Burnout is a very real problem in the office. While it would be a manager's dream to have a whole staff of employees that can meet deadlines and push to achieve goals without fail, the simple fact is that human limitations aren't always well matched to a company's goals. If you want to get the best out of your staff, you'll want to put procedures in place to keep them refreshed. The following options can help your staff stay healthy and refreshed while distracting from your objectives as little as possible.

Identify the Problem

Burnout can often appear to happen almost overnight, as employees who have been struggling to keep pace with the demands of the job suddenly crash and burn. That makes it crucially important to keep an eye out for the early warning signs so you can put preventative measures in place before the point of no return. A stubbornness about adapting to new changes, a general attitude of negativity, and a lack of interest in growing professionally (or even a failure to understand what the metrics for growth are) are some of the most prominent red flags you can identify.

These are issues that you likely won't see unless you interact regularly with your staff, which is why it's important to emphasize to managers what issues they should be looking for. Creating a culture that promotes open and honest dialogue can help with that too. If your staff trusts their management to respond positively to their concerns without punishment, they can help you identify stress factors in how your business operates, and you can take measures not just to help them but to reduce the risk of burnout among the rest of your staff.

Establish a Culture of Positivity

Success in sales tends to necessitate a competitive personality. Salespeople like to win, but sometimes circumstances out of their control can lead to a streak of bad luck. And in a situation where the chances of success are 50:50, a majority of people will avoid those circumstances. That's why it's important to emphasize the positive. Make sure to call out successes and amplify their impact to keep your team motivated.

That's not to say that you shouldn't address failures on the part of your staff, but even the worst results can have a positive effect in the long term. Try to frame the lessons learned from losses or emphasize how they can be used as a stepping stone towards a success rather than a purely negative result. While you should be worried about repeated short term losses, your long term goals are far more important in the long term.

Encourage the Use of Mental Health Apps

There's still a stigma around mental illness, and while 40 million adults in the US suffer from anxiety disorders, it's believed that up to 75% of people suffering go untreated. The first step is to not treat anxiety as a liability. Instead, create an environment that emphasizes anxiety as a natural result of a high pressure job but one that can be treated with the proper management.

Given the generally goal oriented nature of salespeople, mental health apps can work wonders for developing a sense of positive habits among your sales team. Whether you're looking to build you own app from scratch or make use of one already on the market, it's important to consider the specific characteristics of your salespeople. Gender, age, and regional background can all have an effect on how anxiety manifests and what triggers it. A good mental health app will help users identify the sources of their issues, manage them by registering potential triggers and employing strategies to confront them, and give them the resources to reach out to managers or mental health professionals when necessary.

Encourage Healthy Competition

We've already mentioned the inherently competitive nature of the sales field, but competition works best when there are rules to follow. If sales people are using any means at their disposal to outclass their colleagues, resentments can quickly build, and your team can fracture. Unity is important, but so is a healthy sense of competition among salespeople. More and more companies are using gamified leaderboards in the office that go beyond tracking simple metrics like conversion rate. By creating customized goals that emphasize more than just individual sales, you can encourage a healthier and more well rounded sales office that encourages each individual to play to their own strengths and shore up their weaknesses.

Building a sense of community is also important to encouraging healthy competition. Rewards for success should be frequent, and you can foster a sense of community by making them shared and inclusive. By promoting celebrations outside of work or during work hours, you'll both foster an understanding that success is rewarded and encourage a greater sense of camaraderie among everyone in the office. Sales members should ideally be facilitating each others' growth rather than cutting each other down.

Recognize the Limits of Your Team

Crunch has become prevalent in the world of sales, but it can also shoot you in the foot if it's overused. Overworked employees are less efficient and more prone to burnout, and setting more reasonable labor standards can help you get more value out of each employee. Rather than demand 60 hour work weeks, consider setting a minimum amount of hours worked. This will allow sales members with more fuel in their tanks to push harder while ensuring that other members of your sales team aren't pushed past the point of no return.

In either case, it's important to make sure that overtime isn't mandatory. Your managers should be well versed in promoting the understanding that employees who push themselves well past the expected standards aren't the norm and that employees who meet their goals but put in less work shouldn't be treated as less than. Be sure to carve out time for breaks, sick days, and vacation time. And if you do see employees pushing well beyond the recognized limits, be sure to keep a close eye on them for potential signs of burnout. Preemptively asking a sales leader to take a weekend off can prevent a small issue from ballooning out of control.

Nurture Professional Growth

Well educated employees are more efficient employees, and those given the tools and encouragement to learn will provide you with better results without having to work longer hours. Providing your sales members with the resources they need can be a low cost and low effort way to improve their proficiency while reducing the risk of burnout. Create a dedicated Slack or social media group for sharing articles relevant to their work, and encourage members to share resources they find with their colleagues. Subsidizing the cost of seminars and conferences and paying sales people for their time spent their can go a long way towards making it clear that their personal growth will be rewarded.

Also recognize that your own people can be a valuable resource for growth. Mentorships are one of the best methods for building strong relationships among your staff and providing junior sales people with the tools they need to thrive. Just make sure that assigned mentors are rewarded for the task of taking someone under their wing.

In conclusion

While every office doesn't need to operate like a family, it is important to make sure that your sales team is well rested, encouraged for their successes, and provided with the tools they need to grow professionally. Just taking a few steps in the right direction can improve the culture of your company significantly and reduce the risk of turnover or even an outright mutiny.