Burnout is a serious problem for businesses across the country. Data collected by the American Psychological Association shows that 79% of workers experience work-related stress every month while nearly 3 in 5 employees report that stress undermines their performance at work.

Many employees may think the solution is quiet quitting, but the unfortunate reality is that there is no easy solution. Businesses need to adopt holistic changes to improve employee well-being, reduce fatigue and increase engagement at work.

Part of this holistic strategy should involve automation. Automation reduces the amount of time employees spend performing mundane jobs and helps staff focus on creative tasks that add real value to the business.

Detecting Burnout

Burnout is a disturbingly common phenomenon in businesses. However, many managers aren’t aware that their staff are burnt out and mistakenly attribute poor performance to laziness or negligence.

Managers and business leaders can detect burnout by surveying staff and listening to their queries and concerns. Common signs of burnout include:

  • Lack of energy;
  • Difficulty focusing;
  • Changes in sleep habits;
  • Irritability and impatient;
  • Unexplained headaches, stomach or bowel problems.

Managers should regularly survey staff to find out how they’re feeling and how work is impacting their physical and mental health. Proactively reaching out to staff can improve mental well-being at work and reduce the symptoms of burnout.

Detecting burnout is an important step toward solving the issue. Managers should follow through on their commitments to employee well-being by funding mental health initiatives and reassessing current workflow practices.

Why Target Workflow?

Workflow management seems like an innocuous part of professional life in the digital age. However, closer inspection reveals that poor workflow management can quickly lead to burnout and work-related stress. Employees waste hours every week adding tags, sorting information, sending emails and creating filters that derail engagement and cause fatigue.

However, workflow management doesn’t have to be laborious. Optimized workflow management systems can improve employee engagement and make life at work that much easier. Automated software can do the heavy lifting for employees and help them focus on the tasks that they enjoy the most.

Project Management Solutions

Project management is all about coordinating cross-departmental efforts and sharing information seamlessly across teams. However, it’s easy to get lost in workflow management tasks when so many people have a role to play in the wider project.

Software like Asana, Monday.com, and LiquidPlanner leverage automation to simplify complex project management tasks and ease the burden on employees. Automated software notifies staff when changes have been made to projects and make submitting key information that much easier.

Optimizing project management workflow can drastically reduce burnout across the entire firm. Large businesses that use automated software can save hundreds of hours every week and significantly reduce the risk of human error when inputting important information. This means firms spend less time fixing issues and finding information, and more time on tasks that bolster the business’ bottom line.

OCR Software

Businesses across the nation are making the “digital transformation” and turning physical paper files into digital documents like PDFs and word processing files. However, manually transitioning from physical to digital requires a massive amount of menial labor.

Businesses can prevent burnout by turning to optical character recognition (OCR) software. OCR software is capable of changing printed documents into digital image files in a fraction of the time required for manual input. This can save employees from the monotony of typing up physical documents without sacrificing quality and accuracy during the transformation process.

CRM Automation

Customer relationship management software has transformed the way that businesses interact with potential clients and repeat customers. Businesses can store massive amounts of data on cloud storage services and can quickly access information that helps them convert more leads.

However, inputting information and organizing a CRM is every employee’s worst nightmare. Sales reps and customer service agents can save hours every day by utilizing automated software that inputs data and correctly tags customer profiles.

Automated CRM software streamlines the data input process and can give employees time to focus on tasks like sending personalized emails and calling hot leads. Businesses can maximize the effectiveness of automation by partnering CRM software with chatbots that automatically log conversations in the correct files.

Transitioning to an automated CRM reduces employee burnout and makes it easier for sales reps to hit their monthly key performance indicators (KPIs). This alleviates work-related stress without sacrificing workplace performance.

Conclusion

Automation has the potential to optimize workflows and decrease employee stress. Workplaces that embrace automation alleviate fatigue by minimizing the amount of time spent on monotonous chores and freeing up time for more challenging tasks.

Businesses that want to adopt workflow automation should start with project management software that improves collaboration and minimizes the amount of time staff spend digging for information. As businesses grow, an automated CRM becomes increasingly important. Automated CRMs streamline data input and help staff spend more time working towards their KPIs.

Beau Peters is a freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest with a passion for purpose-driven business content.