After more than a year of working from home to protect their physical health, some of your employees may find that being “always on” is turning off their ability to maintain their mental health.

Burnout is defined as chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is real—and far-reaching. A national survey showed that 75 percent of employees said they have burnout at work, with 40 percent of them saying they’ve experienced it during the pandemic.

There are six main reasons burnout happens: unsustainable workload, perceived lack of control, insufficient rewards for effort, lack of a supportive community, lack of fairness, and mismatched values and skills. As an employer, you can make a difference in addressing burnout by tackling it at the organizational level. Here’s how.

Long-Term Strategies

Change your culture to reward hard work, not long hours. Regular long hours are a recipe for burnout. Clearly defining employees' priorities will ensure they are better able to manage a healthy work-life balance.

Invest in developing empathetic leaders. Empathy is a skill that many managers are not trained in, but essential to the stress management of employees. Create a supportive environment by training leaders and managers to listen and respond to their employee’s, while also sharing their own struggles with burnout.

Short-Term Strategies

Burnout 101 Training. Don’t assume your workforce understand burnout and what to do about it. Educate managers on how to spot and address burnout, while also making Employee Assistance Programs easier to find and access.

Practice what you preach. Offer more flexibility and support to your workforce by increasing PTO, implementing flexible schedules and encouraging employees to take time off for their mental health.

Celebrate caregivers. Despite increased caregiving responsibilities, most unpaid caregivers don’t self-identify – preventing them from getting the help they need and amplifying feelings of stress and isolation. Celebrate the caregivers within your workforce to not only help them feel appreciated, but also to normalize caregiving within your organization.

Learn more about the realities of workplace burnout and how to support your workforce in our new white paper, “Workplace changes and their impact on behavioral health.

Also, check out this infographic for a few additional do’s and don’ts on battling burnout.