How AI Can Mitigate Employee Burnout—During Covid-19 And Beyond

Maintaining the human element at workplace

Ask any adult in America how they are, and you’ll probably get one of three responses: “Fine,” “busy,” or “tired.” In today’s world, time scarcity is equally celebrated and bemoaned as we seek to accomplish as much as possible on any given day.  
 

Even before Covid-19 made grocery shopping seem like a risky activity, online grocery services did a thriving business. Other at-home subscription services for pet products, clothing, and meal prep proved that many Americans are more than happy to outsource tedious tasks they simply “don’t have time for.”

Why can’t it be the same experience at work? We bounce from task to task, leaving minimal time to accomplish what’s important. “Busy” was the new normal before “the new normal”—we hate that cliché, by the way—made headlines.  Where’s the workplace version of Amazon Prime to automate routine, mundane tasks so we can focus on what’s really important? 

How AI Can Help Employees

Employees are an organization’s biggest asset, which is why it’s time to leverage technology that empowers them to take control of their own schedules while giving leaders deep insight into the overall health of their workforce.  

For employees, AI promises to reshape planned and unplanned time off.  Picture a parent whose daycare is suddenly quarantined and can’t show up to work until it reopens. Wouldn’t it be nice if notifications were automatically sent to non-scheduled employees advising that a shift is available? 

With AI, the system can even recommend specific co-workers an employee may want to ask to swap with based on the co-workers’ existing schedule, availability, job type, and even whether their friends are scheduled to work. 

Managers Are Employees, Too

For even the best manager who cares deeply about their employees, it’s fundamentally impossible for them to know how much overtime each employee has worked over a rolling 90-day period, when each employee’s last PTO day off was, and when everyone’s next vacation maybe. This is where AI is starting to have a real impact. 

Today, AI is analyzing these factors in real-time to inform managers which employees are at risk for fatigue, burnout, and even flight risk, surfacing concerns and providing at-a-glance views of an employee’s status. 

These tools can also surface employees who haven’t had access to overtime opportunities, allowing managers to spread out both the burden and financial benefits of optional hours in more fair and equitable ways—assuming the organization takes necessary precautions to eliminate unconscious AI bias.

Solving a Costly Problem

Big picture: think about how meaningful of interaction it would be for an employee if their manager were to approach them, tell them they’ve been doing a great job, that they appreciated all the overtime they have worked, and then rewarded them with a couple of paid days off? Not only will the organization avoid burning out that high-performer, but you’d better believe this surprise-and-delight moment will be reflected in their discretionary effort and future engagement. 

With technology at the helm of our daily lives, it’s imperative to think about how we can utilize tools to better our business and create an environment that is better for our people. High-performing organizations continue to set themselves apart by recruiting, training, and developing employees within their own ranks. This is possible because they have a solid grasp on voluntary and involuntary turnover.

According to the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM), employers are paying an average of six to nine months’ salary to fill and train a single manager.  Instead of losing your best employees and paying a hefty price, why not focus on creating a retentive culture? The churn-and-burn approach—which companies don’t even realize they deploy—creates and an endless cycle of keeping up instead of getting ahead. 

Creating an environment and culture that promotes from within and addresses proper work/life balance will help reduce burnout, which is more important now than it’s ever been before.  Reducing burnout reduces turnover. This, in turn, reduces time and money spent on hiring, onboarding, and training those backfilled positions. When you have highly engaged and tenured workforces due to an exceptional employee experience, productivity and innovation really begin to take rocket ahead. 

Maintaining the Human Element

With the persistent concern that “AI and robots are going to take over the universe,” we must always remain focused on the human element of technology.  After all, we work in human resources and people operation. AI is giving us an opportunity to focus on the immediate needs of our most important assets – our people – rather than the daily tasks and administrative busywork that, while necessary, is uninspiring.

At the end of the day, avoiding burnout is critical to keeping our businesses running. While we’re operating in a new territory of life with unique and challenging circumstances, we have the power to improve our relationships with employees and help them meet their changing demands, whether that’s facing a global pandemic or simply navigating the normal of “I’m just so busy.”  

Let’s continue to move forward by empowering everyone to take back their lives and show our people that the company they’re devoted to is devoted to them, too.

	Chas Fields, MSHRM, SHRM-PMQ, is a Senior Partner in the HCM Advisory at UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group), where he helps organizations maximize the potential of their people by maximizing technologies impact on the employee experience. Visit https://www.ukg.com/  Connect Chas Fields Follow @UKGInc
	Karina Schultheis is a Social Scientist in UKG’s Human Insights and HCM Advisory Group, where she focuses on research and content development. She is a passionate investigator who examines the root causes—and solutions—of workplace inequality.  Connect Karina Schultheis Follow @karinalynnes