5 ways great managers make their teams happier—without sacrificing productivity

The workplace is changing. Technological innovations in fields like artificial intelligence are transforming organizations at a breakneck pace. Ongoing economic uncertainty is leading to layoffs and higher workloads. It’s difficult for many workers to keep up.

Given increased pressures, it’s not surprising that workplace stress and burnout is on the rise.  According to The Economist, 68% of managers and 60% of non-managers reported being burned out in the past 12 months. One-third of U.S. workers say their mental health is getting worse due to long hours, excessive workloads, and other factors, according to a survey from the Conference Board.

The potential cost of unwell workers is significant. Burnout drives absenteeism, job dissatisfaction, depression, and more, according to the American Psychological Association.  Most workers who report decreased mental health also report lower levels of engagement.

Organizations need sweeping solutions to keep workers healthy, engaged, and productive and to thrive in the coming year. Promoting well-being needs to be a responsibility shared by organizations and individual workers.

Organizational approaches are necessary to address mental health, anxiety, stress, and burnout and to create healthier workplace cultures. Think of it as workplace well-being instead of worker well-being, where organizations utilize holistic strategies to address individual and organizational well-being at the same time.

Organizations can be most effective in addressing mental health issues by fixing the underlying causes that lead to stress and burnout in the first place. When companies take steps to increase engagement and reduce burnout, they enjoy the benefits.  Microsoft’s 2022 Trend Index report found that organizations that “doubled down on employee engagement in times of economic uncertainty” performed twice as well financially compared to organizations that did not prioritize engagement.

Solutions that promote healthier workers also yield more engaged, productive workers because these efforts boil down to the same thing—investing in a human-centered culture. In my decades advising organizations on how to produce higher levels of wellness, engagement, and productivity, I’ve found it’s essential not just to add another stand-alone program or policy but instead to instill organization-wide strategies into the fabric of their culture. Here are five ways teams can increase workplace well-being—while increasing productivity. 

1.  Offer autonomy

One of the biggest triggers of burnout is the feeling of lack of control. When employees feel they don’t have a choice in how, when, and where they do their work, this feeling can lead to a sense that they are not trusted to make decisions and function as the professionals their organizations hired them to be. It also makes it much harder for workers to juggle everything in their lives, in and out of work.

Giving employees autonomy has the opposite effect. It says, “I trust you to know how and where to get your job done.” This is one of the fundamental reasons I advocate strongly for flexibility in the workplace. As the Future Forum survey states, “amid spiking burnout, offering employees flexibility fuels company culture and productivity.”

Action step: Consider your organization’s flexibility policy. There is no one-size-fits-all policy that works in every workplace. Your organization might be best served by a virtual workforce or four days in the office. But within the policy you set, offer some individual discretion where possible. If you need a team in the office four days a week, offer flexible start times to help alleviate arduous commutes. Or, if you have a three-day-per-week office policy, consider two anchor days and let employees choose the third day based on their own needs.  

2.  Support boundaries 

In case after case, employees cite flexibility at the top of their list of workplace priorities.  And for workers suffering from burnout or mental health issues, flexibility and work-life balance are two of the top things workers say would help.

But there is a significant caveat to this. I believe flexibility on its own is not a solution to work-life balance. If a worker has the flexibility to work at home some days, but their manager expects them to be available for calls at any time, morning or night, flexibility changes from a driver of work-life success to a driver of work-life stress. That’s where boundaries come in.  Valuing and supporting boundaries mean having respect for workers’ time and life outside of work. Boundaries are effective when employees feel comfortable speaking up when their boss has crossed those boundaries.

Some managers don’t immediately embrace the concept of boundaries.  They sometimes see them as a barrier to productivity. If a manager believes an employee can say “no” extra work whenever asked, they fear the work won’t get done. But boundaries used correctly are bridges to productivity. They show employees respect for their lives and their wellness. This feeling leads to loyalty, engagement, and a desire to go the extra mile for their managers and coworkers. 

