Employee turnover is a costly expense for a company and leads to decreased employee satisfaction. It affects the whole team. To build up a strong team with longevity, you want to prevent turnover as best you can. One of the most effective methods of doing that is decreasing your team’s workload.
Nearly 75% of employees feel burned out in their job, typically due to high workloads. Contrary to what you might think, lowering workloads does not equate to inefficiency or less work being completed. Instead, employees feel support, output better quality of work, and overall feel compelled to stay in their jobs. Read on for some key reasons why you should consider lowering your team’s workload to decrease turnover rates.
Save Employees from Burnout
Burnout occurs in the workplace when employees work beyond their capacity. They’re putting in an exorbitant amount of effort and time to complete their work. This leaves employees feeling drained, exhausted, and can affect their health.
“Burnout is one of the main reasons employees leave jobs,” shares Ryan Rottman, Co-Founder and CEO of OSDB Sports. “In fact, 40% of employees cite burnout as their reason for quitting. Often, their work life bleeds into their home life. Employees decide they can’t put up with the stress and exhaustion anymore and choose to quit. As a leader, a huge part of your responsibility is to do everything you can to combat burnout and support your employees”
The primary method for reducing employee burnout is to reduce workloads. “Re-evaluate capacities,” recommends Asker A Ahmed, Director of iProcess Global Research. “You don’t want to be assigning work to your employees that put them at full capacity. You need to leave wiggle room. This makes space for projects that take longer than normal, last-minute assignments, and time to relax between tasks.”
Prioritize Time Off
A key strategy to reducing burnout is ensuring your employees receive adequate time off. This doesn’t just mean vacation time. This includes weekends, holidays, and breaks during the day. People need time to decompress and enjoy their lives.
“Respect your team’s time off,” shares Cody Candee, Founder and CEO of Bounce Luggage Storage No matter when that is: holidays, weekends, etc. That’s their time and they need to have that.” Cody Candee also shares their unique approach to vacation time. “Don’t cram a ton of projects and responsibilities to prep for time off. That doesn’t make sense. They shouldn’t need to work extra to take time off. Instead, prepare well enough in advance to disperse the load between the team in a way that leaves no one with extra work.”
Many companies blur the lines of time off with employees. They don’t respect or encourage breaks during the day, which are essential to maintaining balance during normal working hours. “Encourage your team to take time for themselves during the day,” shares Alex Novak, CEO of SLR. “Encourage breaks and ask your employees to take two 15-minute breaks during the day, once in the morning and another in the afternoon, as well as a 1-hour lunch break. Also, tell them to turn off Slack and email notifications during that time to ensure they don’t do any work. That time is for them.”
Alex Novak has also set up an environment where employees don’t feel compelled to answer messages right away. “Our culture is very laid back. We respect one another and know that if we have a question, we’re okay to wait for an answer. Requiring immediate responses, whether it’s Slack or email, only increases our stress levels. We don’t want that for our team.”
Decreases Workplace Stress
The working environment you create for your team is essential to how everyone manages their work. While this is especially true in office settings, it’s equally as important to foster a positive work environment in an online format. “If you’re fully remote, communication is vital,” explains Christy Pyrz, Chief Marketing Officer of Paradigm Peptides. “Since you can’t stop into the office to do a quick check-in, check in virtually. You need to know what’s going on so you can address any challenges people are having.”
Employees that feel loaded down with too much work will become disengaged, unhappy, and stressed. The work becomes too much and whether they struggle to complete it on time or to the best of their ability, the stress becomes too much to manage. By decreasing workloads and leaving more time for your employees to manage their tasks without the stress of time constraints, you reduce workplace stress.
“It’s important to value balance,” shares Max Schwartzapfel, CMO of Fighting For You. “Workloads can be heavy at times and lighter during others. When busy times arise, you have to balance out the work. Managers can’t expect the team to handle large projects while continuing their regular work. The work suffers when you overload everyone.”
Focus on High Quality Work and Results
Employees who need to manage heavy workloads need to make sacrifices to get everything on their task list completed. Two things tend to suffer: employee mental health and the quality of work. While decreased workloads help improve mental health, it also means that the quality of work is higher.
“Try being more interested in the results of the work rather than how long it took to complete,” explains Lindsay Malu Kido, CEO of Empower Pleasure. “It’s easy to tell when a member of the team is at full capacity because it shows in their work. When a team has less work on their hands, they have the luxury of really diving deeper into the work and outputting amazing, qualitative work.”
To get the best results in the work, you need to make sure your team is delegating tasks efficiently and strategically. Some managers don’t delegate at all while others delegate too much. Either way, someone is getting overworked. Consider hosting a workshop or implementing an operating procedure on how to handle task delegation to ensure no one is taking on too much.
It used to be the norm for companies to value time over results in the work their teams produced. When companies expect employees to work a set period of time, it actually decreases productivity. Focusing instead on the results you’re seeking for each project will lead to a better quality of work. The time spent on it simply doesn’t make a difference.
“It’s important to be 100% results-driven and assign work as such,” shares Max Ade, CEO of Pickleheads. “It can be huge for morale. You don’t need to be micro-managing the team. They complete their work as needed, at their own pace, and deliver exceptional work.”
Makes Space for Career Development
Keeping your employees around long-term means taking the time to develop their skills and growing them within their roles. Aside from burnout, another reason employees leave jobs is because of the lack of growth opportunities. If you keep your team too engrossed in their work, there’s no time left for development. They end up feeling like a cog in the machine: undervalued and stagnant.
Brittany Dolin, Co-Founder of Pocketbook Agency explains why employee longevity is a touchstone in successful companies. “Strive to increase the longevity of your employees. Invest in your employees. You want them to stick around with you for the long term. Keep workloads low to account for the time for that growth to occur. Invest in their career development to provide them with the tools they need for their next role. They have to know, right from the start, that they are valued with their team.”
“It can be devastating to lose your best employees,” admits Sean Doherty, General Manager of Box Genie. “If this happens, always ask for feedback in a final meeting. It is crucial to hear why people are leaving and what you can do to improve. Invest your own time into understanding the needs of your workers. It will show in the long run.”
Conclusion
If you’re committed to increasing employee longevity and decreasing employee turnover, consider re-evaluating how you build your team’s workload. Be strategic about the capacity you’re placing on your employees and ensure you’re taking into account all the ways you can support their work in a way that promotes and boosts morale.
The best way to gauge how well workloads are for your team is to ask them. Have a roundtable discussion or sit down one-on-one with your team members and encourage their honesty. At the end of the day, you’re all working towards the same goal. Reducing workloads and implementing change can have its growing pains, but in the end, it will be worth it and you’ll have a strong, solid team to show for it.
