With greater numbers of employees working remotely from home in response to COVID-19, it’s now more important than ever to stay connected. 

With this in mind, we hosted a webinar in collaboration with R U OK? - a non-profit organisation aiming to reduce the number of suicides in Australia, by urging people to reach out to each other and create supportive networks across our communities. 

Webinar replay | Staying connected in the new landscape

As R U OK? says, “it is now even more important that we all promote a sense of community, reach out and ask our friends, family and colleagues, “Are you OK?”

In the webinar, Go1’s Social Impact Manager Cam Cliff was joined by Go1 co-founder Vu Tran, and R U OK? CEO Katherine Newton, to discuss:

the key challenges facing organisations during this time

the potential impact of remote work on employee mental health

steps workplaces can take to create open and positive discussions around mental health

how to check in with teammates when working remotely

some of the signs someone may be struggling during this time

Attendee Jessica Hennessy summarises some key takeaways from the webinar:

1. Anxiety manifests physically first. Even if you're not an overly anxious person, recent events may have brought that anxiety to the surface. Be mindful of physical cues, in yourself and in others and offer an ear where you can to help alleviate that anxiety. Now is not the time to forget that mental health is still important!

2. When speaking with someone, ask them if they're still doing something they love. For example, I love keeping fit and getting a workout in. If someone has stopped doing the things they have always loved doing, this could be a sign that they're struggling. Offer some support.

3. We CAN make a difference as employers. Don't underestimate the roles we play in changing the trajectory of where our employee's lives go. Even if you need to make the hard decision to let someone go, do it in the right way and offer them open lines of communication and support in SOME way.

To help people #stayconnected we've also curated and released these additional free wellbeing resources for businesses.

False

Go1's Vu Tran and R U OK? CEO Katherine Newton get together to discuss the potential impact of remote work on employee mental health and the importance of staying connected during this challenging time. 

Staying connected in the new landscape of remote work

With many of us now working from home to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, we all need to consider alternative ways to remain physically active. 

In the office environment, there are opportunities for incidental exercise. Perhaps you popped out for lunch to a nearby cafe or went for a walk with colleagues. Working remotely reduces these opportunities - but it can create new ones.  And it doesn’t have to be detrimental to your physical health.  

This is our guide to help everyone on your team get moving. 

Exercise benefits the body in many ways, including boosting the immune system. Because of this, regular activity can help to flatten the curve and reduce the number of people getting infected with the virus.

The World Health Organization recommends varying levels of physical activity for different age groups. The general guidelines for adults aged 18-64 are to find time for at least 150 minutes per week of moderately intense exercise. Whether we are heading out for work or staying at home, this remains unchanged.  

Social distancing measures can make it challenging to know which types of exercise are appropriate. While this will depend on the restrictions in your country, any activity you can do while maintaining at least one meter between yourself and others will ensure you are limiting the spread of infection. It is also essential to wash your hands and disinfect any equipment others might use afterwards. 

If working from home is new to you, set up your seat and desk to support your body, just as you would at the office. Many people will be working at kitchen tables on a laptop, which is fine, but it is essential to ensure the spine is supported. Paying attention to this will limit the negative health impacts of sitting for most of the day. To make your workspace as ergonomic as possible, consider making the following changes: 

Try to keep your posture upright. To help with this, think about creating right angles with your joints. At your elbows, knees, and ankles. 

Keep your focus at eye level. If you are working with a laptop, this can be hard, but you can raise it with a few books, or invest in a specially designed stand. 

If you can, invest in a few critical pieces of kit for your home office. A screen, desk, and a good chair are all you need to stay comfortable. If you are using a laptop, also consider buying a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Working at home has advantages. You can attend urgent appointments, and your day becomes more flexible.

However, creating a new routine for yourself is not easy. Perhaps you are used to going to the gym after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If possible, stick to this, and move your gym membership to somewhere local. Keeping as many parts of your old routine as possible will help to maintain momentum with physical activity.

If you started your workday with a walk as part of your commute, re-create that when working from home. Make it easier for yourself by working with existing habits. 

It can take some time to adjust to working from home. Try to accept this fact, and don’t worry too much if it feels a little chaotic or unsettling at first. 

You might also miss out on some physical activity while you are getting used to your new way of life. In this case, don’t panic. You will soon get into new habits and ways of operating that work for you and help you achieve your fitness goals.

It’s easier to be more creative with your movement when working from home than in the office. You can lie on the floor, jump up and down for 10 seconds - whatever your body needs. Just make sure you have finished the Zoom call first!

