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Employee Burnout in 2023: 3 Key Benefits to Help

Employee Burnout in 2023: 3 Key Benefits to Help

by | Feb 10, 2023 | Blog

Employee burnout in 2023: 3 key benefits to help. Help your employees fight back against burnout in 2023 with these 3 solutions.

Burnout remains a persistent problem for today’s employees and can have significant consequences for health, mental well-being and performance. A recent Slack survey found that 43% of middle managers reported burnout in 2022.

Luckily, the right wellness tools can help your employees manage their level of burnout and stay on top of their game. Here are three benefits your business can provide to keep employees happy and healthy.

3 Top Benefits to Help Fight Employee Burnout in 2023

Burnout is the physical or emotional exhaustion that stems from taxing work environments or difficult outside circumstances. 

Burnout might occur when someone is forced to work long hours at a stressful job over a significant period of time. These factors might affect people in a multitude of ways in the workplace, including increased fatigue, irritability and a lack of motivation.

Here are three key benefits that can combat burnout among your team.

1. Invest in comprehensive financial education.

Financial stress is one of the most widespread determinants to an employee’s mental health. The 2020 pandemic caused a global financial crisis that still has lasting effects to this day. With a looming recession and inflation increasing living expenses, financial stress is not uncommon for employees around the country. With the added strain, many workers experience elevated levels of burnout.

Financial education plays a crucial role in promoting wellness and limiting stress in the workplace. In a study conducted by TalentLMS, 68% of employees said they were more likely to stay longer at their current job if their employer offered them financial wellness benefits. 

By providing education programs, workshops and resources, you can help your employees gain the knowledge and skills they need to manage their finances effectively. These skills include budgeting, debt management and advice on career advancement. 

2. Tackle employee burnout head-on with mental health resources.

Burnout also leads to detrimental effects on employee mental health. In a recent survey conducted by Bankrate and Psych Central, 42% of respondents claimed that money was negatively impacting their mental health. The stress of possibly losing a job, being unable to pay bills or having issues supporting a family can be taxing for anyone, but are especially difficult without the proper resources.

This is why mental health initiatives in the workplace are vital for creating a positive work environment and supporting the overall well-being of employees. They are essential for employees to be productive, engaged and able to handle the demands of their job. 

In fact, according to a 2022 American Psychological Association study, 81% of employees agree that how employers support their mental health would be a factor in choosing a job. 

The option for flexible working conditions is similarly cited as an important factor to consider when creating an environment that supports mental health. These schedules can allow employees to complete tasks on their own time, limiting stress and burnout. In a Skynova study that surveyed 1,000 work-from-home employees, 9 in 10 workers said that a flexible schedule can help businesses retain top talent.

3. Use DEI initiatives to broaden your impact for all employees.

Inclusivity in the workplace ties directly into the rates of burnout that employees feel. According to a Gallup poll, employees who strongly agreed that they are accepted and valued in their companies were 52% less likely to be feeling high levels of burnout. Also, those who reported feeling like a valued member of their team are 57% less likely to be experiencing burnout.

In a 2022 ICIMS study, 89% of the 1,000 employees surveyed said that DEI in some form was important to them. The study also found that 56% of respondents were more likely to work for an employer that promotes diversity in the workplace.

Providing wellness benefits is an excellent way for you to improve the overall well-being of your employees. By focusing on these initiatives, you can create a significantly more engaging environment for your employees that limits burnout. These benefits can also improve retention, as your employees will feel valued and supported.

Help your team fight employee burnout with powerful financial wellness tools from Best Money Moves.

Best Money Moves is a financial wellness solution designed to help dial down employees’ most top-of-mind financial stresses. As a comprehensive financial wellbeing solution, Best Money Moves offers 1:1 money coaching, budgeting tools and other resources to improve employee financial wellbeing, regardless of one’s income level and background. Our AI platform, with a human-centered design, is easy to use and fit for employees of any age and financial background. 

Whether it be college planning or securing a mortgage, Best Money Moves can guide employees through the most difficult financial times and topics. Our dedicated resources, partner offerings and 700+ article library make Best Money Moves a leading benefit in bettering employee financial wellness.

To learn more about Best Money Moves Financial Wellness Platform, let’s schedule a call. Contact us and we’ll reach out to you soon.

