1 in 4 people in the UK will experience mental health issues at some stage in their life. And in recent years, combatting the mental health crisis in the workplace has become increasingly important for business leaders. According to the World Health Organisation, negative work environments can lead to mental health issues for employees. So how can business owners and HR professionals seek to create more positive work environments and support their employees through mental health challenges?

Mind, the mental health charity, recommends a range of workplace adjustments when supporting those with mental health problems. These adjustments include flexible working hours, reallocation of some tasks or duties, and unsurprisingly, implementing a mentor or ‘buddy’ system. Many organisations have seen huge impact on employee health and wellbeing by implementing mentoring programmes, a benefit we wholeheartedly support here at Grasp. Aside from the obvious benefits of mentoring, such as career progression and on-the-job support, mentors provide mentees with a reliable and supportive trustee. 

So, how else does mentoring support mental health?

1. A shift in perspectives 

A well known benefit of mentoring is career progression. Mentors can support mentees develop the skills they need to advance in their career, whilst also helping them make a clear plan of action for how to get there. But how does this impact mental health? 

Structure and routine bring with them a whole host of mental health benefits. In fact, researchers have found that routine can have far-reaching psychological benefits, including alleviating bipolar disorder, ADHD, and insomnia. By helping mentees focus on the long-term goal, it can implement routine and structure to their current day, and in turn relieve some of the side effects of mental health challenges. 

2. Reduces isolation 

Loneliness is often connected to mental health problems. And although it isn’t a mental health condition in itself, loneliness and the feeling of being isolated is often felt by those suffering with mental health problems. As such, helping to overcome loneliness and isolation is a sure-fire way to improve the mental health of employees. 

Setting up peer support and mentoring programmes for staff with lived experience of mental health problems, is a great way to overcome this isolation. Mentoring provides mentees with a significant companion (or multiple companions, if you implement group mentoring) in the workplace, who can give trusted, reliable advice to mentees – and support them through any work challenges they may face. 

3. Reduces workplace stress

Workplace stress affects 79% of the UK workforce, which amounted to 12.8 million sick days in 2018-19. This stress, or anxiety, related to work is a huge problem for many employees, but it can often be overcome with mentoring programmes.

In fact, mentoring is said to reduce stress for both the mentors and mentees. Mentoring provides an opportunity for mentors to impart their knowledge and guidance to the mentee – impacting the greater good of the business and as such reducing their workplace stress. Whereas mentoring provides mentees with a reliable sounding board for workplace woes, and thus similarly relieves their workplace stress.

So, how can you offer mental health support to colleagues, peers and mentees?

Although we know that mentoring can alleviate mental health issues; it is sometimes a taboo subject to tackle. With many not knowing how to best provide support and guidance to those suffering with mental health issues. But simply checking in with your colleagues, peers or mentees can sometimes go a long way. So here’s our 6 step checklist on how you can check in with others. 

☑ Give them your undivided attention. Oftentimes mental health issues come with a feeling of being a burden. And it takes a lot for people to open up about their struggles. So the worst thing you can do when somebody does open up to you, is become distracted and turn your attention elsewhere. 

☑ Ask open ended questions and do not probe too much into their responses. It’s very important that the person suffering with mental health issues shares as much, or as little, as they’re comfortable with about their struggles. 

☑ Practice active listening to ensure you’ve truly understood what you’re being told. In these situations, it’s often a good idea to repeat what they have said back to them, to ensure you’ve thoroughly understood. 

☑ Leave your personal emotions at the door. Sometimes you will not agree with what your colleague, peer or mentee is saying. But if they’ve chosen to open up to you – it’s best not to challenge them on what they’re saying. Instead, provide a supportive ear and give the best advice and guidance you can. 

☑ Know your limits. It’s very unlikely that you are a mental health practitioner, and as such, you must know your own limits. If the mental health problem at hand is too large or serious for you to deal with – provide help to the person by helping them seek the relevant professional help.   

It’s very important to protect your own mental health in these circumstances. If you feel that listening to someone else’s struggles is impacting your mental health, please do reach out to someone who can help you and your mentee.

☑ Ask “how are you?” twice. This is a campaign from Time to Change, that we wholeheartedly support here at Grasp. If you believe a friend, colleague, peer or mentee is ‘bottling something up’ and needs to talk, you can open the door to the conversation by asking “how are you” – twice. All too often, we automatically respond to “how are you?” with “I’m fine” or “I’m good, how are you?” without honestly answering the question. By asking a second time, you give the person you’re talking to the opportunity to alter their answer; and answer honestly. 

Aside from mental health support, mentoring is a great way to increase employee morale and boost company culture. But your programme must be future-fit. Learn more about how you can ensure your mentoring programme is ready for the future, here.

If you knew there was a crisis happening in your organisation that was causing poor productivity and ruining your workplace culture, what would you do? Would you investigate the root cause of the problem? Would you put policies in place to help your people overcome the challenge at hand? Would you speak openly about this crisis with your senior leaders? All the best business leaders would say ‘of course’ to these questions.

