It is estimated that 50 percent of workplace turnover comes from employees leaving due to burnout. The cost of replacing these employees is too high to ignore, as is the damage that their absence causes to your workflow and internal cohesion. However, if you are proactive, you can help your employees avoid burnout and improve retention. Here are some key tips to help guide your efforts.

Encourage Breaks

When an employer faces an impossible deadline, it’s common to see that employees are pushed past the breaking point. Long work hours without breaks or vacation time are not only encouraged, but expected in some workplaces in order to get ahead. However, current research suggests that it’s counterproductive for employees to work hour upon hour without taking a break. Productivity actually increases when employees take breaks regularly. This includes vacation time as well as breaks during the workday.

Invest in Training

Quality training and learning opportunities increase retention and improve employee satisfaction, all of which are of benefit to businesses. When employees are given the opportunity to refine their skills, it shows them that you are willing to invest in them and that you appreciate them. Often, burnout comes from not feeling valued.

Additionally, many times employers assign work to their employees without training them in advance. This leads to anger and frustration because those employees often fail at the tasks they’ve been assigned to complete, as they lack the knowledge to complete them successfully. Investing in training sets your employees up to win because they’re being trained for the tasks they’re expected to do.

Rethink Overtime

Some employers regularly assign overtime. In fact, they may expect it from their employees. While it is okay to occasionally ask your employees to work overtime, too much work leads to burnout. If you find that you routinely expect your employees to work overtime, then it might be time to look into hiring part-time help or contractors to get some of your extra tasks done. The cost for these temporary employees may be about equal to the costs you’re paying in overtime. However, even if they do temporarily increase your cost of doing business temporarily, it’s still worth it to hire them. Many burned out employees eventually quit, which costs you way more money in the long run.

Employers need to take care of their employees. Burnout costs both the employee and the employer in lost productivity, lost wages, and lost career mobility. Often employers assign their employees work without really thinking about how much they’re asking their employees to do. This is particularly true of star employees. In light of this, it’s important that employers take active steps to prevent employee burnout.

Here’s another article you might like: How Small Companies Can Cut Healthcare Costs for Their Employees