2020 burned HR teams out. Here’s how to help.
As business leaders, we need to recognize the needs of our HR teams and ask them to prioritize their own mental health.
You’ve heard the line before: Today, human resources is about more than compliance. “People” teams focus on engagement, belonging, and other meaningful workplace priorities. This shift isn’t new, and by now, most business leaders understand that HR has evolved. But there’s another element that isn’t talked about enough.
Handling heightened emotions. Dealing with mental exhaustion. Advocating for mental health resources. You won’t see these on an HR generalist’s job description, but they’re part of the role. HR professionals are confidantes, shoulders to cry on, and the go-to when employees feel burned out.
Related: Pandemic driving up employee burnout rates; managers feel responsible
And that was before this year. Faced with a global pandemic, the pivot to remote work, and rising social change, HR teams need your support more than ever.
Emotional burnout
For Lattice’s State of People Strategy Report, we surveyed 1,000 HR professionals globally to understand their priorities and challenges. While we expected to find that teams were struggling with remote work logistics, budgeting, or other conventional issues, the findings were starker.
In our survey, nearly 60% of HR professionals cited “emotional exhaustion” as their top challenge in 2020. Being overwhelmed by mounting responsibilities and employee morale accounted for the second and third-most cited challenges.
Even under strain, they managed to do so much for others this year. Respondents shared that they were sending out engagement and crisis response surveys, providing mental health services, and offering flexible workdays to help employees cope with the extra stress.
4 ways people teams can help themselves
While the report’s findings say a lot about HR professionals’ character, this isn’t sustainable. When people teams shrug off emotional exhaustion or chalk it up to the job, they’re doing themselves a disservice. Business success depends on their success, and they can only shoulder so much for so long.
If HR professionals don’t prioritize their mental health, they’ll face the same risks employees do: emotional exhaustion and burnout. Then there’s the problem of compassion fatiguee, a kind of empathy “burnout” that’s increasingly prevalent in healthcare. The same qualities that make HR professionals good at their jobs, like having empathy and compassion for others, can turn into compassion fatigue.It’s time for HR teams to listen to their own advice for a change. As business leaders, we need to recognize their needs and ask them to prioritize their mental health. That starts by encouraging them to do the below.
1. Take time off.
HR professionals know that overworking leads to employee burnout, but they may not be applying that same knowledge to their own lives. With so much on their plates, the line between their professional and personal lives is likely blurred.
More than ever, your HR team members need to take time for themselves. The State of People Strategy Report shows that 44% of organizations started offering flexible workdays or schedules this year, so encourage them to take advantage before the end of the year and in 2021.
2. Find a sounding board.
HR teams aren’t usually large — survey responses show that they represent just a small percentage of organizations. At smaller organizations, they may even be a one-person shop. Either way, finding someone to talk to is critical. That could mean turning to their professional network or a community of HR and People leaders who can sympathize with their concerns and offer feedback.
3. Ask for help.
HR teams are typically spread thin, given their scope. It’s essential that they feel supported by leadership and encouraged to ask for help when needed. Ask other departments to help, too. That could mean training managers to facilitate communication and one-on-one employee interactions, investing in coaching to build your skills and team, or asking executives to back up an initiative as it gets rolled out company-wide.
4. Acknowledge their accomplishments.
Just like rewards and recognition motivate employees and makes them feel appreciated, gratitude is also important for HR teams. Leadership has to regularly acknowledge the role HR plays in driving business success. That could go a long way in driving their self-gratitude and awareness of the value they bring.
HR strategy is business strategy — and if you neglect the individuals who drive the former, you do so at the expense of the latter. Going into the holidays and new year, take the time to recognize how much they’ve given to your business. With the year they’ve had, it’s time they prioritized themselves for a change.
Jack Altman is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Lattice. Prior to launching Lattice, Jack was the VP of Business and Corporate Development at Teespring, an e-commerce platform. Jack was also an early stage venture capital investor in companies like Opendoor, Flexport, and PlanGrid. Jack earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Princeton.
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