But there is a crisis happening. And almost half of UK organisations do not have a policy in place to help their people deal with it. That crisis is workplace stress. In fact, 79% of the UK workforce report commonly experiencing stress in the workplace, amounting to 12.8 million sick days taken in 2018-19. This issue of workplace stress is not only damaging for our people, but for workplace cultures and productivity too.

So how can HR take charge of this ongoing crisis? And reverse the impact of workplace stress amongst their teams? Often organisations will head straight to wellness programmes, enforcing policies and management training to reduce stress in the workplace. And overlook the one strategy that can empower people, boost self-esteem and give bespoke, personal support to employees: Mentoring programmes.

What causes workplace stress?

Understanding how mentoring programmes can help combat workplace stress starts with exploring what causes this stress. The leading causes of workplace stress are said to be office politics and poor communication (37% and 34% respectively). These are topics which may well be tackled with typical stress-busting policies. Such as improved communications between departments and management training. But in third and fourth place were causes in which mentoring programmes can help to squash:

• The performance of others (e.g. junior members of the team) – 33%
• The respondents own personal performance – 31%

So, with 84% of leaders saying mentoring helped them become proficient in their role faster, and 69% saying it helped them make better work-related decisions – it’s time to consider mentoring programmes as a way to combat workplace stress. 

Implementing mentoring programmes that tackle stress 

It’s likely that in reading this article so far you’ve considered how mentoring programmes can reduce a mentee’s workplace stress. And it may shock you to discover that mentoring programmes actually reduce stress for the mentee and their mentor. In fact, research shows that mentoring programmes raise self-awareness, boost confidence and help to develop professional relationships for both parties.

How mentoring programmes reduce mentee stress

So how do mentoring programmes combat workplace stress for a mentee? Likely more junior in their career than their mentor, mentees will face many challenges at work. The first time they come up against these challenges, they’re likely to feel overwhelming and intimidating. In these times of need, their mentor can step in and give advice, support and encouragement. Immediately reducing stress and anxiety in the mentee and improving their emotional health.

Often when imagining mentoring relationships we incorrectly picture someone extremely  junior in their career. But picture this instead: the mentee is somebody is taking their first steps into management. They have a team member that has potential, but is not performing. Who do they, the new manager, turn to for support and guidance? How can they get the most out of their team? Do they overthink and worry? Do they turn to your organisation’s digital learning platform? Or worst still, the unreliable resources of Google?

Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for the individual, and the company as a whole, if a mentor could step in? To give unbiased support, guidance and advice to the first-time manager? To provide tried and tested approaches that may help the manager overcome the problem at hand?

Mentoring in this instance, when compared to other workplace learning, provides the most effective, impactful form of learning. It is bespoke and tailored to the mentees needs, from a trusted adviser that understands their unique situation. 

How mentoring programmes reduce mentor stress

The above is a typical explanation of how you’d imagine a mentoring programme to help reduce stress. The mentor provides guidance and support to the mentee based on their own experiences. Helping the mentee to get to a successful outcome quicker than if they were to go it alone. So how can a mentoring programme reduce workplace stress for a mentor themselves?

The third most common cause of workplace stress is worrying about the performance of others. This is often a circumstance that an employee has little, or no, control over. However, by enrolling as a mentor, the individual may feel as though they are contributing to making a change. Scoping the junior members of the team to be more productive in their roles. Which in turn, makes the job of the mentor much more rewarding (whilst also combatting the worry of poor performance of other team members). In fact, research shows that mentoring of junior colleagues can reduce anxiety and improve the mental health of mentors themselves.

How mentoring to reduce stress improves overall workplace culture 

It’s a safe assumption to make that if your employees are less stressed they’ll enjoy their work more. And are more likely to facilitate the growth of a better workplace culture. But with ‘poor workplace culture’ hitting spot 8 of the top 10 reasons employees feel stressed at work – it’s not enough to assume. 

Provision of support, guidance and collaboration through mentoring programmes is a great way to boost your workplace culture. But also on the list is aligning your values with your people and facilitating open communication. Although perhaps not your first thought, mentoring programmes help with these too. Mentors should empower their mentees to speak up and communicate better. They should champion their mentee and their strengths throughout the business. And they should also feedback their mentees’ concerns to HR or senior leaders. Speak to your mentors and ask them how you can better align your organisation’s values to those of your people. This clear communication path will only bolster your workplace culture, and in turn reduce workplace stress in the long-run. 

Mentoring programmes prioritise your people

Each reason listed in the most common causes of workplace stress stem back to issues of worry. By embarking on a mentoring programme that makes your people feel supported, encouraged and empowered to do their work – you’ll be well on your way to combating workplace stress. And by giving your mentors the opportunity to impart their knowledge and wisdom to more junior members of the team, you will not only be making their roles more fulfilling, you’ll also be making your organisation as a whole, more productive. 

