What is Employee Burnout?

The World Health Organisation has recently stated three defining components of workplace burnout:

1) Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion.

2) Increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job.

3) Reduced professional efficacy.

Employee’s burnout is not just an event, it is a series of activities that has spanned over a range of time.

According to FlexJobs, 75% of workers have experienced burnout, with 40% saying they’ve experienced burnout, specifically during the pandemic. This figure should give a sense of worry to every employer and team lead, considering that the strength of any organisation is its workforce, and it has been proven that companies that prioritise employee experience are more profitable than their competition.

To address this menace among us today, we will need to identify some major causes of employee burnouts, and how you can take advantage of Microsoft Viva Insight features to manage the situation, and improve your team’s productivity.

Major Causes and Signs of Employee Burnout

Lack of control: People thrive more when they feel in control of their time, schedules, or plans. A sense of not being able to influence things as regards your job can lead to burnout.
Overwhelming workload: Heavy workloads can take an emotional toll on people. When employees begin to feel incapable of handling tasks due to it being too much for them, it can lead to a total disconnection from work.
Insufficient Rewards: Rewards includes reasonable pay for the role, but beyond the pay, a lack of social recognition or encouragement for a job well done can negatively impact the performance of employees.
Unclear job expectations: If employees are not certain of what their team leads expect from them, it can make them uncomfortable and eventually lead to burnout and work stress.
Work-life imbalance: Humans are social beings with various commitments outside of their work environment. If employees don’t have enough time to spend with their family or friends due to the time they spend working, it could lead to a burnout.

Some other notable causes of burnout are: extremes of activity, lack of social support, working under extreme pressure, etc.

Signs to look out for to know if employees are experiencing burnouts at work

· Detachment from the workplace culture

· Emotional exhaustion

· Reduced performance

· Loss of motivation and enthusiasm for their job

· Increased mistakes and poor memory

· Inability to make decisions

· Poor sleep habits

· Irritable and more sensitive to feedback

· Increased negativity and cynical outlook

· Increased absenteeism

Having seen some major causes and symptoms of employee burnout, it will be important to see the active role Microsoft Viva is playing to mitigate the effect of burnouts and help organisations produce well engaged and productive employees.

Microsoft Viva Insights’ Response to Burnouts

Microsoft Viva Insights is a part of the Microsoft Viva Suite; the employee experience platform built on Microsoft 365 that empowers people and teams to be their best from wherever they work. Other parts of the Microsoft Viva package include:

Microsoft Viva Topics: Lets you automatically organize content and expertise across your organization, making it easy to find.
Microsoft Viva Connections: Is designed to empower every employee to contribute their best.
Microsoft Viva Learning: Helps employees make learning a natural part of the day by bringing learning into the flow of work with the tools they already use.

Microsoft Viva Insights gives individuals, managers, and leaders personalized and actionable insights that help everyone in an organization thrive and stay productive. You will receive personalized recommendations that will help you do your work efficiently, build better work habits, protect your focus time in the day and, remind you of commitments made to collaborators.

It derives these insights by summarizing your Microsoft 365 data – data that you already have access to – about emails, meetings, calls, and chats.

With Viva Insights, you will be able to:

Stay connected – Stay on top of your collaboration with colleagues through features such as AI-based task suggestions and meeting assistance.
Protect time – Find more time to eliminate distractions, stop multi-tasking, and focus on your core priorities.
Send praise – Send acclaim to your employees and coworkers, either in a private chat or in a Teams channel conversation.
Reflect – Take a moment to check in with yourself, to reflect on how you’re feeling.
Headspace – Experience a guided meditation from Headspace.
Take a break – During your workday, take an occasional one-minute “breathing break.”
Start a virtual commute – Mindfully close out your workday.
Use Microsoft To-Do – Take action on a task in your to-do list.

Employee burnout is a serious issue that needs urgent attention. The way we do business today has drastically changed ever since the pandemic, and we must be able to protect the interest of employees in our organisation.

We will wrap this article with some quotes from CEOs of successful organisations on how they view employee engagement.

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

Anne M. Mulcahy – former CEO of Xerox

“Treating employees benevolently shouldn’t be viewed as an added cost that cuts into profits, but as a powerful energizer that can grow the enterprise into something far greater than one leader could envision.”

Harold Schultz – founder and former CEO of Starbucks

“People leave when they don’t feel appreciated. That’s why we’ve made recognition a really high value. Our business is people-capability first; then you satisfy customers; then you make money.”

David Novak – former CEO of YUM! Brands

We believe that Microsoft Viva is an exciting development for every organization with a Microsoft 365 digital workplace, and by leveraging the capabilities of Microsoft Viva Insights, we can help create a happier and resilient workforce!

Should you love to have further discussions, reach out to us today via email: marketing@ha-shem.com.