The Pomodoro technique can also help you to take regular breaks and remind you to check-in with yourself. This video from Trello explains how to use the method effectively. The idea is to take a short break every 25 minutes, followed by a longer break after two hours, as this is proven to make you more focused and productive. 

You can use your short breaks to walk into another room and move around, or maybe even do a few simple yoga poses to get your spine moving. Your upper body is an area to focus on, as this gets very little attention when you are sitting for long periods.

5. Use any extra time you’ve gained wisely

A great benefit of remote work is no longer having a long and expensive commute. If you had a long journey, this could add up to a significant amount of extra time during the day. 

Try to avoid using this time for extra work. You most likely wouldn’t have been working while travelling to the office, so allocate the time for yourself to be active.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

How to stay physically healthy when working from home 

Anita Whitelum, National Manager of HealthStaff Ed, shares her insights on the benefits of using online CPD training for healthcare staff.  

Healthcare provider learning programs are about delivering education that contributes to safe, quality care that is consistent, and within a framework that is transparent and effective. 

The demand to give greater access to quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is ever-increasing and providers are looking to solutions that will complement their internal program. 

This is where eLearning comes in. Like most technologies, eLearning has come a long way in the past decade. Most eLearning has moved on from uploading word documents to the internet – we have the means to create interactive, engaging, learner focussed material that can open up thousands of opportunities to teach – and for an individual to learn. And it’s now universally accepted that people learn in different ways and via a variety of mediums.

Blending your learning strategy to include online CPD has a number of great benefits:

It allows your education team to focus on the training that is highly individualised to your facility.

It’s highly cost-effective, providing a great return on investment.

It provides access 24/7 meaning shift workers never miss out.

It’s a highly effective way of delivering a large portion of mandatory training.

It gives people ownership over their training and keeps them constantly engaged.  

We’ve put together 5 suggestions for packages that will assist in meeting mandatory learning needs as well as provide great opportunities to your people to consolidate and advance their knowledge. 

Personal protective equipment (CPD: 1 hour)

Managing blood and body fluid spills (CPD: 2 hours)

Reducing injuries from sharps (CPD: 1.5 hours)

Predicting, preventing, and managing violence (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Managing acute severe behavioural disturbances (CPD: 2 hours)

Post violent incident response (CPD: 1.5 hours)

Communicating for safety: Effective clinical handover (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Recognising and responding to acute deterioration in adult patients (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Falls prevention in older adults (CPD: 3 hours)

Pressure injury and ulcers - Prevention and early identification of skin damage (CPD: 2.3 hours)

Pressure injury and ulcers - Staging and treatment (CPD: 2.75 hours)

Providing a safe environment for children and young people

Working with children: Identifying and responding to vulnerable children (CPD: 3 hours)

Working with vulnerable children: Mandatory reporting (jurisdictional based) (CPD: 1 hour)

Vulnerable young people and the age of consent (CPD: 1.75 hours)

Identifying and responding to elder abuse (CPD: 3.2 hours)

Elder abuse - Reporting elder abuse in aged care (CPD: 1.25 hours)

In short, the need for healthcare providers to give access to quality CPD is only going to grow and getting on the front foot with a strategy that blends online CPD with your in house program is a win/win - for your people, they get the best of both worlds - and for you - you get to focus your attention on the really important facility-based training and leave the rest to a quality online provider. 

Setting the benchmark for online CPD in Australia, HealthStaffEd provides the best in current, relevant, interactive learning providing knowledge where and when it's needed.

Get started with HealthStaffEd training content!

Help your healthcare team hit their mandatory training and CPD  requirements

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, ensuring that your employees stay mentally healthy is now a top priority. Nobody will have experienced a crisis on this scale before, and for some team members, the pandemic may have severely affected their family or close friends. 

With the majority of staff now working from home, it's important to consider how working remotely can impact an employee's mental health. Here, we have some advice for managers and leaders to help you offer the right support for your teams during this time. 

A sense of belonging is integral to being human. Social distancing measures have severely limited our ability to connect with others.

In modern life, we form many different tribes. Our families, sports teams, book clubs - these are all groups we can belong to. They help us connect to something greater than ourselves.

Our work teams are also a kind of tribe. Although there are ways to remain socially connected with colleagues online, working remotely undoubtedly makes this harder. 

