Three easy ways to support your team

Three easy ways to support your team

Industries all over the world are struggling with the burnout of their staff. With so many variables causing more stress for teachers than ever before, burnout levels are at a record high. In an effort to mitigate burnout and subsequent loss of staff, it’s important that schools, colleges and institutes put simple procedures in place to help prevent exhaustion. Here are just a few simple ideas that you can include as part of your staff wellbeing efforts.

Support buddies

The old saying goes, “a problem shared is a problem halved’ and it’s true, people can feel better just by knowing that someone else knows about what they are dealing with. A way to foster this in the workplace is to introduce a support buddy initiative.

A support buddy initiative is a simple way to encourage staff to confide in each other before their stress becomes too much. This is where staff members are paired up with a peer, and are encouraged to use each other as a sounding board. Sometimes, just having someone aware of your worries can make a person feel better. 

However, it’s also important to make sure all staff know how to escalate a problem should action be required to remedy a situation.

Take action when staff ask for it

This seems an obvious thing to say, but sometimes it’s not always possible to take away their actual cause of stress. However, you can always try to make it easier. For example, a staff member may come to you and say they have too much work and as a result, they can’t cope. With today’s pressure, you’re unlikely to be able to take much work off them but you may be able to help them manage their time better which, may help the situation. Doing something, with the intention to help (even if it’s small) will make a difference to someone who is struggling.

Encourage staff to have a life outside of work

Research suggests that working all the hours under the sun is not the most effective way to work as the quality of work isn’t up to standard and is certainly not sustainable for long periods of time. Staff who are well rested and who do activities outside of work are more productive, happier and less likely to burn out.

With today’s work pressures, it’s so easy for people to feel stressed and overwhelmed. We hope these simple tips can be easily implemented to help your staff feel supported as they carry out the important work that they do.