to perform ordinary duties.
Here’s our tips to best manage a burnout in your office and restore the once-brilliant performance of your employees!
As an employer, you should always make sure your employees are being heard all along the way. Invite them often to friendly face-to-face meetings so that you can listen to their needs and eventually identify an emergency at its initial stage. To drive a fear-based management culture out of the workplace, keep a short distance with your employees and encourage open and constructive dialogue.
With the loss of positive connections as top reason for burnout, promoting the “culture of sharing” is key to creating a thriving atmosphere for mutual trust. Leverage the healing power of collaboration and human bonds by encouraging teamwork and exchange of knowledge, shared tasks and even shared working areas. This will emphasize common values and replace isolation with a much-needed sense of community.
One of the factors affecting the way people work is the weather — as it creates different mood responses depending on the person. Feeling too hot or too cold can easily become source of employee dissatisfaction and burnout. How not to consider the issue in the Middle East, where harsh weather conditions really try the patience of its office workers? If you ensure optimal conditions and a temperate microclimate within the workplace you will prevent your employees from feeling “under the weather”, no matter if there’s a sand storm or gloomy day out there!
The causes of employees’ burnout differ from case to case, but they generally fall into two categories: a work/life imbalance and work-related stress. Start clarifying your employees’ responsibilities and what is expected to be achieved over a specific amount of time. Along with this, allow for flexible working hours, paid time off and vacation days to alleviate the most frequent work-related stressors.
You know that your employees’ happiness largely depends on your prompt payment. Anyway, being late in processing payroll data is anything but rare. Surveys also show that delay in salary payment is one of the most pressing issues in the Middle East. If, for whatever reason, you can’t pay like clockwork, consider to embrace a “damage limitation” strategy — including compensation, benefits and remuneration packages — that allows you to mitigate the consequences of your delay and make your employees feel equally rewarded in the most cost-effective way for your company.
