How to effectively identify and reduce stress and burnout in the workplace

In 2020, $543 million was paid in workers compensation claims related to mental health alone, according to SafeWork Australia.

The number one culprit causing mental health issues at work is stress and burnout. Acting early to remove the causes of stress can reduce its impact on employee mental health. However, there is still stigma around mental health in the workplace and stress is often dismissed as ‘normal’ at work. If left unaddressed, Australian businesses will bare huge monetary and productivity losses.

According to Australian insurer CGU, 20% of their workers’ compensation claims were related to mental health. Based on their data from 2020 and the previous year, the insurer stated that claims related to mental health can result in considerably higher claims costs compared to claims related to physical injuries alone. The costs can even increase fourfold if there are accompanying psychological injuries.

The issue around mental health has also been recognised by the Queensland government, who, in January 2023, implemented a mental health levy to payroll tax to fund mental health and associated services.

Mental health issues, stress and burnout, can also cost businesses in unanticipated ways, including loss in productivity, poor customer service or client care, and poor employer brand reputation. The first step before being able to identify stress and burnout in your employees is to understand that stress and burnout are not the same.

The difference between stress and burnout

Employers can only decide the right actions to take if they understand what stress and burnout really mean.

Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain resulting from demanding circumstances, whereas burnout is an ‘occupational phenomenon’ caused by prolonged exposure to chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, as defined by the World Health Organisation.

An employee that has worked in a role for only 6 months can become burnt out. In fact, no one is immune to burnout, including your most productive employees. In a survey conducted by Deloitte, 87% of employees expressed their passion for their work, although, 64% of those stated they experienced frequent stress.

Burnout can lead to serious physical and psychological illnesses such as depression, heart disease and diabetes if left untreated.

How to identify stress and burnout in employees

Symptoms of stress and burnout can manifest in a variety of ways. Although there is some crossover, identifying the differences between stress and burnout symptoms can help you understand whether your employees are stressed or if they’ve reached the point of burnout.

Below are two lists to help you identify stress and burnout:

Indicators of stress in employees

• Arguments within or between teams
• High turnover
• Reports of stress
• Increased sickness absenteeism
• Decreased performance
• Complaints and grievances
• Employees arriving to work later than usual
• Employees being withdrawn
• Employees losing confidence, commitment and motivation
• Increased aggression, mood swings and irritability
• Impatience and low tolerance
• Diminished creativity and initiative

Indicators of burnout in employees

• Decreased productivity and performance
• Loss of purpose
• Increased mistakes
• Lack of care, commitment, participation and contribution
• The employee feels as though their accomplishments and efforts are insignificant or are not up to standard
• Increased cynicism towards other employees or departments
• The employee is no longer coachable or not open to feedback
• The employee is detached from the company

Even with the indicators above, it can be hard to spot if your employees are stressed or burnt out due to stigma causing many employees to keep it to themselves.

Employers need to create an environment where their employees feel comfortable to express work-related concerns and issues without fear of judgement or negative consequences. Practising active listening will provide employees reassurance but it is only after you take action that they will feel heard and truly supported.

Taking action to reduce the causes of stress and burnout

Causes of work-related stress, a non-exhaustive list

Causes of stress spread over everything related to an employee’s working environment, the people they work with, and the work that they do.

Causes related to an employee’s working environment

• Uncomfortable or inadequate working conditions – e.g. too hot/cold, too dark/light, no sunlight, etc
• A work environment that is unsupportive of employees raising matters regarding mental health, stress or burnout
• Poor workstation ergonomics
• Long commutes
• Dramatic organisational changes
• Crisis incidents – e.g. armed hold-up or workplace death

Causes related to an employee’s colleague

• Poor organisational culture
• Bullying and harassment
• Discrimination

Causes related to an employee’s role and its responsibilities

• Requirement of intensive physical or mental labour to perform responsibilities
• Pressing deadlines
• Lack of support or proper resources/training to complete job responsibilities
• Confusion about job responsibilities
• Role conflict
• Heavy workload
• Long hours
• Lack of autonomy or boring work
• Job insecurity
• Few promotional opportunities

Causes of burnout

As mentioned earlier, long term stress can lead to burnout. Therefore, you may notice that some of the causes below overlap with the causes of stress. Below, we’ve listed the leading causes of burnout.

