If you were directed to this page by your employer, or if you received an email or phone call about this research, then your employer has nominated you to participate in the evaluation of Workwhile’s DevelopMentor programme.
This page explains what will be involved, what you may be asked to do, and what you can do if you have any questions or concerns.
What is the DevelopMentor evaluation?
Workwhile have developed a programme called DevelopMentor, designed to help line managers gain skills and confidence and feel better equipped to support the people they manage. It’s been specially developed for line managers and supervisors in busy, small-to-medium-sized (SME) organisations across a wide range of sectors.
Two research organisations - Verian and the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) - are working with Workwhile to evaluate how well DevelopMentor works for the people who take part. Nominated line managers and the apprentices they manage will be part of this research project (a randomised controlled trial), unless they opt out.
What happens when an organisation signs up for the evaluation?
Every organisation that signs up will be randomly allocated one of two high-quality support programmes from Workwhile: • Half of the organisations that sign up will receive a place on the DevelopMentor programme for one manager of a young apprentice. DevelopMentor is delivered over four 90-minute facilitated sessions, followed by two one-hour 1:1 coaching sessions, all taking place online - with no coursework or assessment. • The other half will have access to Workwhile’s ‘Good Work Health Check’ - a self-service tool a senior manager can use to assess your organisation’s current practices across four areas of 'good work', with a bespoke follow-up report containing recommendations for further improvements.
If you have been allocated to the DevelopMentor programme, you will be invited to attend the facilitated training and 1:1 coaching sessions. Researchers from IES might also join some of these sessions, to understand more about DevelopMentor.
If your organisation has been allocated to the Good Work Health Check, the person in your organisation who nominated you for the programme will be invited to complete a short online assessment of your employer’s practices across a range of good work issues, and will receive a bespoke report containing recommendations for further improvements.
What will the evaluation involve? What will I be asked to do?
Line managers who have been nominated for the programme will be asked to complete a short survey (5–10 minutes) before their employer is randomly allocated to one of the support options. Only those who complete this survey will be able to take part in this project.
All line managers in the evaluation will also be asked to complete a similar short survey about four months later, which will help us understand the medium-term impacts of the support. Verian will send you a gift voucher if you complete this survey, to thank you for your time.
All of the apprentices managed by participants in the programme will also be invited to complete a short survey, around five months after their line manager has completed the baseline survey.
You may also be invited to take part in an interview with IES, which would be done on a video call and would take up to one hour. If you take part in an interview, you will receive a gift voucher as a thank you. You don’t have to take part in an interview if you don’t want to, and if you take part nothing you say will be shared with your employer.
IES also would like to speak to apprentices of the line managers taking part in an interview. They will ask if you would be willing to approach your apprentice with information about the trial and if they agree, share their contact details. Apprentices taking part in interview will also receive a gift voucher as a thank you. Nothing they say would be shared with their line manager or employer.
The information you and your apprentice(s) share through these research activities will be kept confidential; we won’t share it with your employer (see What will happen with my data and anything I tell researchers?).
Does my employer know about this research?
Your employer has been told about this research before they signed up, and they have committed to helping make sure you can take part. This means they should give you time to fill out the surveys, and to take part in an interview if you are invited for one.
Do I have to take part in the research?
No. You don’t have to take part in the research, surveys, or interviews if you don’t want to. If you don’t want to take part, or don’t want Verian or IES to contact you, you can let us know by emailing DevelopMentor@veriangroup.com. Even if you decide to join the trial, you may withdraw at any point until August 2027.
What will happen with my data and anything I tell researchers?
All information collected for this research will be securely held. After the project ends, Youth Futures Foundation may hold some of the data in a secure archive for future research projects. You can find more information about what will happen with your data in the project’s Privacy Notice.
Nothing managers or apprentices say will be shared with their employer. While a report will be produced, data will be aggregated and your name will be removed so that nobody can tell what you said. We will not include any information which we believe could identify anyone involved in the research activities.
Responses from the apprentices of participating line managers will be treated confidentially in the same way.
About our funder, Youth Futures Foundation
Youth Futures Foundation is the national What Works Centre for Youth Employment, with a specific focus on marginalised young people. Their vision is a society where every young person can achieve good work. They do that by finding out what works and driving change in policy and practice.
About the evaluators, Verian and IES
Verian is a world leading, independent research, evidence, evaluation and communications agency, providing services to government and the public realm. Combining expertise in human understanding with advanced technologies and data science, Verian’s work with clients creates policy interventions, designs better public services, and unlocks behaviour change.
The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) is a leading UK independent centre for research and evidence-based consultancy in employment, labour market and human resource policy and practice. It is not-for-profit, its activities being funded through research and consultancy commissions, and from its corporate membership programme.