What employers need to know
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines employee burnout as a syndrome from workplace stress that employers don’t successfully manage, rather than a medical condition. Whether clinically diagnosable or not, burnout is a serious concern that — if unmanaged — could profoundly impact employee health and workplace safety.
What is employee burnout?
If you’re directly or indirectly involved in safety management, add employee burnout to your list of checks to assist your endeavours in maintaining or improving your company’s safety compliance. Burnout is workload and environment-related stress, resulting from unhappy or overworked employees. The WHO characterizes workplace burnout in three occupational dimensions:
- Reduced professional efficacy
- Increased mental distancing from daily tasks, cynicism and negativity
- Feelings of exhaustion or energy depletion
Burnout reduces employees' motivation, productivity, concentration and work quality and negatively impacts their mood and health. This adversely affects workplace safety, so be aware of the signs and find solutions, preferably before burnout affects too many staff members.
An example of burnout’s effect on safety
Imagine you’ve assigned urgent tasks with stringent deadlines for a vital new contract to Machinist X, a skilled and experienced employee. Initially, your top machinist delivers quality results, even working extra hours daily.
Based on quality and prompt delivery, your customer constantly reorders. After a month of overtime, small mistakes appear in Machinist X’s submissions, projects take longer and your employee is irritable toward co-workers. When Machinist X forgets to switch off his machine during lunch one day and calls out the next, you realize something is wrong.
This example personalizes and typifies employee burnout. With increased workload and stress levels, Machinist X’s mood, accuracy, productivity, attention span and excellent work record suffer. By assessing an employee’s workload early and delegating pressing tasks to a wider range of staff members, you manage your team’s mental health, ensuring fewer safety risks through demotivation and concentration lapses.
How to reduce burnout to improve safety compliance
Work-related factors cause the deaths of 2.93 million workers annually. While burnout may contribute directly to only a minor percentage of these, its impact may be higher than you think. Along with implementing safety controls like machine guarding, fall hazard protection and policies against workplace harassment, consider workplace burnout as part of your safety compliance plan.
Employee burnout contributes indirectly to safety-related accidents. Safety officers generally list the direct causes of workplace incidents, but many underlying causes could stem from burnout. Lower concentration levels, fatigue, irritation, anger and demotivation — all signs of burnout — could lead to employees acting unsafely at work, resulting in accidents and incidents that you could otherwise avoid.
Assess your employees’ workload, capabilities and ability to work under pressure. With this knowledge, incorporate processes and work schedules like the following to keep your team productive and motivated.
- Open communication: Give your employees outlets to discuss problems and concerns without fear of reprisal.
- Employee autonomy and decision-making: When employees have freedom and flexibility, rather than being micromanaged, a culture of trust is built, and they can review their progress and discuss concerns and celebrations with their managers.
- Self-care policies: Ensure your employees break regularly and leave their workstations when doing so. Provide tips on healthy eating and productive rest.
- Time diversification: Offer flexible schedules and incentivize your employees with time off to promote their well-being. In a 2024 survey, 36% of employees prefer “work from anywhere” models.
- Workload assessment and task reallocation: Reassign tasks where relevant and consistently assess your employees’ workloads through communication.
Happier employees are safer employees
To establish a better safety compliance record, reduce burnout among your employees. By having a productive, settled and happy workforce, you’ll minimize the chances of safety issues through burnout and its related symptoms.
