Creating a Healthy Workplace: Tips for Leaders

A healthy work environment is crucial to the success of both your team and organization. Employees returning to work after an absence benefit from a well-executed strategy dedicated to creating a positive and thriving workplace. A healthy workplace weighs the merits of a range of considerations including mental and emotional qualities as well as safe and nurturing environments for all employee types.

Creating a global community in the workplace benefits everyone. Such a community values its work, colleagues, and its role both locally and globally. When your workplace becomes a global community, employees benefit from this inspiration. Much like investing in mentorship, inclusion, and diversity, the relationship brings rewards for everyone—both inside and outside the office.

Investing in Employee Success Through Mentorship

Mentoring is about being a trusted advisor. While mentoring can cover different topics or areas, it focuses on offering guidance, support, and insights in a way that meets the individual’s needs while prioritizing their/the organization’s best interests.

Mentorship is one of the very best ways to foster a positive and productive work environment. Engagement by mentors to lead by example and sharing their experiences and knowledge to support their peers creates a culture of shared success and teamwork. Often, finding the time and the efforts required can be challenging; however, the value extends to all key players: mentor, mentee, and the organization. Recognizing this value enhances enthusiasm, buy-in, and results.

The following are additional reasons why mentorship is important:

• A safe space to adapt and learn. Mentorship provides the opportunity to pass along wisdom and strengthens experience and expertise within your team and organization. It allows mentees to develop new skills and techniques without risk, receive valuable feedback, insight, and support, without fear of criticism. This form of communication between different levels of management and employees helps foster stronger relationships and a healthier workplace.

• Employee engagement. Productivity and quality of work is reduced when employees are not invested, impacting relationships with clients/customers and management. A recent Gallup survey showed that 66% of Canadian employees are not engaged in their employment. Mentoring enhances engagement, satisfaction, and fulfillment of both mentors and mentees, compared to other employees not actively involved in mentorship.

• Identifying - and growing - leaders. Mentors develop their leadership skills and insights by reflecting on and articulating their own experiences. Through observation, mentors gauge reaction and learning, identifying growth and inherent strengths creating a larger pool of promotable employees while highlighting opportunities for development.

• New insights into company policies, politics, processes, and culture are often identified through the fresh eyes of a mentee.

• Attracting the right employees. Mentorship shows a willingness to invest in nurturing real connection. This brings in employees looking to better themselves – and those wanting to contribute at a holistic level for the betterment of the organization.

• Increased job satisfaction and retention. Mentorship is a form of active, engaged training with the potential for new possibilities and professional growth. Replacing an employee can cost anywhere from 50-200% of their annual salary, depending on the role. High turnover also affects team morale, productivity, and work quality, amplifying the overall costs. When employees feel valued through mentorship programs, they are more likely to stay with the organization.

• Happiness! Helping others—and being helped by someone excited to do the same—boosts mood and morale.

Tips for Strong Mentorships

• Find the right mentee. Someone who is honest, flexible, willing to act in pursuit of goals, and open to learning and feedback.

• Mentors should give face-to-face feedback that’s specific, direct, and sincere.

• Set clear expectations. How long will the mentorship last? What results are expected? How will they be achieved? How will both parties communicate about what is and isn’t working? When will progress reviews happen? Set realistic parameters and stick to them.

• Share experiences. Mentors should be candid about challenges and triumphs, allowing mentees to learn from the mentor’s experiences and apply those lessons to their own journey.

• Model behaviour. Mentors should be conscious of how they represent their own work ethic, values, standards, style, attitude, methods, and procedures. They should model the behaviour they want to see.

• Look for opportunities like classes, tasks or new positions that will encourage the mentee to use and grow new skills.

• Acknowledge and celebrate milestones and achievements to build focus and confidence while motivating, inspiring, and reinforcing good behaviour.

Inclusion And Diversity to Strengthen the Workplace

Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is essential for company success. Diversity in the workplace includes:

• Age/generation

• Ability

• Ethnicity

• Gender

• Personality type

• Race

• Religious affiliation

• Sexual orientation

• Thinking/learning style

Ways in which you can focus on inclusion and diversity when hiring staff include:

Be intentional with hiring practices:

• Create clear, unbiased job descriptions: Use gender-neutral and inclusive language in job descriptions to attract a wider range of applicants.

• Blind recruitment: Remove unnecessary details (e.g., age, gender) from resumes to avoid unconscious bias.

• Diverse interview panels: Use diverse teams to interview candidates, showing that all people are valued and giving a better sense of the workplace culture.

Identify biases that may prevent candidates from joining:

• Ensure accessibility: Make sure your workplace is disability-friendly, with accessible parking, ramps, and facilities. Invest in assistive technologies for employees with different abilities.

• Promote gender equality: Provide equal opportunities for training and career growth. Address pay disparities and offer flexible work options for both men and women.

Steps that Foster Diversity and Inclusion:

• Embed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into the organization's core values. Integrate DEI into your mission and use these values to guide decision-making. Make DEI a foundational value.

• Provide DEI training. DEI training can work to cultivate awareness and empathy, as well as empower your diverse teams.

• Challenge unconscious bias. Acknowledge your own biases. Avoid making assumptions or relying on your gut instinct. Speak up if you notice bias and apologize if you get it wrong.

• Encourage diverse thinking. Go beyond gender and race to include cognitive and experiential differences. Recognize and leverage different thinking styles and experiences.

• Develop anti-discrimination policies. Define unacceptable behaviours and establish clear consequences.

• Listen to your employees. Collect anonymous feedback to identify issues and where improvements can be made.

• Foster connections among employees. Host social and team building activities and publicly celebrate achievements.

• Celebrate diversity. Plan inclusive events by recognizing cultural and heritage celebrations.

• Adopt and encourage inclusive language. Use clear, plain language and avoid idioms. Ensure communications reflect inclusivity.

Mentorship, inclusion, diversity and a socially engaged global community enrich every workplace, encourage growth and foster a healthy environment for everyone.

References

1. Currimbhoy, Z. (19 May 2023). “10 reasons your organization should invest in employee development.” Perdoo. Accessed 6 March 2025.

2. Dennison, K. (27 March 2023). “The power of mentorship: how mentors can help employees grow and succeed.” Forbes. Accessed 6 March 2025.

3. Dewan, S. (28 October 2024). “3 Ways to build a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.” Forbes. Accessed 6 March 2025.

4. Gallup. (2024). “Employee Engagement, by Country.” Accessed 6 March 2025.

5. O’Connell, R. (23 October 2023). “The benefits of mentoring: a deep dive.” Guider. Accessed 6 March 2025.