This goes back to our ongoing discussions with the employer around mentorship and the need for it. We are told by our members that it takes over six months to really feel confident in the hearing room. Being accompanied once or twice and being shadowed once or twice is not enough. There needs to be longer-term mentorship.
Even for the longer-serving employees, getting mentorship from newer employees might address some of the concerns that our other witness is speaking to with regard to the entrenched ideas. What they are telling me is that sometimes they do not have anybody to bounce ideas off of or anybody to ask how to say something appropriately or how to ask a question appropriately. It goes back to the need for ongoing mentorship.