How companies can avoid Work From Home burnout
When working from home, some employees feel pressured into overworking as they feel like they need prove to their employers that they are still performing. To an extent, this is a good attitude to have, but overworking yourself can cause you to burnout in the long run which could lead to declining performance.
That’s why it is important for businesses to be aware of this and take measures to look after their employees. Here’s how to do it:
SET GUIDELINES
The remote working situation has turned employees’ homes into a workplace. As a result of this, a lot of people struggle to identify the difference between their workplace and home, causing them to work longer hours and not being able to switch off from work.
To help employees to identify the difference between when they should be working and when it is time to switch off, businesses should encourage their staff to unplug and switch off their devices at the end of the workday.
It’s important to stress to employees the importance of capping their work phone and computer usages after hours.
ENCOURAGE MORE VIRTUAL SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
While it’s important to help employees draw the line between professional and personal lives, businesses should also ensure they continue to maintain the relationship between their staff. According to research, doing this can help to reduce the feeling of loneliness and improve engagement between the business, therefore meaning less chance of burnout.
Below is a list of some virtual social activities to help teams stay connected:
- Virtual coffee breaks during the day
- Virutal team quizzes
- Morning/Afternoon team catch ups
Although some people may think these things will take too much time out of the day, it will encourage employees and boost their productivity.
BE AWARE OF EMPLOYEES’ MENTAL HEALTH
During this time, we spend working from home it is vital that businesses are aware and actively providing support to employees for their health and wellbeing.
To do this, businesses can introduce a weekly survey that is designed to get an understanding of each employee’s health and wellbeing. From these surveys, managers can balance out individual’s workload, and also provide any support that is needed in their one to one meeting.
Also, it’s a good idea for businesses to rethink and introduce new workplace perks and offer something that can provide support for their employees’ health and wellbeing whilst at home, such as exercise classes, yoga classes, and online therapy sessions.
We hope this blog post emphasises the importance of avoiding a burnout and also monitoring your employees’ health and wellbeing during this tough time we’re in. If you have any other methods that help, please let us know!
If you need some advice to help you work better from home, take a look at our tips for working from home.
For more advice on how to look after your mental health as well as your colleagues while working from home, visit Mental Health at work.
