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Briah Handa-Oakley16.09.20215 min read

How Artificial Intelligence Helps Fight Employee Burnout

Have you ever heard of someone who started a new job full of enthusiasm and excitement, until the smoke settled and the enthusiasm cooled down, and they eventually found themselves dragging themselves to work every morning? Or maybe you yourself have felt like you weren't using your full potential on a job, and were left feeling ineffective and unmotivated as an employee

More and more workers are becoming victims of employee burnout, and it is affecting employees of all ages and types. Employee burnout is rapidly on the rise, with 52% of all workers feeling burned out - up 9% from a pre-Covid survey.

It is detrimental for employees' mental health, not to mention the effects it has on employee performance within a company. This is why companies are working hard towards creating strategies and environments to avoid stress and burnout amongst their workers, as they realise how vital the mental health of their workers are in order to grow an organization successfully.

Adding behavioral science to support workers is a way in which organizations are reducing burnout while increasing value to their corporation. So what exactly is employee burnout, and how does artificial intelligence improve the mental health and well-being of employees?

 

What's in this post?

  • What is Employee Burnout?
  • Burnout: A Workplace Problem, not an Individual Problem
  • How AI Can Help Improve Employee Mental Health
  • Providing On-The-Job, Customized Training
  • Understand the Individual Talents in Your Team

 

What is Employee Burnout?

According to The World Health Organization (WHO), employee burnout is defined as a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

Burnout can be thought of as a psychological process - a series of attitudinal and emotional reactions -that an employee goes through as a result of job-related and personal experiences.

They can be defined by feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance or negativity towards one's job, as well as reduced productivity and motivated behavior. This can be caused by a number of different factors, such as long office hours, harsh workloads, lack of resources and emotional support.

 

Burnout: A Workplace Problem, not an Individual Problem

Burnout is commonly talked about as an individual problem - and often practices such as yoga, deep breathing and resilience techniques are brought up as solutions to 'cure' one's burnout.

However, as recent research is unraveling that employee burnout is picking up pace amongst more workers, evidence suggests that employers and company managers may be more responsible for avoiding burnout within their workers than they thought.

As the responsibility to manage employee burnout has shifted from employees to employers, human resources and company managers are understanding the importance of aligning their workers within an inclusive environment that serves to ensure wellness offerings are included in the company strategy.

 

How AI Can Help Employee Mental Health

Artificial intelligence is being implemented into just about every aspect of life and business, such as recruiting in HR, customer service, sales tools, customer service and chatbots, etc. Human resource managers have recognized the benefits of adding AI into their recruiting process, for instance, to automate repetitive tasks, prescreen candidates, as well as conduct personality assessments during video interviews.

As studies are revealing the serious consequences of employee burnout, companies are beginning to use artificial intelligence to help monitor and maintain employee mental health, in order to decrease burnout. In fact, 95% of human resources leaders say burnout is sabotaging workplace retention due to workloads too heavy to handle.

It can cost a company loss in thousands of dollars and countless hours every year. And that is why it’s important for employees as well as HR personnel to keep an eye out for burnout signs. So how can artificial intelligence be used to support workplace well-being?

 

Providing On-The-Job, Customized Training

The working environment is constantly changing - technology is advancing at a rapid speed, workplace strategies are improving, tasks are constantly changing, and employees and employers need to align with new changes to maintain competitive advantage. But more often than not, employees are not provided with on-demand, soft skill training or support to keep pace with these advancements, and are left feeling unprepared or unmotivated.

On-the-job training helps employees learn what behavior is expected of them, as well as the skills necessary for their position. This, in turn, improves the productivity of workers and increases the efficiency of a team in an office. These improvements will positively affect the job satisfaction of employees who will feel fulfilled in their skills and work.

Human resources departments in companies are already implementing artificial intelligence systems such as Retorio into their training models to gain faster and deeper insights into their employees, and provide them with customized feedback.

For instance, with Retorio's talent management software, employees submit video responses to questions created by a manager, a coach, or an in-house coordinator. Employees receive customized feedback on how they were perceived. Over time, talent can opt in to monitor improvements on soft-skill development by saving their automated profile.

 

Understand the Individual Talents in Your Team

When employers understand what drives their employees, they will be able to create better work environments, and therefore work more effectively together and have stronger organizational culture.

More and more company leaders are noticing the value of understanding their workers different skills and talents, and how it can improve relationships within a workplace, as well as employees relationship to their job.

So how can AI technology help employers identify the individual talents in their team?

Artificial intelligence technologies which human resources are implementing into their strategy make it possible to add people analytics and data to each stage of talent management. Using AI can help business owners understand how different workers lead, communicate, influence, collaborate, as well as manage stressful situations. This, in turn, helps employees feel motivated, optimize their performance, and feel fulfilled with their job.

With Retorio's talent management solution you can gather a high-level overview of company-wide traits and behaviors and find shared department or position-specific values. 

Data tells the story of which values team members prioritize as a team. These characteristics infer why certain individuals excel at their positions and how they relate to their own team. Compare your results to the greater company culture and identify performance patterns. 

 
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Briah Handa-Oakley

Conducting in-depth content strategy at the intersection between artificial intelligence and L&D. I cover emerging technology and the latest advancements in AI technology and ultimately fuse technical knowledge with storytelling skills.

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