What Burnout Means to Your Organization

Burnout Is Now a Medical Diagnosis. What does this mean for your organization?

The World Health Organization recently announced burnout as a medical diagnosis. This means that doctors can now diagnose people with it. What impact does this have on your organization?

Burnout has been affecting your organization long before WHO classified it as a medical diagnosis. In fact, organizations lose a lot of money and quality people due to burnout each year.

Burnout is an organizational and leadership issue, not an employee issue. If an organization doesn’t have prevention strategies in place, they will see an increase in turnout, healthcare cost, and poor attitudes. They will also see a decrease in performance, productivity, and quality talent.

Harvard Business Review says, “The psychological and physical problems of burned-out employees, which cost an estimated $125 billion to $190 billion a year in healthcare spending in the U.S., are just the most obvious impacts.”

Through my company’s research, we’ve found that about 79% of the workforce is burned out, and almost half of the workforce is in extreme burnout.

With a rise in burnout across industries, now is the time to put prevention strategies in place to help your organization.

Here’s a few to get you started.

1. Top down approach—It begins with leadership. Do your leaders lead or manage? How would your leaders rate their own burnout? If they have burnout, it’s highly unlikely they will recognize the symptoms of burnout in others. Invest in training your leaders on what to look for as burnout signs, so they can tackle it before people get in the midst of burnout.

2. Encourage your people to take several short or mini breaks a day. Your brain cannot process everything that you throw at it. So giving yourself mini breaks allows your brain to recharge for a few minutes. After your short break, you’re able to focus more and get more done faster with less errors.

3. Listen to music. Routines are one of the main contributing factors to burnout. Listening to music breaks up the routines you have in place at work and with your work. It’ll get your brain thinking in a different way and you won’t be focusing on the mundane or routine task. Put on your favorite band and play their best song. If you’re not in a good mood listening to their music, then you need to find another favorite band.

I used to work for an organization who would randomly at various times throughout the day play a song over the intercom. They encouraged us to get up, dance, and sing. It was a great way to put down what you’re doing and let go just for a few minutes. Then I was always so much more focused when I got back to work.

These are just a few strategies to help prevent burnout. I’ll share more in later posts. However, the main burnout prevention tool is awareness. The more aware you are of what leads to your burnout, the more likely you’ll be able to prevent it.

What leads to burnout varies by industry, job position, and person. What leads to your people’s burnout may not be what leads to another department’s burnout. Review your days. Take a look at what causes your people stress. Ask them when they feel most exhausted or depleted?

What can you do to help them change it? Do just one thing.

Implementing more than one thing can be overwhelming.

As a leader, look at your own stress. Where do you need to make a change? What leads to your burnout?

What step do you need to take to change it?

Preventing burnout isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. If your organization wants to retain top talent, grow, or prepare for future success, it’s time to break through burnout to move to the next level.