Tip #343: 6 Tips To Combat Job Burnout

The burned out employee is the workforce equivalent of the marathon runner who has gassed out - which is just what happens with burned out employees. Naturally, this could lead to huge productively problems within your business.

Employee Burnout WILL Affect Your Company's Performance.

For your burned out employees, symptoms tend to manifest as anxiousness, noticeable tiredness (as if under-slept), an inability to focus and a short temper. Obviously, none of these are conducive to a positive, strong work environment. So, to make sure your employees avoid becoming burned out, scope out the six tips we have outlined below.

6 Tips To Combat Job Burnout:

Tip #1. Take Regular Breaks: Mental health is becoming increasingly important in the work place, and more and more employers are recognizing the need for their employees to take frequent breaks to keep their minds sharp. By allowing your employees a fifteen-minute break in the morning, a 30- to 60-minute lunch break (that we recommend they take outside of the office) and an additional fifteen-minute break before the end of the day, you will find your employees' batteries are constantly at a full charge.

Tip #2. Create A Unique Break Room: Conventional break rooms tend to be pretty plain -- coffee machine, water cooler, the usual rigmarole. Some companies have started to stray from this, however, and transformed breaks and break rooms into brief escapes from work, going so far as to set up televisions, game tables and video game systems in their break rooms (one hospital in Rochester, NY has a Nintendo Wii in their break room). Creating an environment for employees to briefly escape to for a reasonable amount of time will go a long way to preventing job burnout.

Check out Dr. John M. Grohol's "Five Tips to Bust Job Burnout" on PsychCentral.com.

Tip #3. Set Aside "Me Time" Outside Of Work: While being a dedicated employee is admirable, being an indentured servant to your business will wear you down over time. When work is your life, your life is work, and burnout becomes inevitable. Know when to walk away from work. Schedule regular time away from work each week, preferably dedicated to a personal passion or hobby that clears your mind of any fog. Fishing, gym workouts, pick-up basketball games, reading, painting and car maintenance are just a few of the ways people center themselves outside of work.

Tip #4. Be Wary Of Overworking: Many people find it difficult to say "no" in the workplace. This typically leads to the accumulation of more and more workload each time they agree to lend a hand here or there, or take on a side project or something similar. Being a team player is important in the business world, and helping your colleagues from time to time is a surefire way to further your career. But if you aren't careful other employees will take advantage of your generous, helping nature and all you'll get in return is stress from being overworked.

Tip #5. Balance Life And Work: As previously mentioned, work cannot be the all-encompassing focus of your life -- especially if you hope to maintain a happy home life. Whether you live independently, with a significant other, or a whole family -- kids and all -- you need to manage your time between work and home effectively. When it's time to punch out, punch out. Go to the local pub. Go home to your family. Go to the movies with your partner or friends. Give your personal life just as much time and attention as you do your work life. Otherwise, you will start to see problems and frustrations develop at home, affect your work life and cause you to feel burned out.

Tip #6. Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle: The importance of a healthy lifestyle is among the top issues in our nation -- and for good reason. This is because the benefits of diet, exercise, proper sleep and choosing water over carbonated cans full of nothing but chemicals drastically affect our behavior -- even at work. All it takes is setting aside thirty or forty minutes just three days a week to exercise and making a greater effort to manage your diet. Doing so will benefit you directly in ways innumerable, and a positive lifestyle will lead to a more positive work experience.

Executive Summary: In today's fast-paced, demanding, work-intensive business world, job burnout is easy to turn up. "Virtually everyone will face the prospect of a job burnout at one point," says John M. Grohol, Psy. D. and founder of Psychcentral.com, "whether you're an office worker or a carpenter, a salesperson or a doctor." But just because job burnout is common does not mean it's anything to scoff at, or "just deal with." Preventative measures like the ones outlined above should be initiated to help minimize the threat of job burnout. Trust us, following these tips will do wonders for your business.

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Tip #342: 6 Tips To Maximize Internal Meetings

6 Tips To Help Maximize

Internal Meetings

Internal meetings are a staple of the business world. No matter what type of business you run, or what kind of setting you hold your meetings in -- be it formal or informal -- meetings are an essential activity to keeping your business on target.

Effective Meetings Come From Proper Organization.

Getting the most out of your meetings requires walking a fine line -- if they are too rigid or feel like a chore, employees' will daydream or focus on matters unrelated to your business. If too casual, or too unstructured, internal meetings accomplish little more than eating up valuable work time and ultimately produce nothing of substance at all.

So, to make sure you get the most out of your daily meetings, check out the six tips below.

6 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Meetings:

Tip # 1 Decide Whether You Need A Meeting: In most cases, meetings are the cornerstone of your business' organization and company-wide unity. But in some cases, when a project or assignment's parameters have already been established and discussed at length, having a meeting might only cut into time better spent working on the project at hand. So depending on what kind of week your business is having or what the workload is like, your first decision may be whether to even hold a meeting in the first place.

Tip #2. Spend 15 Minutes Preparing For The Meeting: Preparation is vital to streamlining and maximizing your meeting time. If you hold meetings at roughly the same time each day for roughly the same length of time, employee preparation would immensely improve the meeting's productivity. At least 15 minutes before the meeting, employees should write out a list of their goals, objectives, needs and wants so that when it comes time to meet they're ready to hit the ground running.