In research conducted by Buffer in 2019 on the state of remote work, participants noted that their biggest struggle is with maintaining wellbeing. 22 percent found it challenging to switch off after work, 19 percent feel isolated, and eight percent can’t stay motivated.

There is a risk that employees working outside the office can become socially isolated. Ideally, companies would carefully design their remote work programs. Under the current circumstances, we don’t have the luxury of time to plan in this way, but there are steps we can take to improve the experience for employees. 

Social isolation is also proven to have adverse effects on both mental and physical well being, although why this happens is not yet fully understood. 

In light of the impact working remotely could have on employees, I have put together some tips on managing mental wellbeing. 

1. Accept that there will be a period of adjustment

Getting used to the new social distancing measures in place across the world will be challenging. There will be a period of adjustment for everybody. The uncertainty around how long the rules will need to be in place adds another layer of difficulty. 

All we can do is accept this new situation as best we can, and work with what we have. 

Accept that your colleagues will take time to get used to it. They might also know people who have been severely affected.

Even if you are busy, staying connected socially is essential. When you are in the same space in the office environment, informal conversation and socialising happen incidentally. Working online is different. Most interaction is organized, and often formal. 

While this saves time to focus on work, we do lose something if we don’t allow some time for chats about the weekend or life in general.  These kinds of conversations are important for team morale, and mental health. 

3. Set boundaries between work and home 

Now that we are all spending the majority of the day at home, we need to set clear boundaries between work and downtime. Having a designated space can help with this, and if possible, only use this space for work. 

When you have finished for the day, leave the room or space, and don’t return to it until you start to work the next day.  This approach might take some discipline to begin with, but it can help with switching off from the workday.

Some people will find it more difficult than others to adjust to social isolation. People need varying levels of social interaction.

Extroverted team members will find the adjustment to working alone the most challenging. They thrive on being around other people and may find it difficult to motivate themselves in isolation. 

Perhaps check in with more extroverted team members more often, and do your best to look after each other. 

It is all too easy at the moment to become overly focused on the negative. Our built-in negativity bias helps us to stay safe from danger, but it can lead to anxiety and depression when left unmonitored. 

Being overly positive and ignoring the danger isn’t helpful, but try to keep negative thoughts in check and detach from them. 

Limiting the amount of time you spend consuming the news is an effective way to do this. Some news is crucial, but there is a lot of it out there, so focus on the snippets of information you need from reputable sources. This will help to keep things in perspective and maintain a more balanced mindset.

We are currently experiencing a significant challenge as a global community. Now, more than ever, we need to check in with our thoughts and feelings and do our best to manage them. 

For you, this might mean going for a walk to reflect, listening to music, meditating, or journaling. Whatever it is that you do to stay mentally healthy, take the time to do it, and take care of yourself. 

Checking in is particularly important if you suffer from mild to moderate anxiety or depression, or if you have in the past. For more support, the Australian not-for-profit Beyond Blue offers advice and services to those needing additional support with their mental health. 

Sophia is a freelance writer who specialises in thought leadership, opinion pieces and content creation for learning publications. Her work focuses on the latest research in learning theory and practice. She regularly contributes articles on workplace learning and personal development to the Go1 blog. You can connect with her on LinkedIn. 

Managing mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic - Go1

How to manage employees’ mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

In a relatively short space of time, the outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in significant changes to the working day for many people. Nobody is sure when, or if the workplace will return to what it was. 

In these uncertain times, we all have to learn new ways of operating at work. Those already accustomed to working from home will have techniques for remaining engaged. For those new to the process, it will be a challenging adjustment. 

Here, we outline the ways you can lead your team through the transition, helping them to stay socially connected.

Working with others has many benefits. We can collaborate more efficiently, connect with others, and their intentions are more apparent.

According to research, 93% of communication occurs nonverbally, through body language and tone of voice. Only seven percent of understanding is received through words. This data shows how much we are missing out on when using email and messaging platforms instead of talking to each other face-to-face. 

Social interaction is also essential for learning. According to the 70:20:10 model of workplace learning, 20 percent of what we learn happens when we engage with others. 

While employees can use instant messaging platforms to converse, it is crucial to be aware that much of what is said is lost, and misunderstandings could happen quickly without talking things through on a call. 

There are also plenty of ways to interact socially, but employees may not be accustomed to having informal chats or asking each other questions when working from home. It is essential to encourage your colleagues to keep talking to each other, and to interact as frequently as possible. 

Social isolation can also affect both mental and physical well being, although it is not yet understood why. 

