Preventing burn-out in the workplace

Improve employee satisfaction by assessing their work/life balance

Work-life balance is a key element in improving employee satisfaction and preventing burn-out in the workplace. To assess this balance, it is important to understand the challenges employees face, and to identify policies that can help them overcome these challenges.

Employers can use surveys to accurately assess how their employees feel, and make informed decisions about how their business should be run. Companies can also put in place policies that allow employees to manage their working time flexibly and work in their own way, which can help improve their sense of personal effectiveness and job satisfaction.

Finally, it's crucial to give employees visibility over their future, and to communicate in a caring way to maintain work-life balance.

Providing visibility for the future

To provide visibility into employees' futures, it's important to understand the challenges they face, and to identify policies that can help them overcome these challenges. Employers can opt for informal exchanges to assess how their employees feel, and make informed decisions about how their business should operate.

Companies can also put in place policies that allow employees to manage their working time flexibly and work in their own way, which can help improve their sense of personal effectiveness and job satisfaction.

In addition, it's crucial to give employees visibility over their future, and to communicate in a caring way to maintain work-life balance.

Employers can project their employees into the medium term and give them visibility on their future within the company to build loyalty. Last but not least, it's important to motivate individuals by giving them career development prospects.

To give employees a clear view of their future, a number of actions can be taken:

1. HR marketing: This refers to all the actions taken to attract candidates to work for a company. This begins with the posting of a job ad and ends with the recruitment process. HR marketing also aims to build employee loyalty.

2. Employer branding: More and more recruiters are relying on their employer brand to attract candidates to work for their company. Employer branding is what makes a company easily identifiable, and can set it apart from the competition.

3. Digital tools: Recruiting software, a career site, social networks and job boards can all be used to boost visibility.

4. Training and professional development: Encourage employees to attend seminars and training courses. Join your local professional development association and participate in its events.

5. Visibility at work: Set up a central platform for work in progress and keep processes clear and consistent; set expectations and demonstrate the value of your team. Prioritize, identify and highlight the progress you want to see. Hold everyone accountable for their work.

These actions can help give employees a clearer view of their future and improve their commitment to the company.

Encourage employees' personal involvement by giving them a sense of meaning at work and enabling them to get involved in a cause.

It's important to create a work environment conducive to employee involvement. According to a study carried out by Opinionway for ING, 83% of employees think it's important to work for a company that shares their values. This feeling has been reinforced by the health crisis. Employees are ready to take action to join a company in line with their convictions.

58% say they would be prepared to leave their current company, or refuse a job, if their values were not aligned. One in two employees would even be prepared to accept a pay cut of around 10% to work for a company in line with their values.

To do this, it is important to clearly define the company's values and ensure that they are respected, in order to encourage employee involvement. Companies can also put in place policies that enable employees to get involved in causes close to their hearts, such as volunteering or skills sponsorship.

Finally, giving meaning to work is crucial to limiting the risk of burn-out. Employers can encourage employees' personal involvement by giving them a sense of meaning at work, and enabling them to get involved in a cause that is meaningful to them.

Reduce employee workloads by avoiding unrealistic or overwhelming workloads

Reducing employee workloads is crucial for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it helps prevent overwork and burn-out, which can have serious consequences for employees' physical and mental health. Secondly, it can improve employee satisfaction and commitment, which in turn can boost productivity and performance.

Finally, it can help reduce staff turnover, which can be costly for the company in terms of recruiting and training new employees.Here are some suggestions based on various sources to help you reduce employee workloads and avoid unrealistic or overwhelming workloads:

1. Evaluate the actual workload: Analyze what is required by consulting job descriptions, production or performance reports, etc. Pay particular attention to additional tasks, degree of difficulty, deferred tasks, etc. Pay particular attention to additional tasks, degree of difficulty, postponed tasks, etc.

2. Negotiate additional requests : This negotiation can help you complete a file on time, or avoid a delay in an appointment.

3. Reduce managers' workload: set a maximum number of committees or working groups in which each manager must participate, re-evaluate the relevance of requested reports, and reduce or postpone organizational projects.

4. Add staff: In some cases, this is the only solution. You need to document the facts to sway management's decision in favor of creating new positions or replacing the absent manager.

5. Define capacity levels: Organize a project schedule so that each team member reaches his or her maximum production capacity, and the project is completed as quickly as possible.

6. Distribute work among staff: When it comes to distributing work among team members, there's a tendency to rely on the best performers and under-utilize the less productive ones.

7. Adapt assignments and be flexible: It's important to be flexible and adapt assignments according to employees' skills and abilities.

8. Use the right workload management tools: Appropriate tools can help manage workload effectively and reduce stress.

Raising awareness among managers and HR departments to recognize the symptoms of burn-out among employees

Burn-out is a syndrome of professional exhaustion that can have serious consequences for the physical and mental health of employees, as well as for the performance and climate of the company.

It is therefore important to prevent it and detect it as early as possible.

To raise awareness among managers and HR departments, we first need to inform them about the definition, causes and signs of burn-out.

There are training courses, conferences, articles and books that can provide them with knowledge on this subject.

Next, they need to be given the tools to spot the symptoms of burn-out in their employees. This may involve questionnaires, individual interviews, observations of behavior or quality of work. Watch out for warning signs such as :

• Intense, persistent fatigue,
• Loss of motivation and interest in work,
• A loss of self-esteem and skills,
• Cynicism or indifference towards customers, colleagues or the company,
• Reduced performance and efficiency,
• Physical problems (sleep disorders, muscular pain, digestive problems...) or psychological problems (anxiety, irritability, depression...).

Finally, they need to be taught how to intervene appropriately when burn-out is suspected or confirmed in an employee. This means adopting a benevolent, empathetic attitude, without judgment or guilt.

Listening to the employee, offering psychological or medical support if necessary, offering solutions to improve working conditions (stress reduction, reorganization of working hours, clarification of objectives, etc.), and monitoring the employee's recovery process.

Burn-out is an increasingly common phenomenon in the world of work, which can have serious consequences for the health of employees and the performance of companies.

To prevent it, it is essential to make managers and HR departments aware of its causes, symptoms and solutions.

We also need to foster open, caring dialogue between employees and their superiors, and adapt working conditions to the needs and abilities of each individual.

Finally, we need to encourage employees to take care of themselves, recharge their batteries and find meaning in their work.