There’s no doubt that today’s world is extremely fast-paced. And to keep up with the current norms, we tend to work a bit too hard. In companies, overworked employees are increasing day by day, which can heavily impact the work culture and company.
According to Harvard Business Review, the healthcare cost to recover a burnt-out employee can range from $125 to $190 billion a year. So how do you prevent your employees from overworking? Here are a few useful tips.
Best Tips to Stop Employees From Overworking
1. Be a healthy leader
A healthy workplace starts with a healthy leader. In order to prevent your employees from tiring themselves out, you need to make them understand that their wellness matters.
You can try to establish gyms, daycare centers, meditation workshops, and health insurance policies to make sure no employee faces health issues.
Actively promoting a healthy environment will send the message that the company is a place where people work hard, but not at the cost of their physical and mental peace.
2. Set clear expectations
Most leaders think that simply assigning the daily tasks and outlining the goals is enough. This is where they go wrong.
Don’t micromanage the team but at the same time, make it very clear what you want from your teammates. This will prevent miscommunications and overworking.
Tell them what results you wish to see at the end of the day or the week and make sure everyone does their work properly. Throughout this process, make sure all the communication lines are open.
3. Ensure your goals are aligned
Your goals and your teammates’ goals should align nicely; otherwise, the entire project is going to be a big failure. To make sure everyone is on the same page, you can ask them to use tools like runn.io.
Run effortlessly syncs all your project work in one place. From managing timesheets to features like capacity management and project forecasting, this tool can come in very handy to share files and keep every member updated.
4. Encourage self-care
This just cannot be said enough. Self-care has to be a priority, no matter which employee does what kind of work. Encourage this by asking everyone to take 10-15 minute breaks in addition to their lunch hours.
If an employee has enough vacation days left, ask them to take that break and go on a holiday after the project is done. If your team has worked especially hard for a few days or weeks, send every member a small token of appreciation. These little things promoting self-care will ensure that the workplace remains strong.
5. Stick to your boundaries
No, it’s not cool to call up your employees in the middle of the night unless it’s an absolute emergency. You have to set clear boundaries and stick to them. After-work hours and weekends are meant for everyone to take a breather, including you, and this needs to be honored.
If you feel that the problem you have encountered can wait for a few hours or days, make a note of it and announce it the next time you meet everyone at work. Don’t keep calling or emailing them when it’s not urgent.
6. Hire more during peak seasons
In almost every company, there are peak seasons when the workload can get extremely exhausting. During this time, if you see that your employees are not being able to meet their deadlines, you can try and hire more people.
Open opportunities for young interns to participate in your work so that the workload gets distributed and other people too, have an opportunity to find jobs. If you don’t hire people often, employee burnout is guaranteed to occur.
7. Set positive examples
Every team member looks up to their leader for inspiration. If you’re the team leader or project manager, set positive examples by lightening the workplace and being transparent. Tell them it’s fine to make mistakes as long as they learn from them.
Instead of just being a leader, try to be everyone’s friend. Through your actions, show them that you don’t expect them to work every second of the day and it’s okay to release a little bit of tension every now and then.
Over to you…
The biggest thing to remember is that your people need to be heard and appreciated. A truly good leader always understands when their employees are not being able to function properly and must always take care of them.
Leave a comment