Burnout among employees is at an all-time high. Many employees report increased stress from circumstances originating with the Covid-19 pandemic. Many have dealt with ever-changing childcare restrictions, school adjustments, and changes to their everyday social life. All of this has helped to contribute to overall higher stress and increased burnout.
Employees who have never worked remotely until last year may be struggling even more to balance work-life obligations and feeling the accumulation of stress and the feeling that they are managing both aspects poorly.
Now is a critical time for employers and managers to step forward and help their teams avoid burnout or recharge from existing burnout. Let’s take a look at what managers and employers can do.
Access to Resources
One of the major surprises expressed by many office-turned-remote employees is how much more difficult it is to get answers to simple questions or find previously easy-to-find resources. While it used to take seconds to holler out a question and get a response may now cost an employee minutes or hours to find a solution.
Make it easier for remote employees to get the answers they need by putting resources in front of them for easy access. This can be as simple as creating a directory of numbers, links, and resources for employees to refer to. In Thanks, Ideas can create a thread of resources that employees can contribute and share.
It can also be managed through an instant chat system to the entire team to seek help from colleagues. And, it includes you being available or responding as soon as you can to worker queries.
Easy access to resources helps employees be more effective in their job and avoid the discouragement that comes from unsolved issues and the inability to reach anyone who can help. Discouragement is often a precursor to burnout.
Tips for recognizing remote employees and teams
Clear, Frequent Communication is Key
Remote employees are too often forgotten about and neglected. In a usual workday, there are more things to finish than time to meet demands. As a result, managers sometimes forget to be available for remote employees and assume that the employee will let them know if an issue comes up.
But many remote employees are reluctant to bring up an issue. And seemingly minor problems can snowball into frustration and burnout. Connect with your remote workers regularly and schedule regular follow-ups so that employees have a chance to ask questions and get help. Ask them about their challenges so you can better support them. Ask them what they are proud of accomplishing for the week.
Hold regular team meetings so the whole team can connect and brainstorm ideas and share resources. Find and encourage the use of communication channels so that team members can communicate easier.
Hold weekly meetings, even if they are very brief, with your remote employees to discuss their goals and provide guidance as needed. The clearer and easier it is for your team to communicate with each other. With you, the less likely it is that remote employees will feel isolated, get discouraged, or become disconnected.
Define Clear Goals for Remote Workers
Remote employees get tasks done faster, so it’s essential to set clear goals with your remote employees. This involves working with employees and discussing their goals. Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. That means goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
Goals should be clearly defined with a definite time frame. The more vague and untrackable the goals are, the more likely that frustration will creep in. Remote employees will feel stressed and are more likely to spin their wheels on less critical tasks, and managers may be frustrated with remote employees spending time on the wrong tasks.
Tasks should be set around the goals. Regular follow-ups with remote employees and a clear deadline are critical, so remote employees can get the guidance they need to complete the objectives.
While working with remote employees and setting goals, demonstrate how they make a difference to the company. Gallup’s research shows that when employees understand how their contributions make a difference to corporate objectives, their work improves by 56%. That’s like hiring another employee for every 2 of your existing employees!
Set Clear Boundaries for Remote Employees
Remote employees often report struggling to know when they can say “no” to a work request, even when it comes in late at night, during their day-off, or eating lunch. Remote workers often feel like they have to be available all the time. This means that they seldom get a mental break from work.
As a manager, you can set clear boundaries for your remote employees. Don’t wait for them to burn out, but have constant and consistent conversations. Let them know that you expect them to disconnect, and you don’t expect them to respond to emails, be clocked in early and late, or skip their lunch hour.
Set the boundary for them that they should not respond to work queries in their off-hours. As a manager, make an effort not to call, text, or send a chat during an employee’s off-hours. Encourage remote employees to turn off notifications. Let them know that emails you send after-hours need not be responded to after hours.
Have conversations in your team meetings about the importance of spending time away from work and how employees can better balance personal obligations and work commitments. And provide the understanding and empathy that remote employees need when a child’s school sends kids home unexpectedly, the daycare closes for a week, or the city goes into lockdown.
Lastly, set boundaries with office employees. Address the unspoken perception often found among office workers that they aren’t working if someone isn’t physically in the office. Let office employees know that remote employees aren’t expected to be available, so others don’t unintentionally contribute to remote worker burnout.
Encourage Time Off
Encourage employees to take time off. Many employees feel like time off is discouraged by their employers. Sometimes it is. But often, it can be a matter of miscommunication. A well-meaning manager accidentally lets the employee see stress caused by time off, or an employee interrupts a manager’s stress as being related to their time-off request.
Sometimes a manager expresses how valuable the employee is, meaning to boost their morale, but it comes across as discouraging time-off or being looked down upon. Instead, try to notice employees who haven’t taken time off, or who always seem to respond to requests 24/7 and encourage them to disconnect from work. Use Announce to periodically remind employees that taking time off is encouraged.
Remote workers often struggle to disconnect from work. But without a mental break, creativity breaks down, and employees often become disengaged and frustrated. Time off, clocking out early, or taking an extended lunch break can give remote employees a chance to refresh and avoid burnout.
Recognize Remote Employees
Recognizing employees is a critical step in helping employees to feel like they can be valuable, contributing parts of the team even when they are working remotely. Remote employee appreciation demonstrates that remote employees are an essential and integral part of the organization.
And, recognizing employees who take time off, clock out for the day, or step away for lunch helps send the message that workers can contribute without remaining clocked in all day. No, you don’t have to specifically “celebrate” employee time off (unless you have a workaholic who hasn’t taken off time in years).
Instead, regularly recognizing remote employees for their contribution, who also happen to clock out and take time off, sends the message that disconnecting doesn’t make an employee less valuable. You should also provide tools and encouragement to your employees to recognize each other. Peer recognition works as the secret sauce of employee satisfaction.
Conclusion
Although many employees face additional challenges that come with remote work, they also report that they still prefer working remotely. By providing the resources and support covered in this article, managers can help remote employees to avoid burnout while feeling valued and engaged.
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy and a product geared for fast, easy, and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.