BY NICOLE NELSON

In the throes of a pandemic where there is no “normal” — and there is no sense of if or when “normal” will resume — employee burnout serves as a unique issue for this moment in time.

“We are all facing challenges and emotional intelligence hiccups because we’re at a time where we don’t have control,” Claudia St. John, president of Affinity HR Group, said.

St. John and her nationwide network of human resources consultants have observed clients and their employees that are seemingly fine — until they are not — when all of a sudden something major, or minor, happens.

“Whether somebody gets sick or loses a job, or somebody goes to buy a roll of toilet paper and there’s no toilet paper left — whatever the trigger, we find that people really have a volatility in their emotional equilibrium now, that they wouldn’t have had before,” St. John said. “Burnout catches them by surprise as much as it catches the people around them by surprise.”

By the numbers

According to Gallup’s report, Employee Burnout: Causes and Cures, employees across industries are experiencing burnout at an astonishing rate of 76% — with 28% saying they are “always” or “very often” burned out.

Gallup’s study characterizes burnout as a symptom of modern workplaces that are increasingly fast-paced, complex and demanding with the cumulative effect being harmful to both employees and their employers. Personnel who claim to very often or always experience burnout at work are 63% more likely to take a sick day. In addition, the Gallup results indicate that burned out staff are 23% more likely to visit the emergency room, and are 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job.

Compounding typical employee burnout are the existential emotional challenges everyone seems to be facing in this day and age.

“I could tell you what a terrible time I’m having, but why would I, because you’re probably having a terrible time, too, right?” St. John said, noting that while we are all going through this, there is no pride of ownership in our own little crises. “We like to say, ‘everyone is in the same boat.’ But we’re not in the same boat. We are on very, very different boats in the same storm.”

For this reason, St. John recommends, first and foremost, recognizing the intense and very real emotional stress that people are under.

“I think the issue of burnout is very real right now, so in terms of strategies for supervisors and managers, what we would recommend first is to be patient and kind, and to have grace towards others in their emotional moments.”

Engaging employees

To better encourage engaged employees, St. John suggested spending more time being empathetic, even if empathy doesn’t come naturally to you, because you just don’t know what someone’s going through.

This ancient proverb still holds true: “A fish rots from the head down.” Ethical lapses in leadership — or the “heads” of an organization — may afflict everyone.

“The fish is also healthy from the head down,” St. John said, “so as car wash owners and managers, recognize that the experiences that your customers have going to the car wash are probably as close to normal as they have.

“Giving purpose to our employees and letting them see that what they do matters is paramount,” St. John said. The interactions employees have with others may be the only interactions they are having outside of their families in the course of the day. “Let them know that they don’t just clean cars. They provide peace of mind and a safe vehicle for families to drive in.”

#MORETHANWASHINGCARS

Car wash employees provide a service that goes well beyond just a clean car, when you consider how much they continue to give back to the community.

“There is so much the car washes do that matter,” St. John said. “Now is a great time to double down on that and to let your folks also know that they are part of the family.”

Bubble Bath Car Wash President Nicholas Lopez says his company strives to attain this familial vibe by maintaining a tight-knit team dynamic where everyone feels included and valued. This effort includes investing in personal relationships, getting to know employees and their families, and welcoming them into the overarching Bubble Bath Car Wash family.

“As a family-owned and operated business, we’ve built that sense of community and support into our company culture,” Lopez says of his San Antonio, Texas, car wash chain. “My employees have watched my daughter grow up, they’ve spent holiday parties at my home, and we hold regular team building activities to nurture those human connections.

“I believe that knowing your team and having comfortable, open lines of communication is key to keeping everyone motivated and happy.”

Similarly, Indianapolis, Ind.-based Crew Carwash has found continual communication, as well as feedback and recognition, to be the pillars of engagement.

“We work hard to keep our team members in the loop, and provide transparency in our financial data and future plans,” William Stephen, who serves as a recruiter for Crew Carwash, said. “Our scheduled weekly huddles, team meetings, ‘Crew Tube’ weekly video communication and team app communications provide important information and updates to our team members.”

Training and mentorship

Affinity HR’s St. John says having training programs and being dedicated to developing and growing employees is always key. Doing so in a way that folks feel safe in a work environment is equally important.

This is an area in which H2WOW Carwash has thrived, with co-owner Julie Petty’s assertion that engaged and confident employees are the key to building a successful business. Such engagement, she said, comes from understanding the vision and values of the organization, as well as from possessing the knowledge to do each job well.

“Every role is critical to the success of the team,” Petty said, noting this to be true whether it’s greeting someone at the pay station, maintaining equipment in top working condition or coaching a new employee at H2WOW’s two Colorado locations. “Understanding your role means not only giving access to well-written training programs like you can find in ICA’s LEAD program (carwash.org/lead), but also following up with mentoring, so team members know how to put that training to practice in their day-to-day work,” Petty said. “Training plus mentoring helps team members feel the confidence they need to be successful and engaged.”

St. John says mentorship is not only for learning the ropes and growing professionally, but also for navigating this space in time when an abundance of uncertainties abound related to continued provision of services in a community given an economic downturn, COVID, political divisiveness, social unrest or racial injustice.

“Pick a topic, and it’s likely affecting people in the workplace, regardless of one’s perspective, for or against it,” St. John said.

She suggested mentors, or trusted advisors, may help employees not only be better at their jobs, but also help them navigate their futures by answering questions that may be concerning them, thereby affecting their enthusiasm and ability to attend to their work.

“Having somebody who can be a trusted advisor is really a gift at this moment in time,” St. John said. “Who doesn’t want to have somebody to turn to and say, ‘I’m scared. Are we going to survive this?’” It is having somebody there to reassure them, to put things in perspective, and to let them know crises pass. “Mentoring is an opportunity to help, support and uplift each other. It’s a gift not only to the mentee, but as the mentor as well.”

Golden nugget

One of the most critical things that a manager can do is give employees a regular dose of positive feedback.

“This is the one golden nugget I would give to everybody, in this moment in time,” St. John said. “Positive feedback is the one thing that truly changes a workplace, that changes your employee from being disengaged to engaged, and from engaged to highly engaged.”

St. John says managers and leaders are really good at corrective feedback. But catching somebody doing exactly what you want them to do, the way that you want them to do it, is an opportunity to praise and an opportunity to support and instill competence, creating an opportunity to remind those employees why they are valued and why they are appreciated.

“If you do nothing else, I would really encourage that you just take the time every day to dole out five or 10 nuggets of positive feedback to your employees,” St. John said. “Even your absolute worst performer does something right every day. And if you can start filling their bucket with positive feedback, with confidence, they are going to grow a little bit more.”