• Unclear expectations regarding task standards and responsibilities
• Poor communication between managers and employees, and between teams
• Being overworked or underappreciated
• Feeling the need to be constantly connected to work
• Working in a toxic environment
• Lack of support from a manager and/or team members
• Being micromanaged or having lack of autonomy

Creating a stress- and burnout-free workplace

Earlier we mentioned that a safe working environment will encourage employees to speak up when they are experiencing stress or burnout. To do so, employers need to show that they care about their employees, through active listening and taking action. These actions will help to destigmatise mental health, stress and burnout in the workplace.

Taking action will be different depending on what the cause is. In general, below are ways that businesses can create stress free workplace.

Provide sufficient training

Ensuring that employees are properly trained for their roles or have access to needed training will reduce stress related to an employee feeling they are not able to perform a role. Providing training can also help employees to understand what standards are expected of them.

Start by looking at an employee’s role responsibilities and finding courses that could help them to further develop relevant skills. It can be hard to see what skills are needed from the outside, especially in specialised roles. In this case, it is useful to ask employees where they feel they need or want further development.

Showing that you are committed to an employee’s development will confirm to them that there is room for growth within your organisation – an attractive incentive that increases employee retention and a great selling point for prospective employees.

Allow employees to have more say over their responsibilities

Asking employees what they want out of their role and what they enjoy doing will increase autonomy and create a sense of responsibility that gives employees purpose in what they do.

When it comes to role responsibilities, it may be hard to let employees take control but trusting them can open a world of potential for them, and your company if they perform well.

Opening these doors will allow you to look at the employee’s current workload and understand what they may dislike or enjoy doing more. Shifting their role in the direction they enjoy more can lead to a more productive employee. Of course, it’s not always possible or feasible to remove all disliked job responsibilities, but not doing so can quickly lead to burnout if the employee takes on too much.

Consider hiring a human resource manager

If you don’t have an HR manager already, doing so could help to remove stress and burnout from the environment. Having a HR manager is an effective strategy because it gives employees a person to speak to if they don’t yet feel comfortable speaking about stress or burnout to their manager or colleagues. HR managers will also be experienced in handling such matters and implementing effective strategies in line with the business and employee’s interests.

Reprioritise or distribute employee role responsibilities

This could involve removing some tasks, reassessing the way certain tasks are completed, redelegating tasks to other employees whose workloads may be less stressful, or employing more employees. Doing so may reduce overtime, giving employees more time back in their own lives, and feeling less of a need to be constantly connected to work.

Encourage employees to speak to a professional

Whether you are aware of any cases of stress or burnout. Encouraging employees to speak to a professional is powerful advice. A gentle reminder can be all it takes to encourage a suffering employee to ask for help.

Your business may also consider providing an employee assistance program. Health professionals can be expensive and inaccessible, so providing an employee assistance program could make it easier for employees to get help.

Don’t throw incentives at employees that don’t address their causes of stress or burnout

Often managers will throw incentives such as care packages, paid vacations or gift cards at employees hoping that the situation will disappear. While these might seem attractive at the time, they don’t solve the root cause of stress or burnout.

Instead, if offering incentives is a solution you want to implement, make it tailored to address the employee’s cause of stress or burnout. An example could be the employee assistance program we mentioned earlier, if the cause of stress or burnout is that employees don’t feel they are supported to talk about it at work.

The key to removing, or at least reducing, stress and burnout from the workplace is for managers to be receptive of the signs that show up. Only then can managers take proper action and prevent the often-irreversible consequences of stress and burnout.

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