You trust your employees, as any leader should.

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Yet there’s always the risk that procrastination gets the best of even your hardest employees. What was once a minor problem has become much harder to deal with due to the rising demand for remote and hybrid work models. If you can’t keep an eye on your employees’ activities in the office, what hope do you have of keeping them task-oriented?

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Push your workforce too hard, though, and you end up at the other end of the spectrum: running the very real risk of employee burnout. The pandemic has knocked us all out of our usual routines, and there’s no telling the lasting impact it has had and will continue to have on employees’ mental health.

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The solution, as such, is striking a delicate balance between employee productivity monitoring and catering to overstressed employees. Choosing to track employee attendance could just be the best decision you make today.

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How to Deal with the Increasing Risk of Employee Burnout

There is of course a risk associated with demanding more of your employees, though.

Go too far, and you turn into yet another one of your employees’ problems, sapping their energy and affecting their mental health. The last thing you want to do is come across as unsympathetic to your employees’ constantly changing lives and difficult home work setups.

So what can you do to address the growing risk of employee burnout?

Show Compassion

It may sound obvious, but showing compassion to your employees can go a long way to reduce the likelihood of burnout.

What does compassion look like?

It can be as simple as:

• Praise for tasks completed 
• Understanding regarding shifting work hours
• Regular check-ins to make sure your employees aren’t struggling

You can use a tool like an employee timesheet software not only for assessing worker performance, but to spot worrying trends. For instance, if you notice that your social media manager is dragging his heels in the morning, you can bring it up in your next meeting. Ask why mornings are a struggle, and you might just find that a later start would work better for both the company and the employee.

The Argument for Productivity Tracking

For senior management, it’s not uncommon to feel like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. As a leader, on the one hand you have a job to do, and on the other, you’re compassionate to the hardships your workforce has to deal with. It’s a constant, delicate balance.

Let’s be clear, though, while you should cut your team some slack in these testing times, you still have a business to run. If you aren’t making a profit, nobody at the enterprise will benefit.

One of the most popular solutions to the need for remote accountability is time tracking software with screenshots. 

What is a productivity monitoring tool?

Productivity tracking tools like Insightful are designed to keep your employees in line, regardless of whether their office is shared, or at their house. A time tracking system for employees software provides you with a real-time overview of how your employees are spending their time during work hours. 

There are a number of productivity monitoring tools you can use to monitor individual worker performance and encourage productivity. When you use time tracking software with screenshots, for example, you can catch any non-work related internet surfing, and stamp it out before it becomes a productivity drain.

When you track employee attendance, you ensure that every minute they spend on company time is put to good use. From the moment they clock-in to the moment they check out, you can expect focused efforts which will help tasks and projects fly through your funnels.

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Organize (Virtual) Events

You’d be surprised how effective virtual events and worker meetings can be for bringing employees back from the brink of burnout.

One of the most detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the impact on employees’ social lives. For some, enforced lockdowns have prevented them from seeing loved ones, whereas for others the energy they’d get from working in a shared office with colleagues has been taken away.

One way to remedy this lack of social connection is to acknowledge that your employees are social beings, and act to foster connections in the workplace.

Here are some ideas for encouraging social connection in the workplace:

•  Virtual icebreaker games for newly-formed teams
•  Online lunch break hangouts
•  Themed holiday Zoom parties
•  Online gaming sessions
•  Open mic nights

Time and attendance software can be useful for staving off the blues, too, as employees will be able to see what their colleagues are doing in real-time. There may be a modicum of comfort to be had in just knowing that the rest of the team is plugging away on a collaborative work project. Productivity tracking, as such, can be beneficial to both senior management and team members.

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Provide Personal and Professional Opportunities

While some employees might once have balked at the idea of throwing themselves into training and professional growth activities, it can now seem like time well-spent.

Life in the pandemic can feel overly mundane and repetitive.

So why not lay out opportunities for your employees to help them rediscover a sense of professional purpose?

By providing employees with access to tools that can help them in their personal and professional lives, you can get the most out of them while also building a relationship of trust.

Here are some examples of opportunities you could present to your workforce:

•  Access to online courses for professional growth
•  Meditation apps for wellbeing
•  Worker retreats (virtual or in person) 

Final Thoughts

There’s no denying the impact the pandemic has had on workplace productivity and employees’ mental health. However, you can take it upon yourself to lift your employees up while also ensuring your business stays afloat.  

Use an employee time tracking system to keep your employees motivated, accountable, and cooperative. Productivity tracking helps inspire accountability, and it can rally together team members to lift spirits and raise morale. You can also track employee attendance without negatively affecting productivity levels or risking employee burnout.

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