4 Ways to Combat Zoom Fatigue While Working Remotely

4 Ways to Combat Zoom Fatigue While Working Remotely

by | Apr 14, 2021 | Blog

4 ways to combat zoom fatigue while working remotely.  Zoom has been an invaluable tool for keeping workforces connected throughout the pandemic, but overuse could lead to burnout. 

Remote work helps you gain back commute time and you can easily connect team members across the country through the Internet. However, after months of working remotely, more and more employees are finding themselves with a new problem: Zoom fatigue.

What is Zoom Fatigue?

Zoom fatigue, as identified and studied by researchers in places like the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, is a type of burnout associated with virtual calls.  Zoom fatigue can be caused by a number of factors, but the biggest seems to be that the cognitive load of virtual meetings is actually higher than what employees experience in-person. Workers strain to stay engaged behind a screen and interpret conversations with significantly less non-verbal cues than we do in person.

How can you avoid zoom fatigue?

Researchers have found there are four ways to combat zoom fatigue while working remotely. Try to adopt the following:

1. After meetings, take time out to rest your eyes.

Stanford researchers suggest that the increased levels of eye contact that occur during virtual meetings can feel unnatural and exhausting. So, following meetings, it’s a good idea to take a break from the screen. A walk outside, a stretch or a snack can go a long way toward giving your eyes and brain a break — just try not to trade one screen for another and avoid picking up your phone or turning on the television to unwind. You might also try a break strategy such as the 20-20-20 rule. This rule, developed by Jeffrey Anshel, states that every 20 minutes you should look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

2. Learn how to organize your Zoom screen to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Seeing a person up-close and face-to-face is intense, and can leave our brains feeling stressed or on-edge. So, the default speaker-view of many zoom calls may not actually be ideal. Does the intensity of looking at one person in speaker-view throw you off? Or does seeing a speaker up close help you better read their facial expressions? If your camera is on, do you fixate on yourself? Or does it help you focus to know that your coworkers can see you? Organizing the way you see yourself and others in Zoom calls may help you feel less overwhelmed and gradually reduce Zoom fatigue.  Look for tutorials to optimize your experience, just make sure you know what you want.

3. Aim to define the difference between your workspace and your home.

This can be hard to achieve when we’re literally working from home, but sometimes Zoom fatigue is simply a product of feeling like the work day never ends. Look for ways to make a clearer divide in your day. Try working from a dedicated space that helps you feel “in the office.” Consider putting on work clothes even if you don’t leave the house, just to put your best foot forward for the day.

You might also want to work set hours. This one is important, especially with regards to Zoom fatigue. Make sure your meetings have hard end times as well as start times. This keeps everyone efficient and allows you to plan your breaks with more time in advance. Take these breaks seriously and try not to schedule back-to-back meetings if you can.

4. Before you agree to Zoom, confirm that a meeting is in fact needed.

Zoom has been an amazing tool in maintaining some semblance of normalcy and connection in our workspaces. However, if you know that you or your coworkers are suffering Zoom Fatigue from constant video calls, ask yourself before your next call: Is a face-to-face meeting really the best course of action? Would detailed written instructions or an articulate email suffice? If so, maybe take a break from the Zoom altogether and opt for an approach that will allow yourself and your team members to work at your own pace.

If you want to learn more about how Best Money Moves can bring financial wellness to your company, download our whitepapers.

Reducing Employee Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Reducing Employee Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic

by | Sep 15, 2020 | Blog

Reducing employee burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s driving employee burnout during COVID-19 and what employers can do about it.

Employee burnout has skyrocketed to 58 percent, according to research by Eagle Hill Consulting. It’s up from 45 percent in the early days of the pandemic and over a third of workers attribute their burnout to circumstances related to COVID-19, up from 25 percent in April.

“This level of burnout is problematic and could increase as millions of employees continue to work from home, and many schools remain unable to fully open. We’re in this pandemic for the long haul, and employers have got to find a way to make workloads sustainable for employees and better equip managers to lead. Otherwise, companies risk harming their bottom line and brand,” said Melissa Jezior, president and chief executive officer of Eagle Hill Consulting.

