Uptree

May. It’s the lovely month that kick-starts our summer - longer balmy evenings and, for early careers professionals, a time of reflection ahead of a busy summer of work experience programmes.

It also marks the month of Mental Health Awareness Week , an event perhaps more poignant this year than most. We can’t pretend that things have been entirely usual, and for the Uptree team, this year’s theme of kindness has got us thinking about mental health in the workplace and how acts of kindness can create long-lasting change.

And then let’s consider imposter syndrome, a psychological title that most will automatically shy away from, and a term that you can usually find brushed under the carpets of many modern offices. Defined as a ‘ persistent inability to recognise one’s own success ’, imposter syndrome is a crippling self-doubt around belonging that can be one of the biggest obstacles to achievement for young people in the workplace.

You might initially read these two themes, kindness and imposter syndrome, and wonder why we are putting them side by side. Yet we think it’s important to begin to consider both, in a way that allows for a fresh perspective on supporting young people in the workplace.

Imposter Syndrome – Who does it affect?

UK research has shown that around 50% of all men and women will struggle with imposter syndrome in their lifetime and it is a growing problem in young people. In their series ‘ Generation anxious’ , ITV reported a growing trend that young people feel as though they had somehow tricked their employers into giving them their first job and didn’t feel accomplished enough to deserve what they had achieved.

This is unsettling news, particularly as many young people suffering with a lack of self-confidence are the very individuals who have worked really hard to start out in their careers, often after succeeding in challenging selection processes. As well as high achievers, imposter syndrome has also been found to be more common in women and those from disadvantaged groups. When constantly downplaying high-achievements, or by worrying that they simply do not fit in, young people can, in essence, work to destroy their own career.

It’s also important to think about imposter syndrome alongside employee retention - take the high drop-out rates among women in STEM as an example.

Kindness, why we think it should be part of the solution

Now for the good news: we think that every single person in your company can help with imposter syndrome. The ‘how?’ is all around actively practising kindness within your teams and organisation.

And the ‘why?’ Well, put simply, kindness has the ability to create a community of support. At the core of kindness are gestures motivated by feelings but also by our actions – these can translate into examples such as listening to a young person if they’ve had a bad day, thanking them personally for helping out on a project, or at the moment, dropping them a quick instant message to check in on Microsoft Teams or Slack.

Some more ideas from us:

1. Regularly talk about diversity with your interns, graduates and apprentices, and continually challenge the status quo. We love stories around gender, empathy and leadership brought about in examples such as Jacinda Ardern – weaving this kind of message into early careers agendas could help you to truly connect with the young people in your organisation.

2. Tackle ageism by briefing your co-workers. Sometimes colleagues or teams can form pre-conceived ideas that younger people are over-confident, rowdy or should be exempt from responsibility. Worse still, they are quiet and therefore unengaged, bored or ‘getting on fine, I think?’.

Whilst huge progress has been made in recent years, it’s still important to set expectations and to begin to encourage kindness and check-ins from the outset. This will give young people autonomy and if others perceive their role as important, they will internalise this too.

3. Practise kindness through strategy . Introduce a mentoring scheme, create a community page, offer drop-ins or an open-door policy, even a continuous feedback loop - you can be amazingly creative when it comes to supporting young people and their confidence at work.

5. Remember that nobody is born with experience. Encourage individuality and ideas and allow room for learning and mistakes. Work experience days and webinars are a great way to get this message across from the outset as they serve to put potential candidates at ease from the very beginning.

Summary

All in all, a great early careers strategy embraces diversity and inclusion from recruitment right through to long-term retention with a real focus on continuing support for young people once they start out in post. And, with a third of millennials suffering from imposter syndrome, there has never been a better time for the theme of kindness to form part of the solution. Building this conversation into early careers strategies will not only serve to improve candidate experience but also bring these important points to life in a way that establishes long-lasting, positive change.

Uptree would like to thank all of our partners for their commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. If you would like to work with us or hear more about what we do, please get in touch via info@uptree.co