Work can quickly move from a passion to a pain if employees work themselves to the point of burnout. Before you know it, your best team members are shadows of themselves. If you don’t stop it before it happens, you might end up with a large portion of your staff “quiet quitting.” They do less and less at work until they find something better and actually quit. The good news is that burnout is not inevitable. Here are the top tech solutions to keep your employees engaged and energized at work.
Block Distractions
Distractions come at you from every direction. At home, at work, and even in the most private moments, someone needs your attention, or your electronics are dinging and pinging at you. In an office setting, many employees are pulled in a million directions, with emails, texts, and chats. Add to that the external noise of interruptions from colleagues and “critical” staff meetings, and you’ve got a recipe for overwhelm.
One way to help quiet all that noise is to use a website blocker to cut out unnecessary distractions. You can’t help the fact that your team members have busy days with lots of irons in the fire. But you can prevent them from adding even more to their plate when they log on to scroll unapproved websites or check their social media. Set a firm boundary around what sites are acceptable during work hours, and then install the blocker to back up that policy.
Provide Mental Health Apps and Virtual Counseling
But wait, you say. There’s still all that other noise. How can you possibly help that? It’s true. Companies are in a tricky position of hiring and maintaining just the right amount of staff to get the job done without losing revenue. That means you have to count on your team to juggle a lot of tasks. At the same time, you realize that your team members are humans living in a fast-paced, demanding world, both at home and at work.
You can provide a balm for their hectic schedules and their need for a better work-life balance through mental health apps. Apps like Headspace and Calm can remind your staff to take time throughout the day to rest their minds, relax, and get some quality self-care. They can also provide daily tips for time management, stress relief, and even therapy techniques. To take this a step further, you can offer virtual counseling with licensed therapists via apps like Talkspace and BetterHelp.
Give Wearable Devices
A big problem for many people of all ages and backgrounds today is a lack of movement. The United States population struggles with obesity and Type 2 diabetes in ways it never has in the past. A large part of this problem is related to Americans’ sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits. Sitting at a desk all day, eating junk food, and stressing out at work can easily lead to low energy, negative feelings, and, yes, burnout.
To combat this serious health issue, many companies are giving their employees wearable devices to keep better track of their bodies. One CEO in China is even tying bonuses to how much employees exercise each month. While you don’t have to go to that extreme, there are definitely connections between your employees’ health and how they feel and perform at work. Support their health by helping them stay mindful of their steps, heart rate, sleep, and other health metrics.
Restrict After-Hours Communication
For some reason, work in the United States has become a round-the-clock affair. The global pandemic that sent people fleeing into their homes to work likely had much to do with it. But even before that, many team members were responding to emails well into the night and having work meetings on Zoom during breakfast with their families. The inability to ever be “off” from work is sure to add more stress and pressure to employees who deserve time away from the grind.
Companies can have a huge impact on this culture by changing their policies around communication outside of work hours. In France, it’s actually illegal to email employees after work hours. Again, you don’t have to take it that far, but you can use this clear shift as a sign that it’s time to scale back. Let your employees know that they don’t have to respond to communication after hours, and ensure your managers are not sending those emails, either.
Gamify Training and Development
Face it: no matter how passionate you are about your job, there are days when it’s just boring. Too many of those days without a break, and the work starts to become tedious. You find you no longer have a zeal for the work you do, and you burn out. Sure, you can climb the ladder and aim for a promotion, but if you don’t get it, or it’s not an option, you feel stuck. And that stuck feeling leads quickly to burnout.
Employers have the power to unstick their employees, or even get to them before they burn out, by making work fun. Make something fun, and it stops being work. You can do this by introducing gamification to your team. Offer training and development, which will keep your employees primed for the next raise or promotion. And offer it through virtual games, so they’re competing, playing, and enjoying getting even better at their jobs.
In the end, burnout is not an inevitability. It comes as a result of employees who don’t take care of themselves and workplaces that forget their employees are human. There are many steps you can take to help your team stay engaged, energized, and even excited about their work. Start by removing distractions and offering opportunities for wellness. From there, it’s just a matter of making the office a fun and encouraging place to be.