Gender inequality in the workplace isn’t a new problem. Although there’s been significant progress in creating gender equality in the workplace, our workforce is still unequal. Women are paid less than their male counterparts and there are so few female CEOs in the Fortune 100, that you can count them on one hand. However, there are now more women in employment than ever before. So how can we ensure these women are empowered and supported in their roles? 

Creating real equality in the workplace requires more than just reviewing the gender pay gap. We must create a culture where women are valued members of the team and effective mentoring programmes are a great way to ensure this happens. 

Why mentorship programmes are beneficial for women

The benefits of mentoring are well reported, and have been accepted by organisations worldwide. In fact, almost all Fortune 500 companies now have active mentoring schemes. But when it comes to the professional development of women in the workplace, mentoring can bring with it a whole host of additional benefits, including:

Confident and competent leaders 

When identifying future leaders amongst our workforce, we tend to hone in on the outwardly confident individuals. The ones that stand out, speak up and make sure their voice is heard. However, this confidence does not necessarily translate to competence. If we want to increase the efficiency of our workforce, whilst also increasing gender diversity in our teams, this must stop. But overcoming the habit of favouring confidence over competence is only one half of the battle. We must strive to develop more confident and competent employees. 

Confidence is cited as being one of the key barriers of women obtaining leadership positions. In fact, a recent study showed that men apply for a job or promotion when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women will only apply if they meet 100% of them. This highlights a real need to build confidence in our female employees, and mentoring programmes are a great way to do this.

Opens doors for promotion 

Women are notoriously bad at self-advocating. But studies have shown it is imperative for women to proactively self-advocate in order to advance in their careers. So as HR professionals, we must help the women in our business develop the confidence to self-advocate, but also provide comfortable situations for them to do so. And mentoring is a great circumstance for just that.

Being mentored by somebody in the organisation, who’s likely more senior and has more influence, allows women the opportunity to show their talent and skill set in a safe, comfortable environment. This will allow the mentor to not only encourage the mentee to speak up and self advocate, but allows them to become a champion for the mentee too. This opens doors for new opportunities or promotions for the mentee, whilst also developing their self confidence. 

Changing perceptions

Studies have shown that character traits that are stereotypically feminine, such as sensitivity and concern for others, made someone less likely to be seen as a leader. Conversely, assertion and dominance, which are stereotypical masculine traits, were attributed to strong leadership. However, women actually scored higher than men in most leadership skills. So how can we change this perception in the workplace? 

Although overcoming this problem lies with challenging the unconscious bias in our people, mentoring programmes can offer a strong helping hand. Mentoring enables people to form stronger, wider networks within the workplace. And as such, they are meeting and communicating with people they might not have otherwise. This will enable the success of existing female leaders to be more widely recognised in your organisation. But it will also mean that future female leaders become more visible due to their wider networks, creating more internal champions for these individuals. 

So why aren’t there more women-focused mentoring schemes?

With clear benefits to women mentoring and being mentored, it may leave you wondering why there aren’t more women-focused mentoring schemes in the workplace. And the answer to this question is complicated, but it can be broken down into three categories:

Why do we need women-focused mentoring?

Are we mentoring to change behaviours and enhance skills? Or are we mentoring women to enable them to deal with the working world? And if the latter, then why aren’t we addressing the crux of the problem and improving our workplace culture instead? Diversity in the workplace is not about conformity. It’s about inclusivity and challenging unconscious biases in our workforce, embracing our female leaders for the unique and widely diverse qualities they bring to the organisation. 

What makes a good leader?

Following from the above, we also need to challenge (and change) what the perception of a good leader really is. The Management Advisory Service lists a person’s ethics, knowledge, experience, and communication among the key attributes for a successful leader. However, when we seek out future leaders in our organisation, we often look for the overly confident, outspoken individuals. These skills do not correlate with the skill set of a successful leader. We must challenge this habit and allow our people to be themselves and flourish in their careers – without conforming to these deep-rooted stereotypes.

Too few women in leadership roles

Just 8% of women are in leadership roles, compared to 14% of men. This is a shocking statistic, and is one final reason why women-focussed mentorship schemes do not frequently exist. Simply put, demand for women mentors far outweighs the supply. 

There are two ways organisations can overcome this challenge. The first, and most obvious way is to employ more women in leadership roles. The second, is to ensure more diversity in mentoring relationships. Many mentors suffer with ‘mini-me syndrome’, with 71% mentoring people who are the same race and gender as themselves. This must change if we want to improve equity and inclusion in our organisations. Mentoring schemes are a great way to bring people from different backgrounds together – and this should apply to men mentoring women, and vice versa. 

Should you integrate women-focused mentoring into your organisation?

As we’ve discussed, there are a number of benefits for women-focussed mentorship schemes. They are a great way to support and encourage more junior women to progress in their career, and help them develop the confidence needed to do so. However, this comes with its limitations. If only a quarter of your leadership team are women, but over 50% of your workforce are women wanting to be mentored – you have a logistical problem on your hands. Focus on your culture and use your mentoring schemes as a way to bring people together, and close the diversity gap in your organisation.