The “Great Resignation” has gone from rumor to reality, and people are pointing to burnout as a reason why employees are leaving their jobs in droves. Are virtual assistants the answer to slowing the mass employment exodus?
There has been much chatter in the business world regarding the “Great Resignation”, the recent post-COVID phenomenon of people choosing to leave their jobs. The reasons behind this exodus from employment vary. One major explanation has been burnout. Weathering unprecedented change and challenges at home and work has left employees stressed and exhausted. According to a recent survey by Willis Towers Watson, 87% of employers say burnout is a problem. If you listen to the stories of people leaving their jobs or thinking of leaving, however, that could come off as a conservative estimate.
Employers are scrambling to fix the issue and retain their workforce. There have been offers of bonuses, custom schedules, and higher pay from some employers. Still, employees are leaving their jobs at an astounding rate.
Embracing Challenges
Craig Goodliffe, CEO and founder of CyberBacker, a company offering world-class virtual assistants, knows how integrating virtual assistants can save a business when life is going a bit off the rails.
Goodliffe began employing virtual assistants as his real estate organization and his business coaching venture began growing simultaneously. He credits his first virtual assistant, a woman named Daphne from the Philippines, with helping scale both ventures and get them to significant levels of success.
Goodliffe believes in embracing challenges, not running from them.
“Embrace the challenges. When challenges show up, it means big growth is coming,” he says. He encourages businesses to look the “Great Resignation” challenge in the eye and lean into it, knowing it makes leaders better.
How Virtual Assistants Can Curb Burnout
Entrepreneurs are especially susceptible to burnout, as they have the Type A personality tendency to want to take everything on themselves. Asking for help can be difficult for them. Burnout is high with business owners and delegation may be the key to easing symptoms of burnout and keeping people on the business-creation track or just happily employed in general.
Virtual assistants have a variety of skill sets to offer. They can step in and take on everything from administrative tasks, customer service tasks, and social media management. This frees up business owners and other employees to concentrate on the areas of their jobs that need the most attention, furthering the mission of the organization.
The virtual assistant option can also be budget-friendly, something business owners like to hear after over a year of pandemic disruption to the bottom line.
Many business owners who are just starting do not have the funds or resources to bring on full-time assistants, in-person assistants. Virtual assistants can step in at a fraction of the cost, allowing a growing business to continue to scale and yet still have tasks being completed.
Virtual assistants also save business time. The majority of virtual assistants come pre-trained in specific fields, so organizations save on training time as well as cost. The virtual assistant can typically come in cold and assist with tasks immediately with little to no training time needed.
With virtual assistants jumping in to help with administrative or social media tasks, burnout can be relieved because an employee or business owner now has time freed up to rest, spend time at home not thinking about work, and spend time with family.
A Reckoning About Work
The pandemic and the “Great Resignation” have sparked a reckoning about work/life balance. Where once employees and entrepreneurs alike may have been spurred on to work long hours and “live to work” instead of “work to live”, these days time spent on self-care is being held in higher regard. It is no longer considered couth to “muddle through” a workday in the office if you’re sick. It is no longer viewed as praise-worthy to neglect your family and your health for your career.
Burnout is a serious state of being that deserves to have attention paid to its consequences. By marrying the use of virtual assistants with a more modern approach to work/life balance within an organization, burnout can be mitigated. Perhaps, then, people will be more apt to stay with their employers or continue to pursue their business ideas. The goal is to allow people, regardless of their roles, to be secure in the fact that they have strong support systems in place and are being allowed space and time to complete their jobs successfully.