Burnout at work is something we have heard about quite a bit recently. Mostly in the enterprise environments, where employees are so fed up with bad processes and procedures that they have actually handed in their notices and left. Without another job to go to!
There is a lot about mental health and mental wellbeing in the news, so this makes for quite disturbing reading and if it is happening in the sectors we are working in, it must be happening in other sectors.
So, the question that must be asked is Why? Or more importantly. Why is it that your internal processes are so bad that it is causing staff to throw in the towel?
Does this ring any bells with you?
At Unleashed, we have a number of theories about why employees suffer burnout.
- Staff numbers have been cut so much that people are too busy. We know this first hand from dealing we have with IT departments.
- The last 18 months have really taken their toll on employees and they have enough.
- There is a big inability to see the wood from the trees in UK businesses.
- It ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I am sure we could go on, but it doesn’t really have to be like that.
As a business grows, and particularly when it has grown by acquisition then you have different ways of processing in each business and you try to bring the two together and all you get is chaos. You try to make a new process fit the way you have always done things and that just doesn’t work very well. This means you end up with a shoehorned process that makes your employee’s life more difficult than it was before and you gain nothing. But unhappy staff.
Because everyone is so busy, they don’t have any time to sit back and evaluate how things are operating. Often employees are too busy or too scared to say anything and when they do say anything, it just gets ignored. This only compounds the problem.
So, what can you do about burnout?
The first thing you need is a “fresh pair of eyes” you need someone who is impartial to the business to overview what is happening. They need to spend time observing and speaking, but more importantly, listening to your employees. From there, they can understand what you are trying to achieve and make recommendations to senior management on how change is needed.
We know from our experience that changing internal working causes issues, but your issues are worse if you don’t change anything. As we are fond of saying ‘change is the only constant’ and change is everywhere. You have to embrace it.
That is where an outside consultant, like Unleashed, can help you. We will spend time looking at your processes, procedures, and daily tasks and help to make them more efficient and easier to perform. This could be done using your existing systems or we may recommend you move to something better suited to that process. If the process is still being done manually we can help automate it.
After all, what business does not want to look after their employee’s mental wellbeing? And become more efficient and potentially save money in the process. Win, win for all.
If you would like to have an informal chat with Unleashed then please get in touch on 0333 240 0565, yes we still answer the phone! or contact us through our website.
