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The 24/7 busyness cycle has led to a rise in employee burnout, which doesn't discriminate by role or seniority. In fact, the Future Forum 2022-2023 Winter Report found that 42% of the global workforce reported feeling burnt out.
The onus is on leaders to spot unhealthy digital workplace practices among team members and encourage a good balance between productivity and employee health. “In the digital workplace, leaders should be looking out for digital presenteeism and hyperconnectivity among their teams,” said Elizabeth Marsh, director at Digital Work Research.
Ask yourself some questions, said Marsh, like: Are your employees available online (on tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams) when they’re sick? When they’re on holiday? Late into the evening? Do they send emails at all hours?
“If these kinds of behaviors are persistent they can lead to invasion into non-work time, a lack of psychological recovery, elevated stress and ultimately a sense of exhaustion and burnout,” she explained.
7 Ways Leaders Can Encourage Healthier Digital Work Habits
The digital workplace makes achieving work-life balance and minimal stress difficult. But it doesn’t have to be impossible.
1. Enforce Work Hours — or Get Flexible
When leadership doesn't monitor when people log in or off, remote employees end up working longer hours to get tasks done, said Annie Rosencrans, director of people and culture at Hibob.
“Managers need to make sure they’re encouraging employees to sign off on time or assist with timely assignments to wrap things up before the workday ends,” she said.
Another avenue is flexible working hours — something the Future Forum survey shows combats burnout. “After all,” added Rosencrans, “if employees are completing tasks, it makes sense to let them decide their workday schedule. This will also help with workplace satisfaction and retention.”
Related Podcast: Why Flexibility and Trust Define the New World of Work
2. Invest in Digital Skills
Leaders need to invest in the digital skills of their teams, said Marsh. “Good digital competence and confidence are not only essential for digital workplace adoption and usage, they are also foundational for good digital well-being.”
In practice, this might mean a digital skills assessment to understand strengths and gaps, she said, where results are discussed among the team afterward. A digital well-being agreement can also help formalize shared intentions and plans for healthy digital habits — such as setting email response time expectations.
Plus, said Marsh, “Leaders need to focus on their own digital skills and digital working practices, of course, as their digital behaviors will set the example for the team.”
3. Encourage Taking Paid Time Off (PTO)
Leadership should also pay attention to whether employees are using their days off, said Rosencrans. “If a particular employee is showing signs of burnout, it can be helpful for a manager to encourage some time off so that they can take a needed step away from work.”
Marsh added that it’s important to be aware that, even when the company culture is supportive with respect to healthy practices, employees can still put a lot of pressure on themselves to respond to be hyperconnected to work.
“This is best addressed at a team level where digital behaviors can be reviewed, discussed and potentially changed at the collective level as already touched on,” she said.
Related Podcast: What Organizations Can Do About Burnout
4. Create a Mental Health Day Policy
This might be part of your PTO guidelines, but leadership should make it known that it’s OK for employees to take a day off for mental health when things get stressful, said Rosencrans.
The creation of a specific policy for mental health day emphasizes the importance the company places on mental well-being. It communicates to employees that their mental health is not an afterthought but rather a priority within the company's health and wellness strategy.
“Employees need to take time to re-energize themselves every once in a while, and this will help with overall productivity in the long run,” Rosencrans added.
5. Check-in With Employees One-on-One
It’s not enough to assess the group — frequent one-on-one check-ins help managers assess how each employee is doing.
“Creating a safe place for workers to use you as a sounding board for their concerns can help you adjust their workloads as needed and raise bigger issues to leadership in an effort to combat burnout and avoid potential turnover,” said Rosencrans.
Marsh added that leadership also needs to take into account different preferences and personality types — looking at aspects like self-control and impulsivity — which can change what people need to create healthy segmentation between work and life.
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Related Article: Managers Need to Do More One-on-One Meetings
6. Use an Open-Door Policy
When it comes to workload stress and burnout, Rosencrans recommends an open-door policy. “It’s important to make sure you’re listening to employee concerns and making the appropriate changes to support your team.”
She also pointed to the usefulness of an anonymous option for employees who don’t feel comfortable sharing their stressors or don’t want to be directly tied to their feedback.
“Regardless of which way they choose to voice their concerns, giving these options will show employees you care about their mental wellness and will make the necessary changes to improve their work experience,” she said.
7. Walk the Walk — and Be the Example
If toddlers have taught us anything, it’s “Do as I say, not as I do,” will never work. And that remains true in the workplace, an environment typically free of toddlers.
“When it comes to promoting healthy digital workplace practices, it’s crucial to lead by example,” said Rosencrans. “As someone in leadership, ensuring your employees have work-life balance should be a priority, and remember it is you who should set the precedent.”
Management should not stay on past working hours, Rosencrans added. Instead, she recommends letting employees see you leave on time and defer work until the morning — or even say no to certain tasks.
Related Article: Workplace Stress Is High. All the More Reason to Get Employees Moving
Healthy Digital Work Can Combat the ‘Great Exhaustion’
We’ve all heard about the Great Resignation, said Marsh. But now people are talking about the “Great Exhaustion” — a phenomenon where employees feel overwhelmed and often find themselves stressed and burned out.
In fact, said Marsh, she co-authored a study with Elvira Perez Vallejos and Alexa Spence, “The Dark Side of the Digital Workplace: An Integrative Review,” which found strong evidence of a “felt sense of emotional exhaustion for employees in the digital workplace.”
“Various studies have shown that productivity has gone up thanks to remote and hybrid work styles, however organizations need to be careful that such gains don't come at the cost of employee well-being.”
Instead, Marsh added, companies need to think long-term — meaning, investing in digital dexterity among employees and focusing on healthy digital work practices to achieve sustainable progress.
