IT employees have been experiencing burnout at increasing rates since the pandemic started, leaving CIOs to try out new digital tools and methods to alleviate some frustrations, according to an April 22 Wall Street Journal report.
Four things to know:
1. The pandemic has hit the IT group hard, with tech teams leading their companies in transitioning to remote environments and accelerating digital initiatives. "IT is one of the departments that are suffering the most," said Daniel Sanchez-Reina, vice president analyst at tech research firm Garter.
2. Signs of burnout include feeling exhausted, mentally distant from their job and lonely, according to the report.
3. Some IT leaders have turned to automated tools to stay tuned into how their employees are feeling; software firm BetterCloud's CIO Thomas Donnelly recently implemented an automated chatbot on the company's Slack chat platform to get anonymous feedback from attendees of certain meetings.
4. David Vidoni, vice president of IT at software company Pegasystems, has started a new engagement tactic during staff video meetings where he encourages employees to spend the first few minutes showcasing their talents or has contents in which employees can rate each others' rooms and dinner recipes.