From providing role clarity to embracing micro-recovery, these experts’ tips can help HR address psychosocial risks and prevent employees from burning out.
Wellbeing in the context of creating an engaged, productive and psychologically safe workforce was a key theme at this year’s AHRI Convention and Exhibition (NCE) in Melbourne.
It’s not surprising, given we’re living in a polycrisis world, navigating rapid digitalisation and AI, geopolitical instability, energy insecurity and the rising cost of living.
Given that fostering employee wellbeing is key to thriving workplaces, these workplace thought leaders and NCE speakers share their top tips for achieving both.
1. Establish role clarity
Lack of role clarity is one of the most frequently experienced psychosocial hazards in Australian workplaces, says author, wellbeing teacher, and change activator Dr Michelle McQuaid.
“The number one challenge is how to [achieve] it while also aligning to vision, mission strategy, values and culture as well,” she says.
Most of us – when taking on a role or getting promoted – tend to look at job descriptions at the time, then it gets filed away until performance review season. By that time, it’s often half out of date.
A way to overcome this is by creating a “dynamic role description”.
“It [factors in] psychological safety on an ongoing basis and says, ‘If we’re going through a lot of change, we probably need to have some regular conversations about what your responsibilities are, so you are not experiencing that [psychosocial] hazard,” says Dr McQuaid.
Have those conversations at whatever cadence is right for your organisational context and how much change is occurring in the role, she says. When you do, break the role down into the “why” by considering:
- What is the mission and vision of the organisation?
- How is that being supported by this role?
- Why is this meaningful to the employee personally, not just the leaders of the organisation?
The second element is the “what”, looking at:
- What are the objectives of the role?
- How does that support the organisation’s business strategy?
“If you ask most team members, ‘How does your role support a business strategy?’, very few people can draw that line right now,” says Dr McQuaid. “[But] from an organisational perspective, why are we paying somebody to do that role if it’s not supporting the business strategy?
“We need to close these gaps. And, again, if there’s a lot of change, we need to do it more regularly than just when there are performance reviews or promotional conversations.”
Thirdly, the “how” tackles the ways in which the role can align to culture and values by linking in:
- How can the role help to support the organisation’s values?
- Where do those things fit in terms of daily tasks and how to go about them?
Importantly, it’s crucial to ask employees what they want to achieve, including:
- What are you hoping to learn and develop through the role?
- How will that support the organisation which you envision?
“People care a lot about their roles, and it stresses them out when they don’t have [role clarity]. They work too much and it [affects] their career opportunities,” says Dr McQuaid.
“So this becomes a really easy tool to minimise that psychosocial hazard.”
“If you ask most team members, ‘How does your role support a business strategy?’, very few people can draw that line right now.” – Dr Michelle McQuaid
2. Control your “Kevin”: embracing towards behaviours
Australians have “incredibly high” levels of resilience, says Dr Adam Fraser, peak performance researcher and author.
“When we are pushed into a corner and changes are imposed by us, we cope amazingly well,” he says.
You only have to look at our organisations’ COVID-19 pandemic response, rapidly shifting to remote working within two weeks, to understand just how well Australians cope and thrive during change under pressure. Why? Because we had to.
“McKinsey research shows that COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation by seven years,” Dr Fraser adds.
What we’re not so good at, however, is instigating proactive change, to avoid, manage or rise to future challenges.
These are “towards” behaviours, such as:
- Having hard conversations
- Moving away from rescuing people, and empowering them instead
- Maintaining boundaries with clients and stakeholders
- Practising self-care
- Applying for a promotion
- Taking chances and putting an idea out there
- Pushing back on working excessive hours
- Calling people on behaviours not aligned to organisational goals.
But what’s standing in our way? After asking a circus troupe who perform without safety nets whether they feel fear when performing at death-defying heights, Dr Fraser was introduced to “Kevin”.
“What [they] said is, ‘We’ve tried to get rid of [fear], but you just can’t. So we created a character, ‘Kevin’, who says, ‘You haven’t prepared enough,’ or ‘You’re not good enough,’ or ‘The crowd’s not going to enjoy it.’ Kevin gives us a hard time. But we just put [him] in the corner.”
