HRD Roundtable Report: Reducing Burnout through Humanized Conversations
- 5 Min Read
The barriers between home and work have been knocked down – we live where we work, work where we live, and are always accessible, even when in neither of these places. In a recent Korn Ferry study, 89% of professionals feel they are suffering from burnout, and 81% say they are more burned out now […]
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- Date of Event: Oct 13, 2022
The barriers between home and work have been knocked down – we live where we work, work where we live, and are always accessible, even when in neither of these places. In a recent Korn Ferry study, 89% of professionals feel they are suffering from burnout, and 81% say they are more burned out now than at the start of the pandemic. HR leaders and managers are more focussed than ever on looking after their people – so why are we not seeing an impact?
This conversation was led by Kasia Curry, Global Wellbeing Leader at Baker Hughes, with a group of senior HR and people leaders from across North America. The report below has been anonymised.
What are we doing already?
The group started by addressing the strategies they are employing to tackle burnout in their businesses currently. Ideas include:
- Priority days – a Friday every quarter where the business closes, and employees are encouraged to spend the day however they would like.
- Summer Fridays – where possible, employees are encouraged to take Fridays off during the summer period.
- No meeting Fridays – where employees are instead encouraged to do their focus work and deep work, without worrying about extra meetings.
- Employee recognition platforms – creating the opportunity for employees to recognise each other for good work, help and support. This also gives managers something to call on and recognise in 121s
- Scheduling emails and disclaimers – a common one being ‘my working hours may not be yours’. This gives people the flex to work when they want to, without pressuring others to do the same.
- Restructuring shift patterns to allow for longer breaks – giving people the opportunity to really reset and separate from work. This could be paired with an initiative like discounted massages or other perks, to encourage proper uptake.
The role of leaders
There seems to be two common threads to challenges with burnout and supporting leaders to manage it.
The first being around role-modelling. With ideas like summer Fridays off and no meeting days, leadership must also recognise these and use them, otherwise their team members will not feel empowered to. For no meeting days, the expectation must be set at a higher level – how many employees would feel able to decline a meeting invite sent by their manager?
The second challenge is that even when a leader recognises the signs of burnout in their team, they may not have the skills to address it. Mental health is personal and still very sensitive in the workplace, and we can’t expect our managers to have the tools of a therapist.
How can we begin to change this? One participant shared how they have begun running small workshops of about 20-30 people on how to manage burnout in your team, and to develop the soft skills needed. This is a resource intensive option but impactful. Down the line, this could also become a ‘train the trainer’, to develop the capability in house.
Remote connectivity
An increase in remote and dispersed working does make it more difficult for people to feel a personal connection. Things like encouraging cameras to be on during meetings can help build a face-to-face comradery. We need to be conscious of issues like zoom fatigue, but ideally people will also get comfortable to the point that they don’t feel like they must be ‘done up’ to be on video (beyond just normal professional standards). The group also discussed the value in encouraging quick ad hoc calls, rather than long pre-scheduled meetings – this creates more of the ‘popping by someone’s desk’ feeling and makes video calls less of an event.
Culture change
Changing the conversation around burnout needs to be a wider culture change as well. Many employees and leaders focus on their productivity, often as a point of pride. Whilst this isn’t always a bad thing, organisations need to ensure there is also room for compassion and empathy, and not just ‘this needs to get done.’
Part of this change can also be in how we approach the office space. As organisations think about asking people to spend more time in the office, they need to make clear the purpose and value of that time. The office can be full of ‘good distractions’ – conversations and interactions that build closeness with colleagues. People shouldn’t feel guilty about using office time to connect, and not just do deep work.
Culture is of course also about creating an environment where people feel like they can raise their hands to say they feel burnt out. This is difficult to achieve. The participants on this group agreed that this can be easier for newer colleagues, with higher expectations, than long standing ones.
One participant shared their success with ‘unplugged’ sessions – a member of the exec team meets with a group of supervisors and managers for a closed hour session. This time is used for an information discussion of some of the pitfalls and derails they’ve experienced in their careers – not just the highlights reel! This encourages the mindset that it’s ok to fail sometimes, make the wrong calls and not have the perfect career path. Another participant ran sessions called ‘Everyone Struggles Differently’, again really driving home the human side of the leadership team.
Tools and tech
Tech alone won’t solve the issues discussed today; however, it can help highlight hotspots and trends before they become major problems. With workload for example – can we see where people are working extra hours, and therefore redistribute? Organisational pulses give a view of longer-term sentiment than individual surveys, which can be in the moment responses.
