Open Enrollment Burnout: Fall’s Unspoken Problem Rising Amongst HR Professionals

Whether it’s the crisp fall air, pumpkin-spiced lattes, kids returning to school, sweater weather or football, there’s something magical about fall to just about everyone.

But there’s something lurking just beyond that initial excitement that might be distressing. Yep, it’s Open Enrollment season. For HR professionals like you that are already hustling and bustling to line up the best benefits packages for employees, whether you’re tackling it head-on, full of spirit, or you’re already dreading it, it’s important to be aware that this stressful time of year can take its toll.

As the start of a new benefits year continues its onward march toward you, equipping yourself with a survival kit to stay mentally healthy, energized and focused will be vital to surviving the Open Enrollment season.

Open Enrollment Burnout Doesn’t Have to be Inevitable

During the Open Enrollment period, there are so many things to accomplish in a short window of time. It’s an incredibly daunting prospect, and you’re a superstar for making it happen.

When you’re focusing on educating employees about their group benefits and making sure employees understand their options, empathetically helping them choose the best plans for their needs, and the needs of their families, it can be impossible for you to focus on anything else. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day.  And, if there aren’t enough hours in the day, how are you carving time out to ensure your mental health doesn’t suffer as a result?

Furthermore, it’s important to remember that Open Enrollment is only one season in a long year — even though you’re squeezing about a year’s worth of work into two to three months! There will be more challenges to overcome, and if anything that the last two and a half years have taught us, it’s that unforeseen obstacles are a certainty.

By the time you get through Open Enrollment and into the holiday season, you might be just running on fumes. The truth is, once you’re depleted it can be really difficult to recharge without the right survival kit.

Despite the Open Enrollment period, there was already a wide range of hurdles that present themselves to you. Whether it’s setting up remote operations, organizing hybrid work environments or an all-out return to the office, managing safety protocols, or focusing on hiring and recruitment, the environment for fatigue is fertile.

So if Open Enrollment isn’t the only problem, why are you feeling drained? HR professionals just like you across the country are feeling the same and you need to be conscientious in caring for your own mental wellbeing.

Watch for the Signs of Burnout in HR Professionals

Have you ever been so overwhelmed that you just couldn’t think straight? The workload seems to be piling up, you can’t seem to focus, you’re exhausted, you start making mistakes, you lose sight of why you’re working so hard, or maybe you just feel plain dejected.

Just as burnout happens with employees, it happens to HR teams too. Sadly, it’s happening at an alarming rate. In fact, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, 60 percent of all employees surveyed are experiencing burnout, and 42 percent of HR teams are struggling with burnout as well.

The signs of burnout may look different in different people, whether it’s a sense of self-doubt, a feeling of helplessness, detachment, cynicism and negativity, or a general loss of motivation or lack of satisfaction. But since HR Professionals like you are busy caring for others, it can be easy to miss those signs, you’re already familiar with.

But where do you begin and how do you prepare to cope with stress or even burnout during Open Enrollment? You need a survival kit.

There’s Hope for HR Professionals Feeling Burnout During Open Enrollment

At Kumanu, we’ve developed a Survival Kit for HR professionals, so you can thrive instead of feeling burned out despite increased workloads. In it, you’ll discover some evidence-based tips to help you to stay resilient, reduce feelings of burnout, and reconnect with your “why.” They may seem straightforward and simple, but they’re highly effective! Download the guide to stay ahead of burnout this Open Enrollment season.