Employers are feeling a slight sense of relief, and employees who still hold jobs are thankful that their house and car payments can be met and that they didn’t see their jobs disappear in the last round of their companies’ expense cutting efforts. Despite this hesitantly optimistic future the recession will bring aftershocks to the workplace that employers and HR professionals will need to address if they plan on keeping costs down and employees happy. The uncertainty that Mr. Harper refers to is not confined to corporate boardrooms and the cafeteria on Parliament Hill: talk at the water-cooler and among workforces across Canada is about “what’s next?”

The management mantra in most corporations in 2010 is “do more with less” as they continue to manage their businesses with fewer resources (smaller workforces, shrinking budgets) but achieve the same or higher targets and goals as before. One consequence of this is employee burnout.

While employee burnout can have different causes (job features, lifestyle factors, personality characteristics), employers do not want to be a contributing factor. While burnout has many consequences for the employee, the one consequence that businesses all face in this area is added expense: a burned-out employee loses their motivation; co-workers may feel their own motivation dwindle as they are forced to take up the slack for a colleague whose productivity is at rock-bottom; morale in general can plummet as the domino effect of the burned-out worker ripples through the organization; and finally, a burned-out employee is also most likely to leave the organization and further drain expense by increasing turnover.

According to Dr. Camillo Zacchia, Professional Chief of Psychology at the Douglas Institute and a member of LifeSpeak Inc.’s Montreal roster of expert speakers, “[e]mployers should be looking to anticipate and prevent burnout among their employees and not merely respond to crises as they develop.” This means employers will be forced to pay closer attention to their workforce if they are going to forestall burnout among staff. Employee satisfaction surveys, often given short shrift in many organizations, need to be examined closely to get a better sense of how their human capital is bearing up under increased job demands and workloads.

In tough times companies usually turn to their “go-to” people, the top performers who can be counted on to get the job done no matter what. In fact , Dr Camillo says that one of the best ways to prevent burnout is to keep a close eye on employees that are doing well (i.e., performing well and maintaining their work-life balance); if the top people in an organization are struggling with continued pressure from a manager or employer then alarm bells should be going off that this segment is taxed beyond their reasonable ability and burnout is a real risk: “Employers should learn to take a step back, see who among their employees is functioning well, and make a conscious decision to respect that by not overloading them.”

For the rest of the workforce who are not top performers but still crucial to every company’s sustainability, Dr. Zacchia suggests tailoring programs and initiatives that provide these workers with the skills they need to manage their role better, or acknowledge that they are perhaps not in the right position for their skill level. 

To ward off burnout and retain a happier, more productive workforce, employers must remain sensitive in their communications and dealings with employees: a harsh economic reality need not be translated into harsh communications and programs from head office. Keeping employees engaged and happy in today’s market means that employers should not rely too heavily on their star performers but instead look for sensible and affordable solutions to meet their organization’s needs and do their utmost to ensure that their most valuable asset, their people, is respected on both human and professional levels.