How to win the HR burnout battle

Burnout is real, and becoming more common. Possibly, it seems, due to HR’s newfound responsibility for, well, everything. Often associated with burnout’s onset is purpose – or rather, a lack of.

In our modern working world, this wouldn’t appear on the face of it to be something HR teams would have a problem with, finding purpose. But, even though people teams have more responsibility, with that responsibility comes expectation and coupled with the all-too-common problem of communication across disparate, distributed teams, purpose can be compromised and in those instances, burnout flourishes.

So what can you do? How can you support your HR warriors? In this session speakers from MGM Resorts International, AstraZeneca and the Financial Times took these questions on, offering strategies to keep pace with a changing business environment where HR has taken a starring role.

We know empowerment is key to successful work, but empowerment also means support as well as foregrounding autonomy. Mitigating burnout requires regular and open communication, compassion and understanding as well as trust with the big decisions. Here are the best soundbites from a fascinating and essential session:

Gena Restivo on pivoting in crisis: “Our businesses could not stop because our patients were dependent on us. So we doubled down on our people, and we doubled down on our purpose.”

Restivo also acknowledged that after that pivot comes a shift in values for a lot of businesses, stating “as organizations change, we need to change. Employees are looking for employers who care about the world around them. So how are you incorporating your sustainability story?” In conclusion, she gave HR leaders a call to action: “It’s incumbent on us to look at everything we do, strip it down and make it as simple as possible for employees to engender creativity”.

MGM’s Cecile Maino on the other hand, focused on wellbeing, suggesting that “HR folks need development, coaching, and constant care. They to learn how to have balance with feedback, agility and risk.” She also highlighted the importance of diversity in talent development. “As you progress your teams, allow them to take different paths, especially as we develop female leaders”.

Kirsty Devine, echoed Restivo’s comments about pivoting in a pandemic, but also brought a refreshing honesty that paid dividends in trust for her and her team at the Financial Times, putting it simply that you need to be “open and communicative and show that you are people too when figuring out how to handle a crisis.”

All our speakers, moderated by Nucleus Research’s Evelyn McMullen, offered their personal take on successful strategies for warding off a business phenomenon gaining an unfortunate level of prominence.

Get all the latest UNLEASH America content here.