Action step: Organizations can communicate that they respect their employees’ lives outside of work, and leaders can speak openly about boundaries—helping to share this as an organization-wide value. This talk should be supported by some action. For example, many of my clients implement schedule-send systems for a simple but effective place to start. In this case, if managers like to catch up on email in the evening or on a Sunday, they should be aware that sending a barrage of emails on a Sunday will cause their employees stress and possibly make workers feel that the emails must be responded to immediately. Instead, using the schedule-send feature in email allows managers to schedule these emails to arrive in inboxes during regular work hours.

 3.  Manage workloads

Unmanageable workloads and insufficient resources are cited repeatedly as significant drivers of employee stress and burnout. It’s critical to address workload levels. However, this can be tricky.

Leaders sometimes equate managing workloads with lowering productivity.  Some managers don’t know any other way to get work done. Some work cultures even glorify unhealthy workloads. But too much work is a leading cause of stress, which often leads to loss of talent. You want to avoid first finding out that a valuable employee is burning out when they walk into your office and quit.

Action step: Monitor work hours to ensure employees are not chronically overworking and check in with them periodically to see how they’re doing. These are essential steps to retain productive workers and help keep them healthy. If there is no way to reduce the workload, encourage managers to review work across their teams and look for opportunities to redistribute work when appropriate. Also, giving employees more autonomy regarding where and when they do their work can make it more manageable. Finally, it goes a long way for managers to acknowledge when heavy workloads can’t be avoided. In those cases, talking about it and offering to make up for it with more time off later can help, too.

4.  Cultivate psychological safety

Amy Edmondson, an organizational scientist and professor at Harvard Business School, introduced the concept of psychological safety. According to her, psychological safety is when individuals feel safe speaking up about their needs or sharing thoughts with others. Teams with high levels of psychological safety perform better. Employees need to feel they can ask for help without feeling like they’re going to be judged. It’s also crucial for employees to feel they can open up about mental health issues. According to the “Women @ Work 2023” Report from Deloitte, “only a quarter of respondents feel comfortable discussing mental health in the workplace, down significantly from 43% in 2022.”

Consider your organization. Are you enabling environments of psychological safety organization-wide? Do members of teams trust one another? Do they have each other’s backs in a crisis or in times of heavier workloads? Can they do their most creative and innovative work because they are not afraid to share their thoughts with others?

Action step:  It’s essential for leaders at all levels to check in with their employees proactively, ask how they’re doing, and give them a safe space to respond. A simple way to do this is to add this topic to annual goal conversations. When leaders across your organization talk with their employees about goals for the coming year, they can ask how their employees feel about their ability to accomplish these goals—whether they have the resources they need and how the organization can help. Another strategy that has been effective in many organizations is the creation of an ombudsperson whose role is to be a confidential representative of employees; someone workers can go to anonymously to share issues or problems that they might not feel comfortable talking with their manager about. 

5.  Support managers

Managers are a linchpin between workers and the organization, and their mental health is suffering more than the average worker. It’s not just mid-level managers. Executives now report 20% lower levels of work-life balance and 40% more work-related stress and anxiety as they struggle to navigate shifting work models. 

Supporting your leaders is a multilevel endeavor. First, it’s essential to address the underlying causes of their stress that are specific to them. Leaders are often under so much pressure and are responsible for their teams. They need targeted programs that give them the tools to reduce their stress and burnout. Part of their stress often stems from not feeling equipped to support their employee’s work and well-being. In fact, according to one survey, 47% of US office workers cited training managers to promote a healthy work-life balance as one of the top solutions they believe would help their mental health. In another survey, 77% of employees placed more importance on manager support, yet managers said they have 51% more responsibility than they can effectively manage.

Managers also need training and guidance on leading with empathy.  Empathy has the power to impact every element of workplace well-being.  It is a necessary skill that’s core to their job as a manager or people leader. 

Action step: Training managers is key, but evaluating them on their leadership is often overlooked. Formally incorporate this into their job descriptions and performance reviews. Upward reviews are key here. Create a review and feedback process that allows employees to share feedback about their manager. 

By offering autonomy, supporting boundaries, managing workloads, cultivating psychological safety, and supporting middle managers, any team can increase workplace well-being—without losing productivity.