4 Key Ways L&D Initiatives Can Relieve Employee Burnout
A Visier survey found that 89% of employees have experienced burnout over the last year and 70% would leave an organization for the prospect of another with better resources for reducing burnout. What’s contributing to this burnout? The number-one factor is an increased workload. It’s followed by a toxic work culture and being asked to complete work faster than before.
Leveraging L&D can help aid in the healing process. Below are four ways you can support your workforce.
- End treating the topic like a taboo. By educating your employees and managers about burnout, you remove the stigma and make it more normal. If your organization can recognize it and know how to prevent it, you can tackle the issue as a team and create a support system for one another. Share information on how to identify and prevent burnout through your L&D platforms.
- Be clear on what upskilling or reskilling you want your employees to go through. Be specific about what skills will be necessary for different roles as well as what outcomes to expect after developing them. It can be overwhelming for employees to decide where to focus their development when going through vast skills libraries. Managers and L&D are valuable resources for employees when they’re trying to identify what to learn, considering the individual’s current state and future goals, in addition to where the organization is going and what are projected to be valuable skills for the future.
- Giving back a sense of control of one’s circumstances. Feeling like one is in charge of their own life is a critical factor in protecting against burnout. Throughout the last two and a half years, so much has been out of our control. Self-led L&D courses give workers the ability to own their development journeys. They can choose topics they’re most interested in, the learning methods they prefer, and their timelines for completion. When under management who value self-development and see it as critical to their roles, employees can begin to feel more in control of their lives through leveraging self-learning to their advantage.
- Cultivate a collaborative, social learning experience. Loneliness can act both as a cause and symptom of burnout. Those experiencing burnout may struggle to reach out and connect with others. Connecting with others, specifically around a shared purpose, can act as a protective factor and contribute to healing from burnout. When learning has a social, collaborative component, it can be an excellent way to unite people and reduce loneliness.
Mitigating burnout doesn’t just have benefits for your people, it’s also beneficial for your business. Organizations that don’t prioritize reducing burnout will lose top talent to companies with better benefits and support, which will drive turnover and recruitment costs. Understanding the impact burnout has on your employees’ ability to learn and being intentional in the designing of your learning opportunities can help prevent and heal burnout throughout your organization.
If learning and development or the impact Vayability has on leadership development is something you’d like to learn more about for your organization, get in touch.
Vayability is a leadership development platform built from the ground up to accelerate the development and business impact of emerging talent. Combining more than 20 years of executive learning, Vayability focuses on impactful leadership skills, personalized learning, live coaching, and measurable growth. Find out how top companies embrace success at vayability.net.
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Written by Rachel Strysik