We all have a “Kevin” in our lives preventing us from taking the “towards” steps – constantly telling us what we can’t do and that we’re not good enough.
But we shouldn’t let negative self-talk dominate. Instead, Dr Fraser suggests a four-step process that changes the relationship we have with our minds:
- Self-awareness: notice your stories and emotions
- Acceptance: you can’t get rid of Kevin, just don’t let him run the show
- Focus on the evolution that comes from the towards action
- Engage in the most constructive towards behaviour.
Being vocal about our “Kevins” can help us to realise that we are all the same, and fosters deep understanding.
“This is the stuff that builds connection,” says Dr Fraser. “It also helps us talk about mistakes, failures and screw ups. We learn from them, and it allows us to evolve.”
3. Practise micro-recovery
When we think about burnout, we need to consider the three dimensions of it, says Dr Adam Fraser. It’s not just the exhaustion element that we need to pay attention to, but also the cynicism and reduced professional efficacy that can arise.
“When we’re looking at burnout, the problem is we often look at things like, are they resting? Are they looking after themselves? Are they eating well? But [there are] other dimensions that are as important, and we tend to neglect them,” he says.
“When I was doing a study, we asked different organisations [where people said they were burnt out], ‘What are you going to do about that?’ – and the only answer we got was, ‘I’ve got a holiday in three months. When I go on holiday, I’ll look after myself and that will fix it.’
“But QUT has done some awesome research on holidays, and what they show is that the benefits of holiday disappear after three weeks. So you’re back where you were before the holiday three weeks after you get back.”
That’s why building in moments for micro-recovery is critical, he adds.
“We look at daily, weekly and monthly practices,” he says.
This could look like:
- Every day: doing something that calms you. That might be yoga, reading fiction or meditation.
- Every week: doing something that energises you. This could be a task that gives you a sense of mastery – such as an enjoyable hobby.
- Every month: having a day on the weekend without an agenda. Operate in the flow of your day without feeling the need to be productive.
4. Remove the professional mask
At work, many of us feel as though we have to be “constantly performing”, says applied psychologist author, people and culture thought leader Dr Pippa Grange.
“Professionalism” allows us to make “snap judgements” about a person based on their “looks, the superficiality of how somebody is dressed, whether somebody has tattoos, [and] their hair style,” she says.
But there is a fine line between professionalism and conformity, which is, inherently, compliance.
“Conformity is a tacit agreement to abide by scanning rules, expectations and regulations, but it’s also a very subtle and strong form of influence on who we are and how we show up at work,” says Dr Grange.
To bridge the gap between who we think we are supposed to be and who we actually are, we “mask… We get on with performing.”
“We use masking mostly to [conceal] negative feelings like sadness, loneliness and frustration,” she says.
Women, who often feel the pressure to “function”, mask more often than men, as do neurodivergent individuals.
But masking, when left unchecked, can be costly, and is a key factor fuelling the levels of burnout we are experiencing at “epidemic proportions”, leading to:
- 43 per cent of people in over 100 countries experiencing burnout
- 79 per cent of all occupational illness cases stemming from burnout.
So what’s the alternative? According to Dr Grange, it’s authenticity – arrived at via a “joint venture” between the individual and leadership.
“This is about creating the conditions for people to show their real [selves]’ she says.
The pathway to authenticity involves bringing it back to basics by showing vulnerability, getting to know people on a deep and personal level and realising that the workplace is not homogenous.
“It takes a lot of work to get to authenticity and to feel as though you can be honest,” says Dr Grange. “It takes identifying and then expressing what we really mean. You can feel able to do this when you invite and offer truth.”
It’s also important for people to realise that there are going to be times when they lean a little more to each of these four behaviours:
- Professionalism
- Conformity
- Authenticity
- Vulnerability.
“These are not set points, and vary day to day depending on what you’re doing or feeling,” she adds.
For leaders, she advises recognising and addressing some common “unchallenged” workplace beliefs, including:
- “We pay you, we own you.”
- “Productivity first, authenticity second.”
- “Input, but respect the hierarchy.”
- “People like this do best here.”
- “This is work, not therapy.”
“[Addressing] each one of these things is a step towards a more authentic workplace, and therefore a more productive workplace.”