Over the last two years, how employees feel has changed. According to Gallup, at its height, 49% of employees felt their companies cared about their well-being.
That’s dropped to less than half of that with only 24% of the workforce feeling their organization does. What’s changed?
Continued staff shortages, supply chain issues, never-ending work, morale issues, and lack of connection, it’s easier for employees to disengage and ponder leaving the company for one that shows they care about them.
Employees are feeling they are getting hit from several different directions. Companies aren’t addressing these issues and leaders keep adding more work, so team members aren’t able to live up to the high expectations without feeling burned out.
Whether leadership or office demands are transitioning, your people are adapting to the continual changes and feel they are being forgotten about in the process.
No matter what industry you’re in, position you have or organization you work for, burnout is impacting you. Whether you have it or not, it affects every person.
If you’re not feeling burned out, think about your team member who is.
As a leader, you see her work continue to pile up. She can’t catch up, and people expect their projects first before the others she’s already working on. She feels like she’s constantly working, yet she can’t fully focus, because she feels for every step she takes forward, she’s taking two back. She’s trying to manage herself, her leader, her team members and home life.
She’s not sleeping well at night. Her energy is being depleted, and she gets irritable as the day progresses. Something has got to give before she has a breakdown. But leadership ignores these signs or thinks they will fix themselves on their own.
Your other team member doesn’t have burnout, but he sees it unfold. Then his leader adds more work to his already packed day. He works through his lunch hour to get more done, yet in the afternoon, he feels sluggish and worn out. When he goes to bed, his mind keeps reeling from the day, so his quality of sleep declines. He wakes up impatient and agitated.
Even though he’s not in burnout, he’s feeling the impact of his colleague’s, because now it’s affecting his days and habits.
Burnout trickles into every area of your life, impacting how you show up, lead, communicate, think, and behave. It’s vital to recognize how it continues to damage your people…your team. These are not only short term dangers but also long term and lasting damages.
So, it’s time to recognize burnout is a real problem that won’t resolve itself on its own. It’s time for you to take action to help your people or you will continue to deal with the staff shortages that plague your company.
Here are Five Ways to Let Your Team Know You Care
- Do daily check-ins–A quick phone call, email or video chat can make a huge difference. Do check-ins with your people. Ask for a few words to describe how they are feeling. This is not only important for you to do so you can be in tune with how they are but it gives them permission to not just go, go, go. Stop, pause and reflect. The more aware they are, the more they can take immediate action to change things. Pausing is powerful.
- Stop guessing–Whether it’s in a survey or a conversation, ask your team how you’re doing as a leader and as a company. Most leaders guess on what they think their people need and what. And many times, they are wrong. Asking them “What would be the most helpful” is one of the best things you can do to show you care and value their opinions and ideas. It lets you create an action plan on what would make the biggest impact for them for the short term and over time.
- Show your love–have your team take the free Love Language test. It only takes a few minutes. People tend to communicate in the way they take in information and not necessarily in the way that resonates with someone else. In order to be an effective communicator, you have to speak in a way that makes sense to others. After your team members individually take this easy test, you can randomly assign each person the name of someone else. Then for a week (two weeks or a month–you decide on the length), each team member uses the other person’s Love Language when communicating and praising them. That way, the language used resonates with each person and they feel acknowledged and appreciated.
- Invite more fun–one of our core values at Blaze Your Brain is fun. The more fun people have at work, the more they want to keep working there. Hint: Work and fun aren’t mutually exclusive. We can’t express enough the importance of having more fun. It enhances your critical thinking skills, develops your imagination, allows for better creativity, builds a stronger team dynamic, and brings more joy and happiness to everyone. Find small ways to invite more fun into the work atmosphere (Pro tip: ask your people for ideas on how they want/like to have fun at work. They will have some spectacular insight)
- Invest in burnout training–it’s by far the best thing you can do to show your people you care about their well-being, because we incorporate all of these things plus more into our program. The corporate training you need is more than a workplace wellness program. Those are outdated and don’t address or help with what individuals need most in the workplace these days (burnout and mental health). For long lasting results, we take a deep dive into your workforce and create the training topics and content around what your team tells us they need more. Then with our high energy approach, whether it’s in-person, virtual or hybrid, we implement proven strategies to address their biggest daily challenges and struggles.
Your people are suffering. In today’s economy, they don’t need much of a reason to leave. You must first give them a reason to stay. Show them that you care about them and their well-being. Pick one from the list above and start with that. One small change can make a massive, big difference.
Which one will you implement?
