Organizing and productivity expert, Julie Morgenstern, says: “If you overwork your high performers, you will lose them because they start to resent the fact that they’re doing more.” Balancing your team’s workload is no easy task and hopefully, this Playbook will help you effectively manage it.

Recent research shows that 80% of global knowledge workers report feeling overworked and close to burnout. Further, four out of five (82%) of employees say they feel less engaged at work when they’re stressed.

Workload management enables you to distribute work across your team more effectively, not only reducing burnout for stressed employees but also preventing them from feeling overworked in the first place.

Although workload management can be complex at times, you’ll have a solid foundation to test and optimize your team’s workload if you follow these steps.

• Make a list of everything your team needs to do: The first step in workload planning is to get a complete picture of your team’s actual workload.

• Consider each team member’s work capacity: Now that you have your list of tasks, you’ll need to determine how much time your team has to work on them.

• Assign tasks to team members: Assign the highest-priority work first, allocating them to the team member best suited for each task in light of the capacity and strengths you outlined in the previous step.

• Review with your team regularly: Make sure your team understands and can follow through with your workload plan. Allow your team to present any concerns or conflicts with tasks they’ve been assigned and make any adjustments you feel are warranted.

• Listen to the attached podcast to understand how an unmanaged workload can impact mental health.

• Send this Framework to your team to gather feedback on how their current workload may be impacting their own mental health.

• Use the steps above to better manage burnout and workload with your team.

These practices will give you greater insights into your report’s workload and help you adjust their responsibilities if they’re at risk of burnout.