Suggestions for connecting with team members

There are steps we can take to mitigate the adverse effects of fewer social interactions. I have outlined them below to help your team stay connected and to boost morale.

While many people adjust to their new work situation, team leaders need to check in regularly. Equally, you'll need to get the balance right and give employees enough space to complete their projects.

Some team members will need more instruction than others. Certain people will be happy to create their projects and self-initiate. Others will need a little more guidance, especially if they are young or in a more junior role. 

Some people are also more extroverted than others. These team members will most likely find the adjustment to working alone the most challenging.  Extroverts thrive on being around other people and may find it difficult to motivate themselves in isolation. 

2. Encourage your colleagues to have informal catch-ups

Even if you are busy, it is critical to keep up team morale. In the office environment, informal conversation and socializing happen incidentally, because you are in the same physical space. When working online, most interaction is organized and often formal. 

While this saves time to focus on work, we do lose something if we don’t allow some time for chats about the weekend or life in general.  These kinds of conversations are also essential for team morale and mental health.  

3. Ask those who already work at home for their advice	

In many companies, some employees will already be used to working from home. It could be helpful to chat with these people and ask them how they manage socializing with their colleagues online. They have the experience and could share it with others who aren’t so used to working outside the office. 

If any team members are struggling, you could buddy them up with a seasoned remote worker to ask for advice and help them adjust to the process. 	

While it is relatively easy with modern technology to connect with a team member or a small group of people on a conference call, it can be harder to get the whole team together. Team members might be used to after-work drinks on a Friday night, or regular dinners with colleagues.

In this case, it might be worth putting it to a vote and seeing whether your staff would like to do an end of week call. Using video call software, everyone can dial into the call. Employees who feel comfortable could take it in turns to lead the call. This strategy works well to connect the remote members of the team at Go1!

5. Make an extra effort to interact with people 

When at work in the office, we organically interact with people we sit next to, or people on other teams. We might pop to the kitchen to make a coffee or tea and have a chat with our colleagues.  When working from home, particularly if you live alone, this is unlikely to happen. You might go the whole day without speaking to anybody.

Being social when working remotely requires more effort. You won’t just bump into people, so you need to organize catch up calls, and initiate conversation more than you otherwise might.  

Equally, if you know a colleague who is working from home and living alone, check in with them more regularly or give them a call. Just five minutes of conversation might make a real difference to their day. 

How to keep your colleagues socially connected for extended periods of remote work

'Sticky learning' is a popular new buzzword in workplace training, but the concept is nothing new. When educators teach new knowledge or skills, their aim has always been for participants to be able to retain that knowledge and apply it. 

Presenting content in a way that makes it memorable can be the key to a successful lesson. Armed with the knowledge of the tools designers use to shape the learning experience, those responsible for learning and development can select quality learning content that will have an impact. 

In the 1960s, the ‘learning pyramid’ first appeared in educational research, and remains popular among learning designers and educators. The theory is attributed to the National Training Laboratory, although there are many different versions. Essentially, the pyramid is a guide as to the types of activities that are most effective for memory and retention:

Today, psychologists and neuroscientists argue that the pyramid is oversimplified and that a vast range of variables can affect memory, such as age, what facilitators instruct the subjects to do and a learner’s current knowledge of the lesson content. 

While learning designers and facilitators can take steps to improve retention, the responsibility also lies with the learner. Strategies such as focusing attention, structuring and organizing key points, and visualizing concepts can all help participants to recall important facts.

While the accuracy of the data reported in the learning pyramid is questionable by today's understanding of learning science, there are features those responsible for learning and development can look out for to select learning materials that will be 'sticky'. The following tips will guide you through the process:

Personalizing learning is the difference between content being engaging or boring. Content needs to address an individual’s learning needs as accurately as possible, and advancing technology is helping to make this more achievable.

If learning material targets the individual needs of an employee, they are far more likely to be engaged with the content, and hence more likely to remember it. If they see the knowledge as relevant and useful to their work, they are far more likely to recall it and use it in the future.

2. Look for a single, clear learning objective 

A critical yet often overlooked element of learning design is ensuring that a lesson focuses on one learning objective and sticks to it. When a session includes more than one objective, it lacks clarity and it becomes more challenging for learners to retain the material.

For any lesson to be effective, designers need to set the learning objective out at the beginning, and the learner needs to be made aware of what it is they are focusing on from the outset. 

Look for learning materials that map out learning objectives for each lesson, and make it clear how participants are going to reach that goal. 

