L&D's Role in Employee Wellness

In light of the pandemic, organisations have been making more of an effort to consider their employees’ well-being when making business decisions over the last couple of years.

Where once employee wellness was barely a contributing factor to these decisions (if at all), it’s now become a priority for employers as employees are raising their standards amidst the undue stress, anxiety, and depression many have experienced due to the repercussions of COVID-19.

While there’s no doubt that HR has had to deal with the brunt of responsibilities when it comes to employee wellness issues and solutions, we’re instead shifting gears to talk about L&D teams and their important role here too.

L&D's Influential Role

It’s common for HR and L&D teams to sometimes work together in organisations, however, while HR is responsible for many aspects of recruitment and talent management, L&D typically manages the onboard training, upskilling, and reskilling of employees.

So, without the option to offer flexible working hours or lighten their daily task load, what can L&D teams do to positively influence employee wellbeing and mental health at work?

Here are a few easy, straightforward ways.

1. Educate Employees and Managers 

Even in today’s modern world, there’s still a lot of stigma surrouding mental health and wellbeing, often making people feel ashamed to come forward when they’re struggling and having a difficult time getting out of bed let alone managing their daily tasks.

This is why L&D teams need to work to incorporate better methods of training that will effectively discuss and encourage the destigmatisation of mental health from the get-go for both employees and managers.

Whether this training takes the form of elaborate employee wellness programmes or a variety of ongoing courses and modules, the more we talk about the importance of employee wellbeing, mental health, and stress management, the sooner we’ll be more comfortable discussing our mental and emotional needs openly and without judgment.

Mental health and wellness is, after all, something that affects every individual, and as such, it affects the inner workings of each employee and the organisations they work in.

For managers, in particular, employee wellbeing education and training should be focused specifically on enabling leaders to properly support their teams in these fast-changing times. Too often we come across workplace situations where an employee is struggling and a manager doesn’t know what to do - so they, unfortunately, end up doing nothing. This is not enough, but it is a major opportunity for learning and development teams to teach and empower managers to facilitate the right conversations and remain approachable.

2. Promote Learning 

We all know that employee engagement is another priority high on most organisations’ agendas, especially being that hybrid working made a major boom as the pandemic lingered, dispersing teams for better or for worse.

To this end, it’s part of L&D’s role to assist in keeping employees engaged by implementing and encouraging continuous learning outside of mandatory training sessions.

When people keep busy by way of training progammes they’re actually interested in and benefit from, it not only keeps them engaged but helps keep anxiety and stress levels low, enhancing both employee satisfaction and competency.

Not to mention, when L&D does right by implementing the best learning initiatives, employees will remain motivated and work more consistently as they strive to achieve their own personal career goals alongside that of the business.

This will ultimately help L&D showcase to C-suite leaders that when you work on engaging and developing your employees, you’ll also develop and grow a better business. 

3. Encourage Feedback 

Now we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again - if organisations want to push employee wellness to the forefront, they’ll need to welcome and actually listen to employee feedback.

This is yet another area that L&D can assist in, ideally working alongside HR to produce surveys and questionnaires that help to ensure employees are getting exactly what they want out of not only their training experiences but their workplace experience as a whole.

If employees don’t have a way to give honest feedback and miss out on being heard, it’s likely that they’ll become increasingly dissatisfied within their roles, a slippery slope that can lead to burnout.

That being said, L&D teams should use survey results to create tailored training programmes for both individuals and team members. This will give them a feeling of contentment and control in their career development, and directly impact their wellbeing in nothing but positive ways.


We hope that you've now gained a better idea of L&D’s role in employee wellness, and how they’re detrimental to improving the employee experience.

Looking for more on how to enhance your organisation’s L&D experience? Get in touch with us and enrol on a 100% online CIPD L&D qualification today.