When you take a good, long look around your office, what do you see? Are team members engaged in projects or are they simply “going through the motions?” Do they have the proper technology to do their jobs and, at very least, a proper area to work? Is the environment inviting or dark and depressing?

All of these factors are just a few drivers of employee engagement. Last month, we looked at psychological safety and its impact on engagement. This month, we’re looking at psychological availability and the role it plays in a healthy, productive work environment.

So, what is ‘psychological availability’ and what does it look like? In short, it means that employees feel like they have the physical, emotional and mental resources to do their job. Here are some of the main factors that impact psychological availability:

• Support from leadership
• Ability to manage workload and stress
• Having a trusting, comfortable team environment
• Access to necessary equipment, comfortable workspaces, etc.
• Feeling like there’s a healthy work/life balance

Making psychological availability a priority comes down to organizations creating a workplace where team members feel supported – both through a healthy physical and emotional environment.

We hear the term “burnout” all the time, but we don’t hear about “psychological availability” all that often. However, the two go hand-in-hand: a lack of psychological availability in the workplace is a key contributor to employee burnout. And, as we all know, burnout can be lethal to an organization’s productivity, morale and overall culture.

That’s where Leah M Joppy and Associates can help. We get to the root causes of WHY team members are feeling burned out and disengaged. Then, we work with you to come up with ideas and strategies to address these problems quickly.

Learn more by calling us at 301-351-9523 or email us at leah@lmja.com.