Leadership expert says wellbeing should be seen as investment instead of a reward
Educating leaders and managers should be one of the major tasks of HR professionals when it comes to addressing burnout in 2025, according to a leadership expert.
"I think the big part of HR's role in 2025 for addressing burnout is education and training with our leaders and our managers," Fleur Heazlewood, founder of The Blueberry Institute, told HRD.
"So that comes with helping leaders and managers understand what burnout is, such as what the workplace causes of burnout are, and understanding that burnout is a work environment issue, just as much as it is an individual issue."
Burnout remains a prevalent issue in Australia. Robert Half research late last year found that 80% of employees feel varying levels of burnout, with six per cent saying they are "completely burnt out."
More than half of the respondents (56%) cited heavy workloads as the top contributor to burnout, followed by an insufficient number of staff (36%).
According to Heazlewood, leadership is responsible for managing the workplace contributions to burnout among employees.
"The key ones that managers are responsible for are job design and workload," she said. "So, provide training for company directors, leaders, and managers in terms of what their responsibilities are when it comes to workload, job design, healthily managing stress, and supporting our staff."
Another approach to address burnout among Australian employees is by looking at wellbeing as an investment instead of a reward, according to Heazlewood.
She said one challenge among Australians is that they tend to prioritise their to-do list first before looking after their wellbeing.
"What the challenge is, of course, is none of us have enough time to get everything done during the day," Heazlewood said.
The struggle to find time to focus on wellbeing also comes amid reports of Australians working unpaid extended hours. A recent study from the Centre for Future Work revealed that Australians are performing 3.6 hours of unpaid work a week, equivalent to 10.9% of working hours.
This unpaid overtime is equivalent to 188 hours per year per worker, or almost five standard 38-hour work weeks.
"So, well-being is seen as something that happens after everything else is done," Heazlewood said. "But it doesn't happen and so, of course, what we're looking at is increasing levels of burnout in the workplace."
One way to make wellbeing an investment is by conducting activities that improve mental health at the start of the day.
"It's going to set you up for a more productive and a more useful and satisfying rest of your day," Heazlewood said. "So, when you're consciously putting in new habits like exercising, you're more likely to be successful if you schedule it in the morning before you start work, as opposed to trying to find time for it at the end of the day."
HR leaders also need to look at the issue of extended, unpaid working hours.
Heazlewood said approaching the issue of long working hours would need conversations about what a good and healthy working day looks like.
"The first one is really around understanding and training leaders on how to create an environment of psychological safety so that employees can speak up safely when they might be struggling or needing some time off or need some help managing the boundaries around their working hours," she said.
"The second one is that we need HR to be encouraging people to plan and take their leave and take regular time out during the year to recharge."
Employers across Australia are now required to eliminate or minimise the psychosocial risks that arise from psychosocial hazards at work.
Among the psychosocial hazards listed on Safe Work Australia's website is high job demands, which may include working long hours or without enough breaks.
But Heazlewood doesn't think most leaders really understand the legislation.
"If I said to them: 'Define to me, what do you think psychosocial health is?' Most leaders would not be able to tell you."
HR leaders have three key objectives to address this issue, with the first being to raise awareness of the legislation, including its implications and the responsibilities of leaders.
"Then distilling it into practical everyday language: 'This is actually what it means. This is what we need to be doing,'" Heazlewood said. "The third one is in training leaders in how to do that."
The expert stressed that leaders have the proactive responsibility to ensure that they're noticing the first signs of stress, and that employees aren't experiencing psychological stress or burnout due to their workplace environment.
"When you link that to burnout and the fact that we know Australians are already doing roughly five weeks of unpaid overtime, we know that what HR needs to focus on in 2025 to start turning that around is equipping managers with the skills to proactively recognise, look out for, and ensure psychologically healthy or psychosocially healthy staff," she said.
