Accounting and finance careers always come with their share of stress. Employee burnout levels in these professions are always high. Meanwhile, COVID and an uncertain economic situation have added to anxiety levels. As an employer, you need to worry about your best team members reaching burnout.
A study conducted by Indeed last year found that more than half of all employees (52%) reported feeling burnout. The pandemic accentuated these levels of stress, with two-thirds of survey respondents saying COVID had pushed them further towards the breaking point.
What can you do to ease the burden on your accounting and finance employees? Here are a few steps you can take to lower anxiety levels and reduce the chance of employee burnout:
How to Reduce Employee Burnout in Accounting and Finance Positions
Look for Burnout Red Flags
To help your team members avoid burnout, you need to understand the signs of overwork. Hopefully, you can spot a growing problem before it reaches a crisis point. That way, you can take steps to ease their stress and allow them to get back to a manageable workload.
Here are some symptoms to watch out for:
- Physical symptoms, such as headaches and fatigue
- Heightened anxiety
- Reduced engagement
- Irritability
- Unexpected drop in performance
Encourage Constructive Communication
Talk to your accounting and finance team members. Understand their lives and the pressures they feel from home. After all, work isn’t the only cause of stress and other factors can contribute to burnout besides a heavy workload.
By encouraging a back-and-forth dialog with your employees, you’ll gain insight into their mental status. You can spot looming burnout faster and understand the best way to sidestep it for each individual employee.
Make Vacations Mandatory
Employers often discourage vacations. This isn’t usually intentional. But from a company’s point of view, they want their employees at work every day, if possible.
This isn’t always the best policy. Certain employees have trouble walking away from work and getting the rest and relaxation they need. These top performers need a push to take their vacation days.
By making a certain number of vacation days mandatory, you give your finance and accounting professionals the time off they need. Ultimately, you’ll benefit from a recharged and rejuvenated employee. At the same time, you’ll lower the chance of burnout.
Host Social Events
Hopefully, the threat of COVID is finally receding. Even if that doesn’t mean a complete return to the office for your accounting and finance employees, you can still reinstate Happy Hour events.
Bring people together. Build connections between your employees by hosting social events. This will give your accounting and finance team an opportunity to blow off steam. At the same time, they’ll develop support systems within your organization that can help each employee deal better with stress.
Provide Flexible Schedule
Maintaining a healthy work/life balance can become a stressful endeavor. More than just the anxiety caused by a demanding accounting and finance career, the pressure to keep up with home responsibilities can add an additional burden. Helping your employees with this equilibrium will reduce their stress levels and prevent burnout.
You can do this by offering flexible scheduling options. Even after COVID passes, make work-at-home a possibility when your employees need it. At the same time, build some elasticity into your vacation and sick time policies, so that employees can use their days when needed.
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