Scaffolded learning is structured and supports participants in reaching the desired objective of the lesson. Designers can scaffold knowledge through the inclusion of certain activities or resources. They can design tasks in the session to gradually build towards participants demonstrating their understanding of the final objective. 

Before selecting learning materials for your colleagues, scan over the contents of the lessons. Does each lesson guide participants to help them reach the ultimate learning objective, or do the activities seem muddled and unfocused? 

4. Look for audio-visual, or storytelling elements

Attaching new facts to music or visuals makes it much easier for the brain to recall them. We can remember details from text alone, but audio-visual elements help to cement new facts in memory. 

When learning designers weave in a storytelling element, this is equally effective. Research shows that when teachers incorporate storytelling into learning, they help learners to retain content, no matter what their learning style is.

Uri Hasson from Princeton explains that a story is the only way to activate specific parts of the brain. When hearing a story, the listener automatically turns what they pick up into their version, which forms part of their experience. We are wired to listen to stories as a way of passing on and remembering essential facts, which is why a narrative structure works so well in a learning context.  

5. Encourage employees to develop good learning habits

While a well-designed course that meets an employee’s learning needs will significantly improve retention, learners can also take steps to help with their memory and recall. 

Attention is one of the essential parts of memory. For information to move from the short term memory to the long term memory, participants have to actively engage with that information, ideally in a place free from distractions. 

Organizing new facts can also help the brain with memory. If participants take notes while they complete online courses, or they collect additional resources, encourage them to keep materials on related topics in one place, or find ways of grouping the resources.

Using colors to organize information into groups can also help to jog the memory, and help learners to recall large amounts of information associated with that color.

A one stop shop for all things training, Go1 makes it easy to compare the best training options available, and find the right resources for your professional development, compliance, and business training needs. 

With courses that cover numerous business functions, we help your staff grow into their role by unlocking their potential. Content is at all levels of difficulty and is suitable for any employee, in any department, in any region.

Sophia is a freelance writer who specialises in thought leadership, opinion pieces and content creation for learning publications. Her work focuses on the latest research in learning theory and practice. She regularly contributes articles on workplace learning and professional development to the Go1 blog. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

How to make learning stick: a guide to 'sticky learning' 

In recent times, the rapid development of technology has created an urgent need for invention, new lines of thought, and inquiry.

In this social context, creativity and problem-solving skills are among the most desirable, yet sometimes challenging to develop in the workplace. 

Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt at Google explains that design-thinking helps teams to foster a culture of innovation. It helps to generate and test ideas creatively and effectively. 

He adds that the approach develops an individual’s capacity to innovate by encouraging them to practice a certain mindset. They can then apply these skills to a variety of tasks. 

Organizations and individuals across disciplines are adopting the concept, which is revolutionizing the way teams approach the development of new products, systems, and processes. 

Design thinking has roots in a range of disciplines, and gradually developed through the design of new products, buildings, and machines. The concept is now applied more broadly in response to the need for innovation in our time. 

This broadening of the concept’s applications has been criticized for trivializing the design process, but it is undoubtedly useful in many contexts.

Organizations can use the design thinking cycle as a roadmap for innovation at a team or individual level. The process has almost limitless applications and can help to remove the stumbling block of generating ideas. 

One of the great benefits of the cycle is that it trains people to become solution-focused. The goal of the process is to come up with answers, not create more problems. This mindset can help to boost productivity and positive feedback loops. 

The cycle involves six stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, implement. Each stage encourages different thought processes and helps to build creative momentum:

Design Thinking 101  Neilsen Norman Group

To explain how the process might be used in the workplace, imagine your team is tasked with devising a new social media strategy. You can start by empathizing with different members of your target audience. What do they want to know? What are the pain points in their lives? What problems do they need to solve? 

Then comes the fun part, and your team can brainstorm content ideas together. You would then pick out a few ideas that represent key themes that pop up. After that, you would test run a few posts to see how your audience responds. If these ideas are received well, they could be built into your new strategy. If some don’t work, you could go back to any point in the cycle to find out why and problem solve. 

And the process doesn’t just apply to inherently creative tasks. Perhaps your team needs to come up with a new system to make a process more efficient. Each stage of the design thinking cycle could be applied in this context to ensure that the most effective idea is implemented. 

1. Requires employees to engage in higher-order thinking skills

Higher-order thinking skills, such as innovating, creating, and critical thinking, are now in high demand. This trend will continue as the need to develop new products, ways of working, and technologies increases.

