Are you and your teams overloaded? Study results across 11 countries revealed that 53% of managers and 48% of employees feel burnt out from their job. Achieving a healthy work-life balance is key to beating burnout. It can also maximize productivity, make managers more effective, directly impact employee health, and reduce sick days and absenteeism.
If managers and teams pull long hours, take work home, and neglect their personal lives, this can have serious repercussions.
A Healthy Work-Life Balance Can Make You More Effective
If managers and team members can’t achieve a healthy balance between their work and personal lives, they’re less likely to be productive, efficient, and effective.
This is especially true for managers.
Managers have to shoulder a lot of responsibility. If you’re in charge of a team, it can be very hard to leave your “work at work.” You might find yourself continually thinking about work in your off time.
Unfortunately, not being able to unplug from work can have a negative effect on leadership.
Recent research revealed that leaders who were able to disconnect from their jobs when at home were more refreshed and effective.
Managers and leaders who spent their evenings and weekends worrying about work and checking emails were far less likely to identify as effective.
Does your organization want to promote work-life balance?
Here’s a key takeaway. Reducing excess work hours isn’t the only factor. If you reduce hours, but don’t lighten an employee’s work obligations, their time off the clock is still going to be impacted by work-related thoughts and pressure.
It’s Crucial for Avoiding Burnout
Stats show that 63% of workers might be thinking of quitting their jobs due to burnout.
In other words, a lack of work-life balance isn’t just bad for performance. It can also increase employee turnover and all the hidden costs that come with that.
Having a healthy work-life balance is a primary antidote to burnout.
Burnout is usually caused by workplace stress. If employees can’t recuperate from work-related demands, this will trigger exhaustion.
Drawing a boundary between work and home life is a good start. Healthy habits can also strengthen one’s resilience to stress. Such as adequate sleep, exercise, mindfulness, and a healthy diet.
Creating a company culture that focuses on employee wellness and healthy work habits can help facilitate better work-life balance among teams.
Managers should also be encouraged to talk about mental health with employees. As well as find ways to support team members who are suffering from symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Achieving Work-Life Balance Can Have Direct Health Benefits
Besides making teams and managers more effective, better work-life balance can also have big health payoffs.
Long hours and unabated stress can weaken the immune system. It can also increase the risk of heart disease, impact mental health, and even lead to addiction.
Healthy living can offset the negative effects of workplace stress. This can leave workers with more physical and mental energy, more vitality, and fewer health issues, resulting in fewer sick days. But to achieve this, workers need to have space and time in their day to prioritize their wellbeing
If employees are working long hours, or are constantly on call—they simply won’t have the time to live a healthy life.
Does Your Company Want to Save on Health Plans Without Compromising Care?
Work-life balance is a core ingredient to happy, healthy, and effective employees and managers.
Another key ingredient is affordable healthcare.
Here at D2E Health Plans, we specialize in providing direct-to-employer health plans. By cutting out the middle man and keeping care local, we can unlock impactful savings for both employers and employees.
If you want to help your employees access affordable care and save on employer health plans, contact us to get a customized savings analysis.