How To Relieve Burnout For The HR Department?

As Covid-19 temporarily passed, businesses and the workforce have been met with positive signs of recovery; however, the HR department is still struggling with the changes of the new normal. If continuously arising problems are what had been causing constant difficulties for HR during the pandemic, then preventing job-hopping and sustaining the company’s workforce are the number one concern of this department post-Covid-19. At the same time, HR is further exhausted by having to take on too many responsibilities from the executive board and manage new policies and employees’ expectations.

The results from the annual survey “What’s keeping HR up at night?” of the Human Resource Executive magazine, based in the US, also found that 86% of HR personnel feel highly pressured even in the new normal. According to Ms. Tieu Yen Trinh – CEO of Talentnet Corporation, when Covid-19 temporarily quieted down, HR still maintained its frontline role of taking care of employees and facing challenges from the changes of the new way of working as well as the labor shortage due to the great resignation. Handling multiple tasks simultaneously is the reason for HR to fall into a state of burnout. “It’s time for HR to be ‘resuscitated’ and leaders should step in to ensure the physical and mental well-being of the HR department”, Ms. Trinh advised.

Ms. Trinh suggested two principles that businesses can immediately apply to relieve burnout within the HR department.

Firstly, businesses need to put themselves in the position of HR to understand the burden to support them in many ways. Such as providing flexible working arrangements, suitable leave of absence policies, and encouraging HR to have recreation time. Moreover, businesses need to classify their needs and set up reasonable expectations or consider using HR outsourcing services to take the burden off HR’s shoulders.

The second principle is to add a “weapon” called technology to optimize the workload of the HR department. According to research by I4CP, 53% of HR employees believe that technology plays an important role in increasing HR’s contributions and reducing the workload of the HR department.

Many large companies within the technology field are also developing several platforms to help HR departments better manage employees and the recruitment process. These HR technologies are enabling HR to be more efficient while eliminating a lot of responsibility in administration, which further empowers HR to take the stress off their mind and still be as productive as ever.