How Online Education Eases Common Workforce Challenges

By: Jenn Hall | June 2025

Developing your team is an ongoing process. Whether you’re upskilling or reskilling existing employees or looking for opportunities to train new team members, it’s important to find the right balance of career-focused education, flexibility, and team member engagement.

The right approach to professional development could lead to significant rewards for the individual and organization alike. Let’s explore some of the most common workforce challenges and how your approach to professional development could not only resolve them but also enhance and empower your workforce in the process.

Common workforce challenges

Maintaining a healthy and productive workforce is essential to the success of any organization. Despite an organization’s best intentions, some challenges may arise, such as employee retention / turnover, team member engagement / burnout, skills gaps, and succession planning.

Employee retention/turnover. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the turnover rate in the United States in 2023 was 3.6%, down slightly from the previous year (3.9%). According to the 2024 U.S. Mercer Turnover Survey, which features insights from 2,714 U.S. and 1,146 Canadian organizations, the rate of turnover among respondents varies by role:

Management: 7.6%
Sales professionals: 8.3%
Non-sales professionals: 10.2%
White collar professionals: 12.8%
Para-professional Blue Collar: 15.6%

Turnover not only disrupts operations and causes financial strain on the organization, it also creates undue stress on the team as remaining employees must absorb the responsibilities of the departing employee. In fact, a recent survey showed that “40% [of employees] said people shortages are the most stressful part of working at their organization.”

Culture Amp researchers also found that “a lack of career growth was cited as a self-identified reason for leaving the company for one out of three employees.” While some turnover is inevitable, the rate at which employees exit your organization can be tempered with professional development opportunities. According to LinkedIn’s 2024 Workforce Learning Report, “90% of organizations are concerned about employee retention and providing learning opportunities is the number one retention strategy.”

Team member engagement/burnout. There’s no argument that team member engagement is a good thing for both the individual and the organization. It has been linked to higher satisfaction, improved productivity, increased retention, and more. However, the opposite can be true when engagement declines. When an individual becomes disengaged, they may show signs of decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, low morale, increased likelihood of turnover, and poor performance which could damage the organization’s reputation.

Unsurprisingly, many of the signs of disengagement are also signs of burnout. WebMD notes the following signs and symptoms of burnout:

Increased fatigue or exhaustion
Lack of interest in work
Increased frustration with colleagues
Decreased work performance
Difficulty with focus and concentration
Loss of sense of purpose
Increased frequency of physical ailments (e.g., headaches, body aches, loss of appetite)

Burnout is worsening in the United States, reports the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and has become so prevalent that it has even been added to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon.

SHRM surveyed 1,405 individuals and found that:

44%

Felt burnt out at work

45%

Felt "emotionally drained" from their work

51%

Felt "used up" at the end of the day

The problem with team member disengagement and burnout is not confined to the individual and their immediate team, the repercussions can be far-reaching. Gallup estimates that “low engagement costs the global economy US$8.9 trillion, or 9% of global GDP.”

Although there is no single, one-size-fits-all solution to team member disengagement and burnout, professional development through education and skills development has been shown to bring a sense of purpose and connection to the individual, helping them feel more aligned with their work and the organization.

Skills gaps. Lacking the right skills on your team is not only detrimental to the team’s productivity, but it can also lead to decreased morale, disengagement, and even burnout as we discussed above. As new technology emerges, research and insights are uncovered, and new processes or procedures come to light, employees will need to be upskilled or reskilled to maintain a high level of productivity.

According to the State of the Workforce Skills Gap 2024, “70% of corporate leaders report a critical skills gap in their organization – one that’s having a negative impact on business performance.” The World Economic Forum also reported that “employers estimate that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years” and approximately 75% of millennials and GenZ workers reported that they “would quit a job that did not offer the chance to learn new skills.”

Succession planning. Planning for the future of your workforce is just as important as cultivating a healthy and productive workforce for today. Every year through 2027, there will be approximately 4.1 million Americans turning 65 years of age, according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income’s Retirement Income Institute, which is the traditional retirement age. Although not everyone who turns 65 will leave the workforce, there will be a surge of people heading toward retirement — thus highlighting the importance of succession planning and skills training today. In fact, according to results from a survey conducted by Robert Half, hiring managers experience numerous challenges related to succession planning, including:

Investing in professional development and training is a great way to offset some of these challenges by preparing the next generation of professionals to take on new or expanded roles and responsibilities.

Resolving common challenges with professional development

All businesses experience challenges. It’s what you do about those challenges that will set you apart from your competition. When it comes to your workforce, that often means a more mindful and strategic focus on professional development.

According to the 2024 Education Index Report, “84% of employees said they would be loyal to a company that invested in their education” and 74% said they look to their employer to provide educational opportunities to help them grow in their careers. Investing in professional development is not just beneficial for employee retention and satisfaction, it has been linked to increased profit as well. According to Gallup, “organizations that have made a strategic investment in professional development report 11% greater profitability and are twice as likely to retain employees.”

How Online Education Eases Common Workforce Challenges

Common workforce challenges

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Resolving common challenges with professional development

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Why U.S. Career Institute for professional development

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