Effective Strategies for Preventing Burnout in Teams

Employee burnout is a huge concern for modern businesses.  In fact, around 76% of employees go through it at some time. This situation is really concerning, because burnout doesn't just affects their performance, but that of those around them.  And the team as a whole.  And that of the manager...

You need a proper strategy for burnout prevention if you want to improve people's work experience and keep hold of talent.  So here we provide ideas for preventing burnout in your own team.

All About Burnout

Burnout is a feeling of complete physical and mental exhaustion.  It usually happens when people experience long and excessive stress. This state is a chronic condition. It negatively impacts your workers' productivity and health.

Actually, the WHO defined burnout as an occupational phenomenon. The main characteristics of this state are fatigue and a distant or negative attitude toward the job and colleagues. Also, people often experience a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of achievement in their tasks.

What are the main reasons for burnout?

• Overwhelming workload
• No chance to make decisions
• Unclear job expectations
• Workplace conflicts
• Lack of appropriate support
• Repetitive tasks

Understanding these reasons is your first step in creating a more positive work environment.

Top Strategies for Balancing People's Workload

You already understand the concept of burnout. There's a combination of reasons that might cause this state. However, a lack of workload balance is probably the most common one.

Too many responsibilities and not enough time for personal life usually worsen people's mental state. So, it's important to find a balance.  We've gathered some methods for balancing workload that you might use.

Assess and prioritize tasks

First, evaluate all the work you have in hand. List all the current tasks and understand their scope and impact. Then you'll need to categorize them by importance.

You can use the Eisenhower Matrix for this purpose. It divides tasks into four categories:

• Urgent and Important that require immediate attention
• Not Urgent but Important that you have to handle but can schedule for later
• Urgent but Not Important that might be delegated
• Neither Urgent nor Important that you can eliminate

Also, you can incorporate other prioritization techniques, like ABCDE or Bubble sort. Their purpose is the same. You just have to decide which one is more convenient for you.

Encourage open communication

The next strategy you can use is to encourage open communication.  Focus on creating a trusting environment within your team.  Your staff should feel comfortable discussing their workload.

Try to host regular check-ins where your employees can share updates and express their concerns.  Tools like the GetProspect free email finder can simplify communication efforts, making it easier to connect with external contacts and build stronger support systems. You can also set up anonymous feedback channels. This will make communication more honest, as your workers won't be scared of judgment.

And open communication will allow you to identify workload imbalances early. Which means you can handle them before they lead to burnout. And active listening shows your staff that you're actually committed to their wellness.

Use the strengths of each member of your team

You need to understand the unique strengths - and weaknesses - of each team member. It allows you to distribute tasks more evenly and delegate if someone can't manage them.

Try to assign tasks based on the knowledge and skills of your members. That way, everyone can focus on something within their expertise. Also, consider what they're more passionate about. It will give your employees more motivation to give good results.
We also recommend offering tasks that can challenge and develop skills.  So each person will feel they are growing.

You can use a skills matrix to map team capabilities. It includes information about

• Skills and competencies
• Employee data
• Training needs
• Current qualifications
• Date of last assessment

It will help you identify areas for improvement or redistribution of tasks.  In this way you can create a better plan for success.

Encourage working together

You need to create a collaborative environment. Proper distribution of tasks and teamwork will help you reduce heavy workloads.

You can use different collaborative tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams for better communication. Also, consider organizing cross-functional teams.  This will give your workers the possibility to share their knowledge and distribute work more evenly.



You can also create a “buddy” system. This means connecting your workers in pairs, depending on:

• Similar hobbies and backgrounds
• Diversity in skills and experience
• Communication skills

They will feel more comfortable with trusting the person they're with.  And cooperation and workload distribution will become less pressured.

Set achievable deadlines

Another great way to balance the workload is to set deadlines in a realistic and balanced way. Above all, avoid situations where some periods are filled with work and others are slack or even empty.

You also need to set timelines that lower the pressure on your team members. Here are some things you can do:

• Break down bigger projects into manageable milestones
• Consult team members about their availability and needs
• Allow ample time for unexpected delays or problems

Giving ample time for each task will reduce the levels of stress for your staff. They'll become more focused, which improves the quality of work as a result.