When employees are encouraged to engage with higher-order thinking skills, they require more attention and utilize more brain capacity. As a result, they will be more motivated by the tasks and invested in the outcomes. 

The design thinking process is very active and participatory. When employees work in this way, they have the opportunity to learn experientially, through testing their ideas and learning from mistakes. 

According to the 70:20:10 model for learning and development, 70 percent of learning in the workplace is experiential — learning through practice and experience, followed by reflection, critical analysis, and application.  

3. Strategies and ideas can come from anyone

A generally held view is that strategy is the sole responsibility of those at the top of an organization. Those in leadership set the strategic direction of the company and steer the team in that general direction.  

While executives do need to take charge and make final decisions about which way to head, this approach can lead to missing the ideas of those working at other levels of the organization. Employees are generally an untapped resource of creativity and innovation - implementing the design thinking cycle can help to uncover this.

When employees are encouraged to use higher-order thinking skills such as creativity, this automatically boosts engagement and motivation to complete a task. 

Researchers have also linked better engagement in workplace tasks to the retention of staff. Staff retention is a problem across organizations in the modern workplace and can have a direct impact on productivity.

If team members are using the design cycle to come up with new ideas, processes, and concepts for their organization, they will invariably hit stumbling blocks along the way. Perhaps they aren’t confident in collecting reliable data to develop an understanding of customers. Maybe low self-confidence holds them back from contributing ideas to a brainstorming session.

Wherever the problems arise, they provide employees with an opportunity for learning and professional development. If an employee wants to learn more about collecting data, she could enrol in an introductory course. If he has an issue with self-confidence, an online course might help to reframe his thinking.

A one-stop shop for all things training, Go1 makes it easy to compare the best training options available and find the right resources for your professional development, compliance, and business training needs. 

Help your employees to innovate using the design thinking cycle

While there are several compelling reasons for organizations to invest in professional development, employees must be engaged in the learning process before anybody can reap the benefits. 

In a recent article for Go1, I considered the barriers to learning that organizations come up against and how to mitigate them. One of the most significant hurdles employees face is failing to see the bigger picture. They don’t understand why they need to learn or how it is relevant to their work. 

Many employees might also have had negative experiences of learning in the past. School might have been tedious or stressful, and they aren't interested in more formal study. 

Part of the challenge for L&D professionals is selling the idea of learning, and helping employees connect to the broader purpose is a crucial part of the process. 

Ultimately, if learners are engaged, they will retain information, be able to apply it, and be more satisfied in their jobs. 

Data from the LinkedIn Learning 2019 Workplace Learning Report reveals that 74% of employees want to learn during their spare time at work. The desire to learn is not an issue for the majority. 

If the drive to learn is there, employees can be intrinsically motivated to engage with content. It is the systems around learning which are preventing them from connecting. 

The report also shows that there are broader benefits to learning at work. When compared with ‘light learners’ (those learning less than one hour per week), ‘heavy learners' (those learning five hours or more per week) were 78% more likely to know where they wanted to go in their career, 48% more likely to have found purpose in their work, and 47% less likely to be stressed at work.

Sharing this data with employees could help them to connect with the process of learning on a deeper level and understand how it will benefit them. Other strategies can also be useful. 

Helping your colleagues connect with the purpose of learning

1. Develop the learning culture in your organization

For employees to connect with learning, those in leadership need to focus on the learning culture in the organization. While employees both want to learn and have the best intentions to do so, they will find it challenging if the rest of their team or superiors are not interested. Everyone has a role to play in developing a strong learning culture, but it begins with those in leadership prioritizing and valuing learning. 

2. Communicate the broader benefits of learning

There are many benefits to learning beyond being a diligent employee. A regular learning practice can alleviate stress, help employees to define the direction of their career, and help them to find purpose in their work. 

If employees understand that learning can have such a positive impact, they are far more likely to connect with the purpose. Immediately, they will be able to see how it can benefit them, their colleagues, customers, and the organization as a whole. 

Before employees can connect with learning, resources available to them have to be both relevant to their role in the organization and appropriate to the level of knowledge or skill. 

Lev Vygotsky, the psychologist whose theories underpin educational practices today, developed the concept of a ‘zone of proximal development’. This term describes the point at which a learner can use their current experience to construct new knowledge or skills, through interaction in an appropriate social environment. Along with suitable content, the environment or organizational culture needs to enable learning and keep employees moving forward. 

4. Look for opportunities to personalize the learning experience