This article by Kathleen Harmeston was first published in People Management
Companies continue to lose key senior staff as a result of unprecedented economic pressures, rapid changes in technology and cultural shifts. Why are senior managers flocking? My recent observations in boardrooms boil down to the same old root causes:
- Lack of a clear vision and strategy from the board, combined with exclusion from planning of major changes, leaves managers guessing.
- Rapid turnover in senior leaders resulting in limited continuity with line management and sponsorship. The ‘start all over again with the boss’ feeling on a rinse-repeat cycle is a demotivator.
- Limited talent development and promotion opportunities.
Most notably, and where I want to focus, is that senior executives’ mental health and work-life balance are constantly at risk as they plough on with trying to do more with less, resulting in burnout.
Burnout to me is an insidious creature. It creeps up in the form of a slow breakdown of work boundaries over a period of time. Often it’s caused by long hours and multiple meetings (sometimes across different time zones) without sufficient breaks. It can leave the mind very active and unable to switch off. This vortex of depletion and insomnia manifests as working more hours – not fewer.
Creativity plummets. Anxiety soars. I have seen very high-performing depressive states in senior managers, with coping mechanisms that hide it well and add to the burnout, such as smoking, overeating, self medicating and drinking excessively.
Studies from AXA UK have estimated that 23.3 million working days per year are lost from work-induced poor mental health. However, I want to dig deeper into how we can retain our senior talent. Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, stated recently that labour markets are tight across advanced economies, because of those who have “changing preferences”.
These modern preferences have undeniably become less about remuneration and more about a culture that supports work-life balance. According to a Deloitte survey of 2,100 employees and C-level executives across four Western countries, nearly 70 per cent of the C-suite are seriously considering moving to organisations that better support their wellbeing. The 2023 KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit Report found 70 per cent of female executives attribute higher stress to increased workloads and expectations.
Unless boardrooms address underpinning policies of culture, organisation capacity and the blend of senior staff contracts on offer, this discontent will grow. A vicious cycle of reduction in skills retention, combined with a weaker proposition to attract new talent, may well be the result. However, there are two simple, effective actions to get ahead: sabbaticals and fractional roles.
Sabbaticals
We all face challenges in our lives, whether it’s a project that has resulted in burnout, grieving the loss of a loved one or becoming a carer for a loved one at the end of life. During these stress-induced events, many senior leaders need to decompress and reinvigorate their original passion for a role after periods of intense change.
However, many organisations have a long way to go. According to a survey from the Society for Human Resource Management, only 11 per cent of employers have a policy for unpaid sabbaticals and 5 per cent for paid sabbaticals. It appears that there is unfortunately still a stigma associated with sabbaticals, as boardrooms and senior management continue to maintain the stiff upper lip approach to work-life balance and struggle to see the long-game benefits of such policies.
Yet, a recent Harvard Business Review study reported that businesses offering staff the security of a sabbatical is an extremely attractive part of an employment package to incentivise and retain them. Setting up sabbatical package policies and offering myriad combinations – ie paid and unpaid, a few weeks out of the office to more than a year off work, helping staff structure their objectives during their time out and also checking in on them from time to time while on leave – can be a key success factor to ensure they wish to return after their experience.
There are risks that employees will not return to the business, nor wish to return to the role they left, but this can be mitigated by ensuring that sabbaticals are not the last resort for staff at point of burnout.
Sabbatical policies are an attractive solution and easy to implement, when the costs of losing key strategic skills, recruitment and temporary role cover are taken into consideration. Often they catalyse succession planning and allow those who step in temporarily to the role to learn new skills and gain confidence.
Fractional roles
Fractional roles can assist senior executives further with a ‘hybrid sabbatical’, whereby they have some time off per week to focus on themselves, or task an expert to focus on operational or strategic objectives.
Contracting with experienced senior professionals who can operate in strategic roles, on a part-time or project basis, can be a proactive solution to burnout. They can bring a good practical balance between an adviser, interim and consultant. The benefits are affordable, flexible support for peaks and troughs in the annual calendar or simply taking the pressure off an exhausted leader for a set time or specific objective.
However, fractional contracts are typically based on one-two days per week, per client, and a disciplined approach to gaining access to their availability should be taken. Setting deliverables and communicating their role in the business is a must.
A competitive advantage
New ways of approaching staff retention and wellbeing are now vital to forging ahead and sustaining a competitive edge. Sabbaticals and fractional staff policies in the future will offer a combination of prevention and cure and will create true differentiation for employee packages with competitors.
Senior managers will benefit enormously by embedding a culture of funding extra resources during heavy workload phases and sabbaticals. It’s time for organisations to demonstrate that they understand the pressures staff are experiencing and also to take time out themselves when necessary.
Training executive teams on the benefits of sabbaticals to maintain creativity, confidence, motivation and leadership may be what the differentiation doctor ordered.
Kathleen Harmeston is a non-executive director and BBI board adviser
