Learning Fosters Psychologically Healthy Workplaces

Barrie Gross, former in-house employment law attorney and founder of Barrie Gross Consulting, an HR training and consulting firm, said a business that offers many training opportunities helps keep people engaged in their jobs, to some extent, by giving them chances to learn new skills, new information and new ways to do things.

“This can, often times, spur on an excitement that might have been missing because employees felt bored in their jobs, or perhaps didn’t understand the bigger context of why they were doing what they were doing,” Gross said. “Training can help revitalize employees’ interest in their jobs.”

Ballard said that recent economic changes have trickled into the work environment — for the better.

“On the employer side, they’ve come to realize that human capital is the biggest value they’ve got,” he said. “If they don’t develop and use that to the fullest potential, then it’s not only doing the employee a disservice, but it’s going to hurt business results.”

Ballad cited the following as best practices for companies looking to provide employees with a healthy work environment:

Good assessment: There are assumptions of what employees need, but employers should ask and assess what they want. What works with one organization may not work with another.

Tailoring: Once an assessment is conducted, employers should tailor workplace practices to meet identified needs.

Strategic implementation: Resources and support systems should also be built around identified needs. If the company is going to focus on training and development, compensation and reward structures should be set to support what they’re trying to accomplish, rather than working against them.

Evaluation: Employers should continue to evaluate and improve, based on feedback from employees and results.

SumTotal Systems, a talent management software company, supplies Softscape software to one of the PHWA recipients, The MITRE Corporation, a non-for-profit defense consultant.