In my HR position, I’m often asked by senior leadership and management if there’s a remedy for employee burnout. While there’s no magic bullet, we have rolled out strategies for minimizing burnout that any HME, pharmacy or home infusion provider can put in place. The first step is forming a team – this can be formal or informal – to build a process to mitigate burnout. At Brightree, our team follows these 6 guidelines to keep burnout to the absolute minimum.

1. Prioritize the positive. Positive morale is a must. Make sure your company culture and management team focus on positivity and rewards. Don’t let hard work go unnoticed; instead, acknowledge achievements throughout the organization. This can be as simple as shout outs to programs that are more substantial such as monetary rewards.
2. Listen up. Employees want to be heard and to know their opinions are respected and valued. Now may be a good time to set up roundtables where employees can bring their ideas or conduct an employee satisfaction survey that allows for feedback and suggestions.
3. Reset expectations. Be proactive by checking in with your teams and allowing them the time and space for open conversations. If employees are struggling, continue the dialogue and be willing to find ways to improve workplace processes. For instance, at Brightree, employees are welcome to join Zoom meetings without their cameras on to avoid screen-time fatigue.
4. Acknowledge work-life balance. Employees should feel empowered to create a healthy balance between their work and personal life. This includes honoring the boundaries they set and creating an environment where they’re not afraid to speak up about those boundaries. Finding a support system outside of work is important, too, and that’s less likely to happen if employees aren’t striking a balance.
5. Honor PTO. This seems like a given to respect the boundaries around PTO; but especially in our healthcare industry, it can be difficult to balance taking care of patients and taking care of employees. Let employees know that they’re not expected to be available during PTO. Some companies have even instituted more flexible PTO guidelines that allow employees to take mental health days or time off to be tested for or recover from COVID-19 without losing time off.
6. Give grace. Fear of missing out is real, but sometimes it’s not only OK but necessary for an employee’s mental health. Give employees the grace to say “no” when the work, the environment or their mindset gets to be too much that day.