CEO’s tips for reducing burnout through self-care and flexibility

Employees can suffer from burnout for a variety of reasons. Usually, the reason has to do with work, which is why it’s important to reduce these issues in the workplace.

Aimee Baker, chief executive of Ari Recruitment, joined HR Leader to discuss how employers can reduce burnout and why flexibility and self-care are so important.

HR Leader: “What is the best way to mitigate burnout in a workplace?”

Ms Baker: “You need to be creating opportunities for open dialogue, and safe environments for people to speak about what they need. We do something in our business where you don’t have to use sick leave. And you don’t have to use your annual leave. It’s a different type of leave that we provide. And it’s sometimes you just need a day to process, or to give yourself a breather.”

“Weekends are usually already filled up. You got Saturday, there’s usually someone’s birthday, someone’s baby shower, you know, something on and then if you throw in the mix, if you’re someone who has kids, it’s just a different type of work and task load that you don’t get paid for,” said Ms Baker.

“Sometimes having a day to just reset yourself and realign yourself can be really important. And I think if businesses got into the habit of creating a little bit more space for that. I’m a fan of the four-day workweek. [I] think we could move towards that. They’ve done studies of this being done, and it’s actually producing higher levels of efficiency.”

HR Leader: “How can employers promote flexibility?”

Ms Baker: “The first step is taking the time to go, ‘what do we have available? What could we make available? And what do we think would be helpful?’ Sometimes that’s going to come from listening to your team and your people, [and] it might not be a one-size-fits-all; what works for you might not work for me.”

She continued: “There are some people [who] are like, ‘I don’t want to work from home because I don’t want to mix up my work environment with my rest environment. I want the two to be separate.’ For someone else, it’s like, ‘I travel an hour and a half. If I could get rid of that, I would get back those three hours a day.’ So again, I don’t know that the one size fits all works. I do think creating opportunities to get the feedback, listen, and then look to how you can implement that can be really effective and really useful. And I don’t know if it’s done enough in the workplace.”

HR Leader: “How important is self-care?”

Ms Baker: “I think Gen Z and Millennials seem to be far more aware of the importance of self-care. It’s super important because you can’t give from an empty cup. I have to say to myself all the time, I am the best version of myself when I prioritise myself.”

“I can so quickly forget it when everything else seems to become a priority, or you feel like everything else is on fire, or there are so many other things to do. And you’re at the bottom of that list. Especially if you’re in a leadership position or if you’re in a role that requires a lot from you or a lot of deliverables and you want to do well … Holding strong boundaries can be really difficult if you think it’s going to jeopardise your job.”

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.