Tip #3. Encourage Participation From Everyone: Part of being an effective leader in the business world is recognizing your employees' strengths and weaknesses. But just because an employee isn't particularly strong in one area does not mean they aren't still a useful asset. For example, employees with less experience in sales or marketing may be able to provide a new or unique perspective that might not occur to seasoned pros. Similarly, casual readers might be confused by convoluted text on a website that made sense in the writer's mind.

Tip #4. Designate A Leader To Manage The Meeting: To get the most out of your daily production meetings you need to maintain order, structure and direction. Someone needs to step up to the challenge of facilitating the progress of production meetings -- the reading of goals and agendas and discussions about employee responsibilities. They also need to ensure participants remain positive and constructive. We recommend agreeing to a leadership rotation to avoid rigid, hierarchal structuring and to keep each production meeting fresh.

Tip #5. Rely On Employees' Pre-Meeting Preparation: As previously mentioned, preparation prior to a production meeting helps streamline the entire process. These written goals, agendas and requirements should form the framework of the production meeting's discussions and help give the meeting the structure and direction it needs to benefit your company. So hammer home the importance of employee preparation in order to keep your production meetings focused on what matters most.

Tip #6. Develop A Post-Meeting Follow-up Plan: The only way to truly get the most out of a meeting is to send a post-meeting e-mail check on the status of the project(s). Whatever method you choose, a meeting follow-up plan will help everyone stay focused on their responsibilities.

Executive Summary: Any business looking to stay organized and at the top of their game needs to hold regular meetings -- the key is to execute them in the most effective manner. For more creative companies, such as graphic design firms or ad agencies, more creative and free-spirited meetings tend to benefit them the most. For a more conventional business, such as architectural, engineering or consulting firms, a more defined, structured meeting may be in order. Whatever types of meetings are best for your business, the tips listed above are sure to help you get the most out of them.

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Tip #341: 5 HR Tips To Strengthen Your Business

5 HR Tips To
Strengthen Your Business

At its core, a business' Human Resources department has two primary focuses: (1) Helping promote an ideal work environment that keeps your company's talent within the company and (2) helping scout out or draw in additional top talent when hiring. These responsibilities are why having the right HR professionals in your employ can do wonders for your business.

Unfortunately, HR carries a largely negative stigma. Television and films typically portray HR departments as a place of punishment, where employees go when being reprimanded. But in reality, a strong HR department should be a tremendous asset to your business, the undercurrent that supports the rest of your business by generating a positive work environment and fostering team unity.

So to help you strengthen your HR department (and in turn, your business), here are five tips to pass along to your HR pros.

5 HR Tips To Strengthen Your Business:

Tip #1. Improve Your Interviewing: Building a strong team starts with the hiring process. Far too many employers make the mistake of shooting from the hip during an interview -- no preparation, no plan. However, the more effort you put into the hiring process, the more likely you are to get the top talent you want. To improve your interviewing, task your HR pros to develop a dynamic interviewing plan by reading books and studies on interviewing techniques. You may even want them to take a course on interviewing.

Tip #2. Don't Be Afraid To Get Creative: Flexible, fun work cultures are extremely appealing to existing employees and potential candidates. Most businesses are afraid to stray from well-known business structures and models, but companies like Google and Best Buy have made news with their unorthodox business cultures and the freedom they allow employees (such as eliminating set work hours and permitting employees to come and go as they please -- so long as they get their day's work done). Creating a unique work culture could just prove to be a huge draw for top talent and help keep employee morale high.

Tip #3. Shine A Spotlight On Employees: As the rise of social media has proven, people -- your prospects and clients included -- have a genuine interest in the personal side of businesses. Employee profile pages (employee picture, biographical information) tend to be the most visited pages on a business' website. These staff profiles are also a great way to boost morale within your company by making your employees feel valued and integral to your businesses' success, as opposed to a faceless, nameless cog in the machine that no one ever sees.

Tip #4. Strengthen Employer-Employee Relations: One of the leading causes for employee departure is their relationship with their boss. Healthy employer-employee relationships are at the heart of your business' success. To help improve workplace relationships, HR pros need to ensure positive employer-employee relations by studying up on leadership training. They might do this by reading up on leadership training, tapping employees for open and honest feedback on their employers or by taking a Dale Carnegie class on leadership.

Tip #5. Maintain Corporate Clarity: Another task that falls under the HR umbrella is organizational clarity. By this, we mean your business' goals, philosophies, policies, procedures and all the other components that make up your company's culture. These elements form the foundation of any business and establish a unified work environment. But when these ideas are not presented clearly, employees make assumptions, and their first instinct is to do things their way. It falls on the HR department's shoulders to maintain cohesion in the work place.

Executive Summary: Despite what many think of HR departments, HR professionals in the real world are expected to wear a lot of hats. They are there when an employee is brought into the fold, there when an employee departs and everything in between. And it is a business' HR department that is responsible for developing and maintaining a positive work culture that promotes team unity and engages your workforce. So do yourself and your business a favor and make sure your HR professionals are at the top of their game, starting by reviewing these tips.

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