Combating Burnout with Engaging and Accessible Learning Tools

Burnout is a danger for employees in fast-paced workplaces—but learning tools can help.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed focus to questions of employee mental health. While burnout is not a new concept, employers in recent years are recognizing its symptoms—and its costs—in new ways.

Burnout is specific to the professional sphere and is not considered a medical condition, although it may be associated with a higher risk of anxiety or depression. Broadly, experts like those at the World Health Organization characterize burnout as having three key signs:

• Exhaustion or severe lack of energy
• Disconnection from or cynicism about your job
• Impaired job performance

The impacts of burnout extend beyond the individual employee’s wellbeing: a recent study estimated the one-year cost of burnout to an average 1,000-person company at more than $5 million. Given burnout’s effect on both the employee experience and the bottom line, it’s not surprising that employers are investing more and more in strategies to combat it. 

There’s no magic fix for burnout—the solution, like the problem, is rooted in workplace culture. But there is one investment employers can make that, when executed well, will lay the foundation for a workplace that attracts and retains engaged, resilient workers: learning and development.

Crucial to keeping burnout at bay are a good employee experience; avenues for growth and development; and the tools to develop resilience. A strong Learning and Development (L&D) solution is the most direct path to all three. Here’s how it works.

An outstanding employee experience means setting your workers up for success.

One of burnout’s characteristic symptoms is cynicism. More than just a negative attitude, cynicism grows out of a disillusionment with workplace norms and values. It’s arguably a core expectation of work that effort corresponds to results—whether recognition, greater responsibility, or simply a quality output. But if employees lack the tools, knowledge, or autonomy to do their best work, they may feel undervalued and grow frustrated.

When you provide access to high-quality learning content, it signals to your workforce that you respect their effort and their autonomy. You empower your employees to think critically and creatively about how they do their jobs, and that feeling of ownership leads to engagement, motivation, and productivity as workers seek out the best tools and processes to accomplish their goals. 

In short, a learning strategy tells employees that the time they spend on the job isn’t being wasted—and that means instead of ending the day feeling used up, they can end it feeling accomplished.

Learning content helps employees envision the future.

Professional stagnation, real or perceived, can be another significant cause of burnout. A career path is a framework for personal development and aspirational goals. Without room to grow or clear possibilities for the next stage of your career, it’s easy to feel directionless and disconnected from your role in the organization. 

Under a structured L&D strategy, however, learning managers can build a solution using a feature-rich Learning Management System (LMS) like our own Pinnacle Series. The right LMS makes quality training content easy for employees to access, but beyond that, it sets content within customizable courses and learning paths. These frameworks can be tailored to an employee’s individual goals and needs, and reduce decision fatigue while offering direction. 

With learning paths, managers can place key materials directly in front of employees. Checkpoints and assessments provide a way of measuring progress, and help to keep learners engaged and eager. With this kind of forward momentum, learners quickly leave the prospect of burnout behind.

Training builds the agility to manage setbacks.

Organizational agility is a high priority on many organizations’ lists at the moment, and with good reason. Uncertainty will always be a part of industry, but the better an organization can adapt to change, the easier it will weather the storm. But agility begins at the employee level—and when it comes to weathering individual adversity, the same logic applies. The more flexible an employee’s skills, the more resilient they are against workplace setbacks.

Building those flexible skills is the aim of an L&D strategy. Through their LMS, learners can discover and managers can deliver materials that help employees develop soft skills, expand their fields of expertise, and make innovative connections. A quality LMS also acts as a repository for your organization’s collective institutional expertise, which provides a valuable resource for employees to fall back on when they encounter hurdles in the course of daily work. 

Accessible learning content gives employees a firm foundation from which they can expand and innovate, and prepares them to handle unexpected situations. These are valuable tools for managing stress in a high-performance workplace. With their support, employees are better equipped to stay balanced and effective even under pressure.

To stave off burnout, empower your workforce with a robust, flexible LMS.

Eagle Point’s flagship Pinnacle Series is purpose-built to provide the kind of learning that keeps burnout at bay. In addition to thousands of customizable courses from leading AEC & Manufacturing software providers, Pinnacle Series offers adaptable learning paths and powerful tools for hosting and sharing your own content within your organization. 

High-performing organizations need an LMS that can keep up with them. With Pinnacle Series, managers can tailor the learning experience to both organizational and employee needs, and offer their workers the kind of culture that drives personal and company growth. Ease the mental load on your workforce and create room to grow by giving your organization its own brain. 

To see more of what Pinnacle Series can offer, request a demonstration today.