Monitor workloads regularly

Next, we recommend you track activity and workloads using focused analytics and reporting tools. You'll then be able to:

• Review task completion rates
• Set up dashboards to gather all the details
• Conduct periodic workload surveys

This constant monitoring will help you identify trends and notice any issues. So, you can intervene before they escalate.

Encourage routine breaks

The last in our list of techniques is promoting regular breaks in the workplace. This will help your employees balance their work and rest.

For instance, you can invite them to take a break after a 90-minute work session.  It will help them to avoid mental fatigue and - with a clearer mind - improve their concentration.



Also, you can introduce activities like walking meetings, so your staff can combine movement with productivity. And encourage them to use different apps that will send notifications about having rest.

Remember, that a well-rested team is a productive team!

Preventing Burnout in IT Teams

Now, we want to highlight the importance of preventing the kind of burnout that tends to happen in IT teams.  IT specialists are often faced with intense pressure from tight deadlines and unrealistic expectations.  So, you need to find a way to keep their morale and productivity high.
Here are a few ideas you can try out.

Offer flexible work policies

Workloads are usually pretty unpredictable.  They might be too stressed when tons of new tasks appear. So, you need to give them more flexibility for balancing it.

For example, you can give them the chance to work remotely – if their job allows it, of course.  It will reduce commute stress and give them more time of their own.  And you can introduce some form of flexible hours to accommodate different working styles.  Your people will be more relaxed if they can work at a convenient time.

And encourage each member to regularly take paid time off.  But make sure you can organize the work and distribute tasks properly during their absence!

Automate repetitive tasks

You can automate some tasks when you work in a digital field. That way, your employees can concentrate on creative initiatives instead of spending time on mundane work.

Companies in the holiday and entertainment sectors often use specialized travel and hospitality software to reorganize routine tasks to improve efficiency, reducing the risk of employee burnout.
How about the following?

• Use scripts or tools to automate routine maintenance tasks
• Invest in automated monitoring and alerting systems
• Use DevOps practices to integrate and automate workflows.

Support their learning

The IT world is always changing and people who work within it need to keep up with what's happening.  But as you can imagine, trying to stay updated all the time can feel overwhelming at times.   If you help them by providing access to external resources, you'll boost confidence and encourage loyalty.
If you're going to do this, you need to give your workers access to:

• The right training platform
• Worthwhile certifications
• Industry events and seminars

Try to allocate structured time for learning during work hours. And it's important to recognize (and even reward) their efforts to upskill. It will motivate them even more to continue their professional growth.

Promote a healthy work-life balance

If there's little or no balance between work and personal life, you'll invite burnout.  So make sure you promote habits that will help your team recharge to avoid it.



Make sure that nobody deals with emails and messages after work hours, unless it's absolutely urgent. Offer your employees to participate in different wellness initiatives, like:

• Gym memberships
• Mindfulness practices
• Onsite physical exercise
• Healthy lunches and snack programs
• Activity clubs, and more

Also, you should set realistic expectations for their response times. So, they won't feel too stressed to keep in touch all the time.

Celebrate success!

Many IT people get burned out simply because they don't feel a sense of achievement. That's why you need to acknowledge their hard work and highlight important milestones.
For example, you can:

• Celebrate project completions with team lunches or informal events
• Offer useful rewards like gift cards, discounts or additional vacation days
• Highlight individual contributions in company communication channels

Conclusion

More than half of IT people face a state of major burnout at least once.  It negatively impacts their productivity and the efficiency of your company.  So, you need to take every measure possible to prevent this situation - and doing it early on will be much easier than clearing up major problems in the future.

Make sure you put more effort into balancing workloads and creating an environment where people work together. And be sure to give your team more flexibility and support! This will make them feel valued and comfortable in their working environment.

We hope you found some useful ideas in this guide. Read it again, applying it to your own situation.  Pick out the parts that seem realistic for you.  What can you use?  You don't need to do everything at once: just try some of them out.  Remember that every journey, however long, starts with the first step…