‘Proactive rest’ is the latest workplace trend to avoid employee burnout and increase productivity

According to a study by Gartner, the conventional belief that an employee’s performance is proportional to the number of hours worked has been debunked. Despite these findings, 77% of human resources executives believe that high-performing employees work longer. 

This is noteworthy as HR teams are also experiencing burnout, as CHRO Daily reported recently. To counteract declining employee well-being, HR leaders must collaborate with managers to create proactive rest policies that encourage employees to use their time off, embrace flexible schedules, and have reasonable hours of work. 

Companies with proactive rest policies have significantly lower rates of burnout than others. Such policies benefit employees and companies by increasing employee productivity by 26%, according to a survey of 3,500 respondents.

 Leaders must set a precedent and normalize proactive rest while finding adaptive policies that work for their organizations. Examples of such policies include no-meeting calendar blocks, annual company-wide closures, and summer Fridays.