Employee burnout is a big issue that the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated. As a small or medium-sized business leader, there are strategies you can deploy to take control of this issue by outsourcing tasks to skilled professionals.

Employee burnout can have a significant impact on your bottom line as superstar employees leave for pastures new and remaining team members get further overloaded with tasks.

Signs of Burnout:

Fatigue, Appearance, Performance, Achievement, Social Isolation

What Is Burnout and What Are the Signs?

Burnout is a constellation of physical and emotional symptoms that come from work-related stress. When an employee is burnt out, they experience a reduced sense of accomplishment, personal identity loss, and emotional exhaustion.

Burnout can affect employees' mental and physical health and decrease employee retention. Use the following signs to help you identify employees who are experiencing burnout:

• Fatigue: Look for visibly apparent signs employees aren't getting enough sleep
• Appearance: Unmotivated body language, dejected posture
• Performance: Lack of focus leading to impaired performance, increased errors
• Achievement: Lacks a sense of direction, pessimistic, no sense of purpose
• Social Isolation: Decreased desire to interact with coworkers, relationship deterioration

If you identify these symptoms in your staff, it may be time to take action. Employee burnout can significantly impact your business's success and is usually the result of a problem with the company, not the employee.

23% of employees feel burnt out very often or always, and another 44% feel burnt out sometimes.

Solutions for improving burnout

There's no reason your employees should suffer through burnout alone. As a business leader, you can take steps to ensure your company's work environment promotes your employees' health and well-being.

1. Wellness programs: With 23% of employees feeling burnt out very often or always, and another 44% feeling burnt out sometimes, implementing a wellness program is a must for most businesses. Employee wellness programs teach employees how to cope with stress and give them the tools to take care of their physical and mental health.
2. Empathetic leadership: Strong leadership that listens to employee concerns and treats them fairly will go a long way towards promoting employee well-being.
3. Additional training: Giving your employees the tools and training they need to do their jobs effectively, such as corporate development opportunities.

Want to know more about the benefits of outsourcing? Check out how outsourcing leads to growth.

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What role does offshoring play in reducing burnout?

Offshoring appropriate roles within your company can play an important role in reducing employee stress, allowing your employees to focus on their core responsibilities. Offshoring's advantages include:

1. Lightens workload: When your employees are overworked, they don't have enough hours in the business day to complete assigned tasks. Offshoring some work gives your employees a respite, allowing them to focus on the most important tasks.
2. Gives new management opportunities to employees: Giving your employees opportunities to grow in your company will increase their job satisfaction. When you offshore work, you provide your employees with the opportunities to manage the freelancers or contractors you've hired.
3. Shows investment in improving burnout: Management must lead by example. By offshoring non-essential tasks, you show your employees that you are serious about improving burnout and care about their well-being. This will increase employee morale.

We believe offshoring is a critical component in reducing burnout and bringing out the most in your employees. You cannot expect your employees to be 'jacks of all trades'. By offshoring certain tasks, you lighten your employees' workload, allowing them to focus on your companies most important tasks.