Well over half of American employees reported experiencing at least moderate levels of burnout in 2023. That number rose to 74% when employees were asked about their levels of workplace stress.
For those in the accounting world, chronic workplace stress was revealed to affect a whopping 99% of accountants, making it a critical focus for those in the financial and professional services industries.
Burnout doesn’t just impact individuals – it creates a host of business problems for organizations, including:
- Decreased productivity levels
- High turnover rates
- Increased healthcare costs
- Low employee engagement
- Barriers to growth
Luckily, many of these challenges can be reversed by empowering your team members to prioritize their work-life balance, leading to higher levels of job satisfaction. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
How to Promote Work-Life Balance
Offer Flexible and Remote Work Options
According to FlexJobs, 56% of American employees said that having flexible working options – such as working remotely or flexible hours – was the number one way their workplace could better support their stress and mental health. This was rated higher than initiatives such as:
- Increasing paid time off (PTO) allotments
- Offering mental health days
- Encouraging more time off
- When taking time off, ensuring that it’s really time off
Types of Flexible Work Arrangements
Providing remote work options isn’t possible for every organization, and it’s also not the only way employers can offer flexible working arrangements. Examples of other flexible work environments include:
- Flex time: This allows team members to start and end their workdays at different times that are most convenient for their personal schedule, especially if they are across different time zones.
- Condensed schedules: Some employees prefer to condense their hours into longer and fewer days, such as working 10 hours per day Monday-Thursday and taking Friday off.
- Unlimited PTO: Offering unlimited PTO places an emphasis on the quality of the work your employees are doing rather than the number of hours they spend doing it.
- Various employment types: Organizations can offer team members the option to work on a part-time, freelance, contract, or temporary basis when it makes sense, and in compliance with applicable regulations.
- Volunteer/mental health days: Consider designating a handful of days for employees to volunteer in the community or take a mental health break to focus on self-care.
Encourage Rest Breaks and Normal Working Hours
Although a 40-hour work week is considered the standard, more than half of U.S. full-time employees report working over 40 hours per week, with 39% saying they work more than 50 hours. This brings the average number of hours worked to 47 per week.
These extra hours often come in the form of not taking allotted meal breaks, working late, and not setting boundaries between time spent working and personal time. In some cases, working overtime can lead to costly wage and hour lawsuits.
Organizations can support better work-life balance by discouraging these behaviors and reminding team members to stick to their designated schedules. Using tools like workforce management software can even automate these reminders by alerting employees when they’re about to work unapproved overtime and reminding them to take scheduled rest breaks.
Keep an Eye on Individual & Team Workloads
Depending on the size of your organization, it can be a challenge to stay abreast of each individual’s workload to ensure an equitable distribution of tasks. This can lead to some employees being overworked while others have more free time.
Incorporating tools like project management software can help track workloads down to the individual level by:
- Tracking all assignments by due date and the person responsible
- Showcasing progress on each task in real time to know where it stands
- Providing a bird’s-eye view of how tasks are being distributed with a team, or organization-wide dashboard
Help Employees Stay Organized
Sometimes, stress simply stems from not having clear expectations or knowing where to start when it comes to prioritizing projects. Technology can be used to help organize each employee’s tasks by due date and scope, which enables them to plan accordingly and avoid last-minute, rushed work. It also ensures expectations are clear so they know they’re working on the right things.
Set a Good Example
Above all, a healthy work-life balance needs to be modeled from the top down. Organizations can tout benefits like unlimited PTO and flexible work hours, but if leadership isn’t taking advantage of these offers themselves, employees are less likely to feel like they can utilize them.
To set a good example of work-life balance, top-level leaders and managers can:
- Use their PTO
- Avoid working overtime
- Avoid sending emails outside of work hours
- Communicate the benefits of work-life balance
- Avoid contacting employees when they are on designated time off
Enhance Work-Life Balance With Project Management Software Designed to Enhance Job Satisfaction
Providing greater work-life balance not only reduces burnout and turnover – it also makes your organization a more desirable place to work, which can help attract and retain top talent.
coAmplifi’s workforce management software offers features that promote work-life balance through better organization, optimized work distribution, and clearer expectations – especially for those in the financial and professional services sector. Schedule your demo now!
