This week Health & Protection has explored how insurers tackle employee burnout and spoken to industry experts for their advice on how to tackle the problem.
But another aspect of the pandemic has been employees’ increased use of virtual meetings such as Zoom adn Teams to keep in touch and host business meetings.
Here, life coach Grace McMahon (pictured) offers five tips to reduce employee Zoom burnout.
These include:
Promote an informal environment during online meetings, perhaps where people feel like they’re sitting around the same table. What would you do if you were in the same room? Maybe look around, take some notes, and drink a glass of water. Try to do the same during online meetings, avoid staring at the screen for the whole time. If someone does not look at you directly, it does not mean they are not listening to you – and it’s really hard to tell if anyone is keeping eye contact with you at all.
Take into account that social interactions and communications work differently online. The line may delay the voice of speakers, causing annoying overlaps, try structuring your meetings in a way that everyone has their turn to speak and slow down the rhythm of a discussion so that it will be easier to follow for everyone.
Try to define roles and responsibilities for anyone involved in an online meeting. Allow some people to join online meetings as listeners with cameras and mics off to improve their productivity; while encouraging people who have an active role in the meeting to keep cameras on and take an active part in the discussions.
Encourage walking meetings when possible, especially with your internal team. This will release the stress of being in front of the screen in the same position for hours and the movement will have a positive impact on our mental abilities, such as concentration, processing speed and problem-solving.
Follow an action-oriented agenda. This will be more productive and can help keep any meetings short and straight to the point. Try setting clear start and close times for online meetings and respect the time scheduled. This prevents employees from leaving feeling unproductive and unmotivated. Unnecessary hours on a Zoom call can feel like our time could’ve been better spent working elsewhere and can have a negative impact on people’s stress levels.