According to reports, burnout symptoms have increased for 24% of employees during 2020. Online searches for occupational burnout have risen 2500% since 2015. COVID-19 pandemic conditions have only been fueling this fire. 

As an employer or manager, it's essential that you take steps to mitigate pandemic burnout in your employees. It's no secret that happy, healthy employees are more productive and effective. 

If your workforce is experiencing depression and burnout, this will show itself in your workplace culture and your bottom line. 

To stop this from happening, keep reading to find out how you can support your employees in fighting pandemic burnout. 

Look Into Offering Virtual Mental Health Solutions

One of the easiest ways you can help employees beat pandemic burnout is by offering virtual mental health solutions. Counseling can be costly. A lot of employees might not have the finances to book mental health sessions for themselves. 

By giving employees access to discounted or free health solutions you can move the needle on mental wellbeing and the psychological effect of lockdown. 

Some examples of health solutions you can offer are:

• Subscriptions to meditation and mental wellness apps (such as Headspace)
• Webinars on stress management
• Virtual exercise classes

The UK is in the midst of seeing widescale returns to the office. However, this doesn't mean that virtual solutions aren't still attractive to people. Virtual sessions are often easier to schedule, more cost-effective, and less stressful. It also poses fewer infection risks. 

If your organization can't afford to cover the cost of virtual health solutions for all of its employees, you can make it more accessible through other means. For instance, you can institute a policy whereby all employees are eligible to take additional paid time off to attend therapy sessions. 

Encourage a Self-Care Centric Work Culture

Another way companies can promote employee wellbeing is encouraging a self-care-centric work culture. 

Many companies might promote self-care in theory, but this doesn't always play out in practice. Placing work above all else is ingrained in many workplace psyches. Simply saying that self-care is important is not enough. 

Therefore, make sure your organization isn't merely paying lip service to self-care. Instead, encourage managers to model stress-reducing behaviors. If managers are staying in after-hours every night and available round the clock, this doesn't encourage employees to implement work-life boundaries or prioritize self-care. 

If managers set boundaries for themselves, such as not responding to emails after hours, this sets the tone for the rest of the workforce. 

Other ways you can promote self-care is by instigating things like:

• Fitness challenges
• Accountability groups for building healthy habits
• Healthy eating clubs

You can also send out regular newsletters. As well as reminders to focus on mental and physical health along with tips and resources.

You can also start buddy systems. Here, employees check in on each other on a one-to-one basis on non-work-related issues. This can be very effective for mitigating the impact of COVID. It can also help to strengthen relationships and rapport between employees. 

Think your employees won't be keen? According to research, 62% of employees wish they knew their coworkers better. Implementing a buddy system is a great way to strengthen inter-coworker bonds. This can help counteract the psychological effect of lockdown and remote working. 

Don't Schedule More Video Meetings Than Necessary

Since the pandemic hit, video meetings have become one of the hallmarks of remote working. During last year, video conferencing saw a 535% rise in traffic.

Video meetings can boost productivity by up to 50%. But this doesn't mean that you should schedule more meetings than necessary. 

Just like ordinary meetings, video meetings can eat into valuable working time. Time that teams can use to accomplish tasks.

Yes, meetings can be essential for clear communication, goal setting, and brainstorming. However, if everyone at the meeting isn't fully engaged, their time is usually wasted. 

What's more, just like pandemic burnout, "Zoom fatigue" is very real. Researchers have isolated four main reasons for this:

• An excessive amount of close-up eye contact is unnatural 
• Having to see oneself during video meetings is fatiguing
• Video chats reduce mobility
• Cognitive loads are higher in video meetings

Taken altogether, video meetings can be very draining. Being able to implement the infamous "collar shirt on top, pajamas on the bottom" remote working perk isn't enough to make up for the cognitive strain video meetings can have. 

To conserve your employees' energy, make sure you only schedule video meetings when truly necessary. Also, ensure you only invite relevant participants. 

De-StigmatiSe Vacations

Although travel is still challenging, this doesn't mean that employees shouldn't take vacations. Now more than ever is paid leave important for resetting energy levels and fighting pandemic burnout. 

Sadly, taking time off is often stigmatized. Instead of being seen as a necessary and vital ingredient of being an effective employee—there can be an unspoken view that taking time off is a sign of laziness and a lack of commitment to one's work. 

Anybody who knows how the human body and mind work can see this is entirely false. But this doesn't mean that your employees aren't under the impression that they'll lose esteem if they make full use of their paid holiday time. 

Therefore, make sure that you encourage and destigmatize vacation time. Make it clear to employees that they should maximize their paid time off, even if it's to just recuperate at home. 

Beating Pandemic Burnout

If your workforce is suffering from pandemic burnout, you need to take steps to increase employee wellbeing. 

Employee burnout can impact your organization's productivity, customer relations, and even its claims and injury rates. When employees are tired, overwhelmed, and burnt out, they are more likely to make mistakes that result in injuries. 

Are you having problems with your claims handling? Unfortunately, COVID has impacted not only our mental health but has also complicated claims management. 

If you want to streamline your claims processes, we can help. Here at Gallagher Bassett, we specialise in handling insurance claims for corporate entities. Visit our insurance claims handling page today to learn more.