Reducing Employee Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic

These are the top five drivers of employee burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic that Eagle Hill Consulting identified in their recent research:

  • 47 percent of employees say their burnt out from their workload.
  • 39 percent say it’s from balancing work and their personal life.
  • 37 percent say it stems from a lack of communication, feedback and support.
  • 30 percent say they’re under time pressures and expectations are unclear.
  • 28 percent point to performance expectations.

Research from Yale University found that employees experiencing burnout reported high demands and high resources while employees who were ‘optimally’ engaged reported low to moderate demands and high resources. ‘Optimally’ engaged employees had support from their supervisors through rewards and received recognition without having to struggle with cumbersome bureaucracy, demands for concentration, or heavy workloads. 

Many organizations are adapting to remote workforces during the pandemic and it’s important that they manage their expectations during the transition and provide workers with resources they need to thrive in a work-from-home environment.  

Employers that want to reduce the negative impact employee burnout has on productivity, employee engagement, job satisfaction and rentention should monitor workloads and common signs of burnout (exhaustion, frustration, anxiety, inability to keep up with daily tasks) to find out when it’s time to dial demands back and expand resources. The addition of wellness programs can ease stress and help employees better maintain a work-life balance, but if demands are too high employees will still burnout.

More on Topics Related to Employee Burnout and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Helping Employees During Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic

Preparing for Virtual Open Enrollment in 2020

Coronavirus 2020: Effectively Working from Home

The Caregiver Crisis at Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic

How to Build Remote Work Culture to Support Virtual Teams

How 10 Top Companies Improved Employee Benefits This Year

How 10 Top Companies Improved Employee Benefits This Year

by | Dec 14, 2016 | Blog

In this week’s Best Money Moves roundup, we take a look at news stories and new research studies that may impact employee benefits and HR issues. We hope you find this news roundup helpful, and we’d love your feedback.

2016 saw many changes to the employee benefits industry and companies have been implementing big changes to the benefits they’re offering to full-time, part-time and even contract employees.

Student loan repayment assistance was one of the most popular new employee benefits offered this past year, and programs allow employers to help reduce their employees’ financial stress by contributing dollars to help employees pay down their student loans faster. Staples and Pricewaterhouse Coopers added this benefit this year, while startup Boxed took it one step further – paying wedding expenses for their employees and college tuition for employees’ children. Learn how 10 companies raised the benefits bar this year.

The way an employee quits can tell you a lot about your company. A by-the-book, in-person resignation with a notice period is the most common, but a rash of abrupt exits could be a sign of deeper company problems. Here are the seven most common ways people quit and what they mean for your organization.

A recent study ranked Switzerland as the top country for attracting, retaining and developing talent for the third year in a row. Here’s what we can learn from the Swiss about building better workplaces.

Financial stress isn’t just about the numbers on your account statement. Financial stress can also cause physical symptoms. Learn the signs of financial-stress-induced illness.

Tuition assistance remains a popular employee benefit, but the programs need to be user-friendly for employees to take advantage of them. Here’s how to pick the program that best fits your employees’ needs.

Study abroad programs aren’t just for students anymore. A Pricewaterhouse Coopers study found that moving staff to offices abroad is good for personal career growth and the success of the business. Here’s how “employee exchange programs” can strengthen employee retention.

Employee stress is bad for business. It lowers productivity and increases turnover – both of which are situations HR managers want to avoid. These strategies can help lower stress in your workplace.

American Express is the latest company to add an extended parental leave program to its benefits package. Under the new policy, all full- and part-time employees are eligible for 20 weeks of paid parental leave starting in 2017. Here’s why they did it.

Trump’s pick to head the Department of Labor could be good for business owners but not necessarily for employees, experts say. Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, opposes raising the minimum wage and has advocated repealing many of Barack Obama’s pro-labor regulations. Here’s what he could mean for the benefits industry.

What can managers do to prevent employee burnout? When employees at SpotHero started showing signs of burnout, the company took action to improve their office environment.

 

Did you find this Best Money Moves roundup useful? Please let us know. Email us at info@bestmoneymoves.com.

It’s hard to stay on top of everything in the news. That’s why each week our Best Money Moves newsroom will bring you the most important news in financial wellness, employee benefits and financial stress. We hope you like the information and, if you do, please spread the word. For midweek developments, follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.