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Mentoring and Peer Support
The successful implementation in the of mentoring
and peer support in the workplace can help avoid 'job breakdown' and
the loss of skilled and valued employees.
What is peer support?
Peer support involves establishing natural supports in the workplace,
where a co-worker takes on a mentoring role to support the new employee
at work. Supporting a new disabled employee into a new working environment
can help eliminate any difficulties that they might face either with
the work itself or with the culture of the organisation. Helping new
employees to become more independent at work will also help free up
managerial time.
Good peer support is made up of the following elements:
Disability Awareness
The employer, co-workers and the mentor has a clear understanding of
the client's disabilities, their difficulties and support needs.
Communication
The mentor will work with the co-workers to put in place arrangements
to encourage regular review and feedback between employee, mentor and
co-workers. Communications should also include a change management strategy,
to prevent any changes at work escalating into a crisis situation.
Peer Support
It is essential the co-worker nominated as the mentor has been consulted,
given a choice and is willing to provide the peer support. Providing
peer support and mentoring to individuals can be stressful, particularly
when clients have "hidden" disabilities, e.g. mental health
difficulties. Therefore it is essential that the mentor is given proper
training and support to carry out their role. The mentor's workloads
and targets should also be reviewed to eliminate stress. Employers can
be compensated for the provision of support through Access
To Work or Workstep.
Employer's Needs
An understanding of the employer's needs is also crucial to good peer
support. It can be useful to outline what support will be provided and
by whom, to define and agree the review process, monitoring meetings,
withdrawal and aftercare provision.
Influencing Factors - Maintaining Employment
The influencing factors in successfully sustaining employment are the
elements that make a job the right job, e.g. duties, location, hours
of work, travel, pay, support etc. A successful job match can fall apart
almost overnight if anything occurs to upset any one of these key factors.
Good peer support and provision of aftercare can prevent any changes
from escalating out of control. The planning process should take account
of any potential barriers to make the job match a success. The service
provider should clearly inform the client, the mentor and the employer
that they are available for mediation or to advise on any problems that
arise in the future.
Peer Support and Work Placements
It is also possible to provide peer support for work placements. The
same process as for placing people into employment can be followed.
However, if placing two or more clients into the same organisation at
the same time, it is advisable to negotiate separate peer support and
mentoring arrangements. To meet the needs of individual clients, supported
employment has to be individually packaged and joint mentoring arrangements
will not necessarily meet the needs of either client.
For Further Information:
A number of local support agencies provide support to employers. For
a list of these organisations go here.
Mentoring
and Peer Support |
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