Stephen Haynes, Director, Wellbeing, British Safety Council
Burnout can be measured in a variety of ways, from profit and loss levels to sickness and absence rates. However, measuring burnout is a more difficult task. Burnout is also becoming a more important topic in boardroom discussions.
Burnout is the result of chronic stress that has not been managed effectively or resolved. It was classified by the World Health Organisation as a ‘occupational phenomena’ and not a medical disorder. It’s not always easy to identify burnout at work. Human beings are adept at hiding the signs of burnout, especially if they don’t feel safe enough to ask for help.
Pluralistic ignorance is a term that describes when we feel like something’s wrong or we aren’t on top of things, but we don’t talk to anyone about it. Instead, we continue as usual. We may think that everyone is OK because they are all doing the same things. Behind these masks may be others in the same boat.
Burnout can be characterized by a variety of symptoms, including energy depletion and exhaustion. It may also include impaired concentration, impaired attention, apathy, or an aversion to our work (but this is not the same as laziness).
Burnout does not only affect those in high-pressure roles. Burnout can affect anyone, because its underlying causes are the same in all modern working environments: high demands, perceived lacks of control, mismatches between rewards and recognition, perceived lacks of community, lacks of justice or fairness, and mismatches between personal and corporate values.
Gallup’s global 2024 State of the Global Workplace study found that around a quarter of world leaders feel burnt out on a regular basis. Around 40% of people with responsibility for managing others experience stress every day. Burnout can lead to chronic fatigue and irritability. It may also cause insomnia or a lack of motivation. It can be manifested physically through muscle tension and headaches, as well as high blood pressure, and loss of appetite.
Burnout in the workplace manifests as reduced productivity and innovation, absenteeism or presenteeism. It also results in a reduction of quality and quantity of work. This represents a substantial cost for UK businesses, both financially and most importantly humanly. But citing large financial impacts is not as important as understanding how stress, burnout and performance affect your organisation.
It doesn’t matter what studies you read, the fact that stress, and burnout in turn, can be addressed by improving wellbeing and reducing stress is obvious. Higher wellbeing and engagement leads to lower turnover, absence, and safety incidents, while increasing customer loyalty, sales and innovation.
How can we combat this global phenomenon of occupational change? We’re aiming to improve the experience of our employees in the workplace. The effectiveness of tertiary intervention – like helplines and health applications – to address stress and burnout is limited, mostly because we rarely compare homogenous approaches to workplace wellness.
The primary factors that determine whether my work experience is positive or negative are the ones driven by the top-down: the design of my position, the organisation of the job, the safety and quality of my workplace, the culture of the company, the relationships between employees, etc. – Does my job experience enable or hinder me?
How can we achieve this? We need to know our people’s ‘enablers,’ as well as their ‘inhibitors,’ in order to create effective, informed and relevant approaches. Look at data and information holistically and decide what you want to do.
Are your managers creating stress, or are they helping your employees thrive at work? They manage or they inspire, coach and lead? Stress is something you’re’managing,’ but are you also’mitigating?’ How well do understand your work-related stress exposures? How well do your managers understand the link between stress at work and employee engagement? Are your managers able to recognize and respond to signs of stress within their teams? Are your teams able to control their roles adequately? What is the meaning that your employees derive from their work?
You can only embed effective interventions if you have a clear understanding of your enablers. You can’t just hope that your strategy will work. In organisations all over the world, we’ve seen a wide range of approaches to worker wellbeing. From the creative and informed, to the less effective “off the shelf” approaches. To beat burnout, senior leaders and decision makers must first understand the drivers and prevalence of stress within their organization. The health of your workplace is a good indicator of the health and happiness of your workforce.
To beat burnout, HR and SHEQ leaders must review policies regarding flexible working, work time directives and workplace stress. They also need to give employees the chance to contribute to the development and delivery of workplace wellness strategies. Budget holders must understand the link between burnout and productivity. Burnout leads to reduced productivity, and decreased productivity results in lower profits.
Employees must also actively participate in workplace activities before they burn out. It is important to create a culture where colleagues are comfortable sharing their stress. This can be achieved by offering Employee Assistance Programmes, such as counselling, or even just allowing ‘time to speak’.
Burnout can be overcome by business leaders who are clear, committed, and communicate effectively. This means investing in wellness programmes, encouraging work-life integration, and encouraging open, stigma-free communication.
This begins at the top: how you lead by example and encourage your organization to adopt a more positive working culture. It ends with flourishing workers, a happier work environment and hopefully higher profits. Employees who feel empowered and who feel connected to the mission, vision, and values of their organisation are more creative and more willing to raise objections or new ideas. They are also more likely feel more confident to express themselves and to be more innovative.
To me, it’s an obvious choice.
The first time HR News published the article Beat burnout by starting at the top.
