Learning at Work and Wellbeing

Learning throughout our lives is good for wellbeing. Taking a part-time course for work over the past year has been estimated to give wellbeing benefits equivalent to £1,584 of income per year*.

People who keep learning:

• have greater satisfaction and optimism
• report higher wellbeing; a greater ability to cope with stress; more feelings of self-esteem; hope; and purpose. Setting targets and hitting them can create positive feelings of achievement
• often interact with other people, which helps build and strengthen social relationships.

But learning in the workplace is not always associated with these positive wellbeing and productivity gains. Systematic reviews of training to develop personal resources, or training for stress management, found inconsistent results for wellbeing outcomes.

As a result, there is conflict in the evidence base on when, and what type, of learning can deliver wellbeing outcomes. This review examines the factors in different learning practices that lead to positive or negative wellbeing impacts, and those that show no effect on wellbeing. It also evaluates the quality of the current evidence available to help us make sense of conflicting data and what this means for practice.

Findings are based on a systematic review of 41 published papers, from an initial sift of 4457 academic titles.

This includes findings from the UK and other similar developed economies, including studies which measured a change in wellbeing. Studies were chosen which could demonstrate the effects of training. For example, using randomised control trials, other comparator group, pre- and post-testing.

1. Training employees to better cope is not the end of the story. Wellbeing is highly dependent on job quality: the tasks which staff do day-to-day and their experiences on the job. This includes our relationships with our colleagues or clients, and the ability to influence workload and decisions. Make any wellbeing training part of a larger programme of improving job quality.

2. The learning process is important. If you’re going to invest in e-learning, consider whether an interactive element will make it more effective. Test different approaches to delivering training, to understand which are most effective for your organisation.

3. Employers and training providers can help to broaden and improve the evidence base. If you are carrying out wellbeing training in any sector, or commissioning it, make sure it is being evaluated. You can also share your evaluations with us at evidence@whatworkswellbeing.org to inform future reviews.