Turn burnt-out employees into thriving employees

Workplace stress and burnout is not what you want for the people in your organisation.  Yet, these days it feels like almost all employees are feeling stressed.  We have all experienced states of stress and know the effect it can have on people.   So why would you want to have this stigma attached to your place of work?

Although the world has recovered from the worst of the pandemic, employee stress remained at a record-high level as identified by Gallup in their State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report.  Organisations are now navigating uncertain economic times which is creating stress for employees and ultimately impacting productivity and performance. Workplaces have a legal responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to manage risks to mental health and wellbeing.  Now is the time to act and improve employee wellbeing.

The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand define workplace stress as “the harmful physical and emotional response resulting from a situation where the demands of a job are not matched by the resources provided to get the job done”.  In Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report, 44% of employees said they experienced a lot of stress from the previous day.  This report dives deeper into regions and Australia and New Zealand scored second in the world’s highest regional percentage of daily stress.  If we break this down, only 23% are engaged and thriving at work, 67% are quietly quitting which means they are not engaged and 11% are loud quitting, actively disengaged.  These numbers are not great.  Gallup’s analysis finds that when employees are engaged at work, they report significantly lower stress in their lives.  

Getting and keeping your employees engaged is the aim of the game.  So, how do we do it?

Tips and tricks for tackling stress in the workplace

Create a Positive Environment: Creating an inclusive environment where your people feel safe and supported.  Your employees will then feel more comfortable to be their authentic selves and feel more connected to their place of work.

Supportive & Trusted Managers: Employees need a supportive manager to motivate and inspire them.  Managers need to gain the trust of their employees, so they feel safe and supported to share their work challenges with them. Think about investing in leadership development for your people managers to really see some positive impacts here.

Communication: Open, transparent and up and down communication is key for your people. Verywell Mind states that unclear requirements for employees contribute to burnout.  It is important to discuss all your expectations, timeframes and strategies for meeting them.  Organisations should also be encouraging feedback and collaboration.

Reward and Recognition: Recognising and rewarding great work and achievements is imperative.  Celebrate and share the wins, whether small or large. Think about the ‘moments that matter’ to your team and celebrate these too (eg. someone buying a house, having a baby, work anniversaries and birthdays).

Culture: Building a culture your employees can be proud of correlates highly with strong levels of engagement.  Having well understood company values, a clear vision that connects with your employees and their work, as well as a comfortable physical environment is key.

Purpose: Work has to matter to people. Employees need to know how they fit into the bigger picture of what their organisation is trying to achieve.  This can be achieved by having a robust people strategy along with a clear and well communicated vision, mission and values that employees understand and feel connected to.

Overall, the aim of the workplace game is to have psychologically present and engaged workers.  A company can only be as good as its employees, so making sure your employees wellbeing is being looked after is very important.

‍