Equipping People Leaders With the Right Tools Will Assist in Addressing Employee Burnout, Says HR Research Firm McLean & Company

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Jan 24, 2023, 15:36 ET

While people leaders play a critical role in identifying and addressing individual employee experiences of burnout, without an organization-wide effort, burnout will persist as an issue.

TORONTO, Jan. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Burnout remains a prevalent topic in workplace discourse in 2023, with work-life balance becoming an increasingly important priority for employees when considering job opportunities in a challenging labor market. To support managers and people leaders in their efforts to combat and prevent burnout in the workplace, McLean & Company, the trusted partner of HR and leadership professionals around the world, has released a new industry resource titled Managers Guide: Effectively Identify and Extinguish Burnout.

People leaders have a responsibility to monitor and address the root causes of employee burnout, but require support from the organization to do so. The common causes of burnout fall into six core domains: Workload, Role Clarity & Autonomy, Supervisor & Co-Worker Relationships, Recognition & Rewards, Fairness & Equity, and Employee & Organizational Values. (CNW Group/Mclean & Company)

"Inclusive leadership behaviors establish a team culture that reduces the collective negative employee experiences that lead to burnout," says Kelly Berte, director of HR Research & Advisory at McLean & Company. "Normalizing conversations about burnout and having these conversations regularly is critical to capturing the complexity and depth behind the root causes of employee burnout. Extinguishing organizational and individual burnout requires an intentional approach from both people leaders and the organization itself."

According to McLean & Company's research, efforts to combat and prevent burnout must be accepted as an organizational responsibility. Organizations must implement structural and cultural policy changes to begin to shift the workplace environment and outcomes of organizational burnout. People leaders, however, are in a unique position to address individual burnout. They have a frontline perspective of individual employee burnout experiences, thereby playing a critical role in reducing burnout within their own teams.

"Curiosity and empathy are some of the key tools that enable people leaders to effectively combat burnout," explains Berte. "Curiosity empowers leaders to discover the root cause of burnout and explore different solutions, while empathy enables them to understand the feelings, perspectives, and needs of employees. Combining the two increases the likelihood of successful burnout solution identification and implementation on an individual level."

To support people leaders in their efforts to identify, address, and prevent individual employee burnout, McLean & Company offers practical resources like Managers Guide: Effectively Identify and Extinguish Burnout.

The new guide from McLean & Company will help managers and people leaders to:

Familiarize themselves with burnout and its causes, signs, and symptoms.
Clarify their role in identifying and addressing burnout within the organization.
Reflect on and combat their own burnout experiences.
Take action in identifying and addressing individual employee experiences of burnout.

McLean & Company notes that as leadership and management all too often view themselves as playing a supporting role to others in the organization, it is common for them to avoid acknowledging their own burnout or asking for help. The reality is that burnout in the workplace affects all levels of employees, including leaders. The guide will assist them in identifying, acknowledging, and addressing burnout not only in their employees but also within their own ranks and themselves, providing data-backed recommendations for action.

The advisory firm cautions that the guide is not meant to be leveraged as a remedy to organizational burnout, but rather as a resource for managers to address burnout at the individual employee level. For a more in-depth solution to organizational burnout, HR professionals and people leaders can download the blueprint Plan to Extinguish Organizational Burnout.

McLean & Company also provides its members with various levels of support designed to meet organizations' unique HR needs, including DIY toolkits, guided implementations, workshops, and dedicated consulting. To access the full collection of research or to learn more about becoming a member, visit hr.mcleanco.com/services or connect via LinkedIn and Twitter.

About McLean & Company

Through data-driven insights and proven best-practice methodologies, McLean & Company offers comprehensive resources and full-service assessments, action plans, and training to position organizations to meet today's needs and prepare for the future.

McLean & Company is a division of Info-Tech Research Group.

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SOURCE McLean & Company