As Covid-19 continues to send shockwaves around the globe and radically shifts the social structures in how we engage both personally and professionally, there has been a noticeable need to provide tailored mentorship for Junior Consultants who have only recently entered into the business world.
Junior Consultants are typically recognised as having less than 2-years of experience within their workplace. The onboarding process for Junior Consultants usually involves a significant amount of time investment from experienced peers who provide both professional guidance, as well as support their junior colleagues in navigating an organisation and/or industry’s social structures. The latter may range from inviting them to work activities or formal networking events for example.
A by-product of remote working has been the raise of certain challenges that, if not recognised and combatted, may lead to longer term issues for both Junior Consultants and their employers. These core challenges include:
- Increasing levels of confusion for Junior Consultants in their ability to understand the core expectations set on them,
- Increasing degree of miscommunication as a result of reduced informal communique channels for Junior Consultants to address concerns,
- Increased expression of concern from Junior Consultants with regards to the perceived value of their work efforts.
From the beginning of 2021, Outlander Consulting has been providing mentorship services to over 30 Junior Consultants from 7 countries. Averagely aged at 24, all of the consultants share the experience of having joined a new entity since the start of Covid-19 related lockdowns. All of them are working for entities overseas and therefore have cultural differences compounding the challenges of remote working.
Our mentoring sessions have orientated around bringing together Junior Consultants in small groups of 5. Whilst stemming from different backgrounds and working contexts, the core challenges and concerns have been reassuringly similar, in that the group participants are able to recognise that their challenges are not unique and receive an opportunity to be encouraged by the approaches taken from their newly discovered peers. In recognition towards the importance of the mental health and well-being of communities directly impacted by sustained periods of lockdown, Outlander Consulting has sought to offer this new line of service as a means to provide support to the most hit age bracket of our working population. It remains vitally important that we actively seek ways to include and support those around us