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Maximizing Productivity: Balancing Workload and Employee Wellness
As per a recent study report, it is estimated that around 77 percent of modern workers feel burned out at their ongoing job at least once. As more people leave their jobs during the Great Resignation, workload balance serves to be a priority for preventing your employees from burning out and leaving your organization.
To improve overall employee productivity, you are expected to balance workload and bring about employee wellness.
What is Workload Balance?
Workload balance is referred to the distribution of the workload properly across employees. The ultimate objective is minimizing stress in the workplace, eliminating burnout, and improving productivity to get more things done. The theory of workload balance also leads to the creation of a better work-life balance for employees such that work does not end up consuming their respective lives.
Benefits of Workload Balance for Employees
Workload balance is expected to be the topmost priority for all managers to ensure employee engagement -irrespective of the industry. Some of the benefits of incorporating workload balance among employees are −
Better Employee Health: When your employees experience workload balance, they tend to have reduced stress -resulting in fewer health problems. As per a study report, it is estimated that employees working 55 hours or more every week have a 1.3 times increased risk of experiencing a stroke than those working 40 hours or less in a week.
Attracting More Talent: An organization that tends to value work-life balance has a larger talent pool to choose from. As per a study report, 63 percent of workers have a work-life balance as the topmost priority at the time of a job search. The same study also revealed that employees are 3.7 times more likely to suggest working for an organization that tends to value work-life balance.
Better Employee Productivity: Quite contrary to the common belief, working for more hours does not typically imply more productivity. As a matter of fact, employees experiencing a balanced workload tend to be more productive while performing better. Research reveals that 43 percent of employees understand that having more flexibility in their working hours has made them more productive.
Managing Team’s Workload Effectively to Increase Productivity
There are several ways to make sure that your employees get access to the balanced workload that they truly deserve. Some of the best practices to manage the workload of the team effectively are −
Automation − You can leverage a reliable software solution to automate processes while improving workload balance. Automation helps you achieve the same by distributing proper schedules in a manner that is truly even-handed.
Delegation − For improved workload management, it is crucial to assign tasks to the right employees with the right skill sets and qualifications. It makes sure that you are not overloading your team members with work that they might not be equipped to handle.
The effectiveness with which you are delegating is properly reflected in how empowered the employees are feeling, ultimately strengthening their decision-making abilities and strengths along with productivity. The result turns out to be a win-win situation for both the business and employees.
Collaboration − Ensure that you are discussing the overall workload while communicating with employees to maintain a finger on the workforce pulse. When you go ahead with frequently communicating with employees about the workload, you are able to gather relevant feedback on tasks that might be taking up a significant portion of the time.
At the same time, you are also able to learn which tasks they will be handling while also quickly identifying any employee that might be on the verge of burnout. To gather relevant feedback from the team on the respective workload, consider setting up one-on-one meetings every one or two weeks with every employee. If any of the employees indicate having an abundance of workload or might be working on roles that do not align with their roles, it is your duty to consider delegating the task to some other employee.
Elimination − To maximize productivity at the workplace while effectively managing the workload of your team, it is important to identify portions of work that are not necessary for employees. You should consider eliminating them altogether. In this manner, employees will have more time and space in the workload to concentrate on more crucial tasks.
Workload Management for Employees
In addition to managers, there are some crucial workload management tips that employees can leverage to prevent themselves from burning out excessively. Here are some tips −
Prioritizing Difficult Tasks − To enhance the overall productivity, employees should aim at initially tackling the most challenging tasks of the work. It is because individuals tend to feel less motivated while having less energy at the end of the day than at the start. When you prioritize the most challenging tasks initially, you will end up completing them at the highest energy levels.
Knowing Your Limits − Employees should understand when they have excess work or when they can capitalize more. Due to this, when employees are aware of their limits, they will effectively minimize the chances of burning out.
Asking for What You Require − Employees should not hesitate discussing workload struggles with the top management. When you do not express how you feel or what you require from the management, your organization will not know what it can do towards effectively support you or adapt the workload according to your specific needs.
Wellness-centered Determinants of Workplace Productivity
To come across correlations and patterns, the employees who receive the highest scores are regarded as employees featuring higher presenteeism. With multiple comparisons with health-centric behaviors like unhealthy diet, smoking, and the overall lack of exercise will ultimately yield results with an increased chance of presenteeism amongst those presenting poor health habits.
Studies reveal that employees depicting poor health behaviors will ultimately experience potential health risks. The higher will be the health risk, the higher is the chance of exhibiting higher presenteeism.
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