Newscaster Charity Digital explores how burnout affects charity professionals and how managers can prioritise wellbeing within their teams.
Charities can spot burnout by observing and checking for prolonged exhaustion, an increase in cynicism, and reduced performance, often
driven by high workloads and emotional labour.
As
reported previously, key
indicators of burnout can include:
- Physical Exhaustion - this can be in the form of chronic fatigue, headaches, or frequent illness amongst workers
- Emotional & Mental Changes - employees can feel overwhelmed, cynical, detached, or helpless
- Behavioural Changes – workers could be seen to put off or delaying project activities, could have increased irritability, or be pulling away from colleagues
- Performance Dips – employees may display a reduced quality of work, be missing deadlines, or have a lack of motivation
To help
spot signs of burnout, Charity leaders can use activities like holding regular one-to-ones, anonymous surveys, and even train managers:
- Monitoring Absenteeism – Things like a rise in sick days or last-minute holiday cancellations can signal burnout
- Regular One-to-Ones - Managers and supervisors should check in on work-life balance and workload, not just review project progress
- Staff Surveys - the use of anonymous pulse surveys to gauge morale and stress levels across the team can offer a clearer picture of potential burnout amongst workers
- Monitor Team Culture - Look out for a "silent" office; where employees seem detached, disengaged, or unwilling to collaborate
Fortunately, there are
steps that can be taken by charity leaders to prevent burnout within their organisation. Charities can train Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) enabling staff to identify and support colleagues experiencing mental health issues.
Charity leaders could
promote self-care by doing things such as actively encouraging staff to take full lunch breaks and all holiday allowance, rather than just rewarding 'working through'.
Many of these areas and more are looked at by Newscaster
Charity Digital in their recent feature which explores how burnout affects charity professionals and how managers can prioritise wellbeing within their teams.
Collaborating with HR specialists
Breathe, they explore some of the key ways that charities can tackle burnout among their teams and share some helpful resources to support charity employees.
To read the
feature, visit the Charity Digital
website.