The purpose of mentoring is to connect an individual who has a lot of knowledge and experience with someone who hasn’t gained the same knowledge or experience—yet. Show
By having someone who knows more than yourself share advice, offer guidance and be a sounding board for your thoughts you stand to benefit from experience beyond your own. Whether in your career or life, having a mentor is crucial to all of our continued growth and development. A quick shout out 👉 If you're an HR professional or People Leader trying to start a mentoring program fast, you can do so for free right now. Fill out a simple form and you'll jump into Together's entire mentorship platform. You can quickly invite your employees to register and use our intelligent pairing algorithm to pair them based on what matters to them. If this sounds like something you'd like to try, learn more about how we make employee connection easy. Okay, let's dive into everything you need to know about mentorship. What is a mentor?A mentor is someone who helps you grow your skills, make better decisions, and gain new perspectives on your life and career. As a mentee, your mentor will leverage their experience to give you guidance on your career or life now and in the future. Rather than learning through trial and error, a mentor is a person you can look to for direction and a role model to imitate. Mentorship has a long historyThe term mentor comes from the character, Mentor in Homer’s Odyssey. This character was the companion of Telemachus, Odysseus' son and gave him guidance and
advice while he was away from his home and family. Going back to antiquity the purpose of a mentor is to take all the experience that they’ve accumulated throughout their career and life and transfer it to their mentee for their benefit. In this article we’ll cover the following areas of mentorship:
Mentorship can feel intimidating — but it shouldn’tThe word mentorship may bring to mind images of Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi, or Luke Skywalker and Yoda. These images can make mentors feel like they have large shoes to fill (or small ones in Yoda’s case.) If you’re a mentee, you may feel like you have to open up about all your challenges and failures. The point is, mentorship can feel intimidating. But it doesn’t have to feel that way. In a mentoring relationship, both the mentee and the mentors stand to experience a myriad of benefits. In fact, a majority of HR professionals surveyed in our State of Mentorship and Coaching Report view coaching and mentoring as a key enabler of performance Benefits of being a mentorBeing a mentor serves as a way to give back and is an important development and learning experience. Teaching others is the best
way to learn yourself. In the same way, mentors become more competent as leaders and communicators as they guide and help rising talent. Here are the benefits to being a mentor: Validate the mentor’s leadership skillsBeing put in
the position of a role model can help mentors become better leaders and instill confidence in their leadership ability. The responsibility of helping guide someone’s career and goals requires the senior employee to teach, motivate and offer honest feedback in difficult conversations. All these skills are at the top of the required list for a leader. Become recognized as an advisorSimilar to developing leadership skills, mentors will become recognized for
their communication skills and the ability to help young employees with their career advancement and personal development. Mentors will become known as advisors that are open to helping others. Learn to clearly communicateAlbert Einstein once said that “if you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it yourself.” Likewise, if you’ve ever had to explain something to somebody, you probably noticed that you had to think it through and clean up
your explanation to make it easy for another person to understand. Mentors will become better communicators and listeners by virtue of being in a mentoring relationship. Gaining new perspectivesWhile the mentor is usually in the position of imparting knowledge to the mentee, a mentoring relationship can also help the more experienced employee learn new skills. It’s common that younger employees can take on the role of mentor through a
reverse mentoring model to share technological advances, trends, or sharpen their digital skills. This is an area where the mentee can also become a teacher, guiding the mentor to learn new skills or a new way of doing things. Giving back and finding new talentMentorship provides the opportunity for the mentor to give back to the company by helping train
new and upcoming employees, making those around them more competent and satisfied. It’s also a great opportunity to find up-and-coming talent for promotions or special projects. Mentorship is helpful for both the mentor and mentee’s networks. Benefits to menteesThere are a lot of benefits to being mentored by someone more experienced and senior than you. Rather than learning from your own experience alone, a mentor can accelerate your learning and development. Learn the workplace cultureOne of the advantages of having a mentor at a new job is that they can help you adapt to
the office culture more quickly. Employees who are involved in a mentorship program are more aware of workplace routines, policies, and expectations than those who do not participate. This is important for building inclusive workplaces. Enhance skill developmentMost mentees are looking for someone to help them advance their career prospects. Through advice and guidance, the mentor can help the employee develop their full potential or entrepreneurial mindset in
the workplace. Networking opportunitiesA workplace mentoring program is a great way for new hires to expand their network. For many new hires, it can take months to get to know key co-workers. Through a mentoring program, a mentee can gain access to important career contacts sooner. This is especially true in remote work environments. Potential for promotionMost mentoring programs require the mentee to consider their future direction or goals they hope to accomplish through the process. By asking younger workers to consider how they can grow through the experience, a mentoring program gives them more control over the direction of their careers. Research has shown that employees who are mentored have a better career track than those who don’t. This includes receiving higher compensation and more promotions, as well as higher career satisfaction. Problem-solvingA mentor can be a sounding board when the less experienced employee comes up against a situation or problem that they are not familiar with or can’t see a solution to. By partnering a younger employee with a more experienced one, the mentee gets to learn from the mentor’s experience. Knowledge transferThe more experienced employee should have a thorough knowledge of the organization, as well as any programs or training that a mentee can access to help them reach their goals. The mentor can impart wisdom developed on the job over time, information and workplace expectations or policies that will help the mentee succeed in the long run. Why is mentorship important?Mentorship is important because it provides
employees with the opportunity to develop and become more competent in their roles as well as prepare for growth opportunities in the future. Providing these opportunities is key for organisations that want to attract, retain and engage their talent. Attracting talentIn a study by the University of Southern California, “Attracting and Retaining Talent: Improving the Impact of Workplace Mentorship” they identified several solutions to employee turnover. There were solutions you’d expect like salary and opportunities for promotion, but there were more intangible solutions like “job embeddedness” and career and professional development. Job embeddednessThere are three main factors that contribute to job embeddedness:
Organisations that want to attract talent should build teams and organise projects that promote the social links that employees want. Providing
professional mentors to these employees thatfacilitate coaching will give them rewards of growth and professional development while giving them a sense of belonging and responsibility towards their role. Career and professional developmentOrganisations that provide professionally supportive work environments can expect to attract talent and experience greater levels of
retention with those they attract. Providing career mentors to less experienced employees promotes their skill development and social ties with the organisation in a way more meaningful than job training. Rather than learning new skills and being evaluated on them, employees want to grow more holistically by building relationships with mentors. Retaining high performersRandstad, a multinational human resource consulting firm in the Netherlands runs their mentoring program with Together’s platform and found that the retention of their employees in the mentoring program went up significantly. “Our people are finding the program incredibly valuable and are excited to be learning from other employees through mentorship.” The ROI of mentoring is clear both for attracting top talent and employee retention. Increasing employee engagementIt’s widely cited that the majority of employees in the U.S. are disengaged with their work - over 50% as found by Gallup who has been studying employee engagement since 2000. Employee engagement is critical to attaining company goals and success. They are the employees that drive the business forward and encourage others to do the same. There are 5 areas that mentorship helps with employee engagement programs:
Mentorship enhances employee engagement because it gives high performers personal and professional development. It satisfies their desire for career progression and the development of their knowledge and skillsets. For example, First Horizon, a bank in Tennessee has run several mentoring programs with Together with notable high potential mentoring programs that prepared exemplary employees for leadership positions. By hand-selecting their top performers to be mentored by leaders they gave them visibility for promotions. Mentorship is the antidote for disengagement. To re-engage employees encourage them to meet regularly with a mentor in a one-on-one meeting who will provide them with feedback and act as a sounding board for them to discuss their goals and challenges to overcome to reach them. Promoting a diverse and inclusive workplaceDiversity and inclusion are vital to the growth, productivity, and strength of a company. Several studies show that diverse workforces are connected to higher revenue. The studies revealed that organisations where women are given senior management roles have a 10 percent increase in cash flow returns on investment. McKinsey found that organizations that are more racial and ethical diverse are 35 percent more likely to see higher revenues. If your organization wants to create a more diverse and inclusive workspace, having a workplace mentoring program is essential. Mentorship allows employees to interact, learn from each other, and grow from the experience. What is a mentoring program?A mentoring program is a way for organisations to give employees the opportunity to be a mentor or receive mentorship from a senior leader. THe goal is to match experienced professionals with people who could use their guidance. In most organisations, it’s likely that there is some form of mentoring whether informal or formal. Mentoring in the workplace is not just a feel-good initiative. There is a plethora of research to support the business advantages that mentoring in the workplace has. For that reason, if you’re considering starting your own mentoring program within your organization we have definitive guides for both:
What employees want from workplace mentoring programsAfter surveying employees from 50+ leading companies we uncovered 5 key insights to keep in mind when building your mentorship program. The results are displayed in the infographic below. You can download the infographic to learn what employees want from workplace mentoring programs. Steps to building a mentorship programIf you are in HR, especially Learning and Development, and looking to start or scale your company’s mentoring program, you’re in the right place. Mentoring programs can be a lot of work, especially if you are doing it manually. Determine the goals of the mentorship programA good mentoring program aligns with overarching business goals. Traditional mentoring programs usually pair senior leaders with more junior ones to support and help them grow within the organization. The goal
for this type of mentoring may be to increase promotion rates within the organization. There are other types of mentoring programs with different objectives. The table below outlines different objectives for mentoring programs and their
corresponding key result:
Promote your programTo promote your mentoring program focus on getting leadership on board first. If leaders promote the program and speak to its benefits and importance there will be a trickle-down effect on the rest of the organisation. Leveraging the enthusiasm of early adopters or popular mentors will drive word of mouth and excitement about the program. Many mentorship programs start with a kick-off party (whether virtual or in-person) where participants can see everyone else in the program. Mentees can scope out potential mentors and see that they are part of a larger company wide initiative which will encourage them to maintain the relationship. Pairing mentors and menteesFinding mentors and mentees is the most exciting part of the process, but can also be stressful. It can become a logistical nightmare to manually pair up mentors and mentees when your program grows beyond 10 mentors
and 10 mentees. For this reason, many companies use Together’s mentoring software to efficiently create pairings using an algorithm that takes into consideration the answers provided by participants in a registration questionnaire (click the link for a templated registration questionnaire). There are many
advantages to using mentoring software. To create meaningful pairings between mentors and mentees identify qualities of good mentees and mentors and encourage them in all participants. Some qualities of good mentees and mentors include:
Mentors and mentees with these qualities will easily build a relationship that is mutually beneficial. Supporting a successful mentoring relationshipTo build a successful mentoring
relationship you have to focus on each individual's goals for what they want to get out the experience. If a mentee wants to transition into a new department, say for example from marketing to sales, you may pair up the mentee with the head of sales and then support their relationship by encouraging them to talk through how to make that transition. The first meeting can be awkward if there isn’t a blueprint or agenda to help get things started. For that reason, providing questions that the mentee can ask their mentor is very helpful in shaping the types of discussions they have. Encourage them to ask questions like:
Successful workplace mentoring programs are built on the backs of successful mentoring relationships. More importantly, participants and the organization will get the most benefits from a mentorship that has a strong relationship at its core. Reporting on the progress of the programReporting on your mentoring program is essential because you want to capture the results of the relationships you helped develop and present that to stakeholders like leadership or other employees who are considering if a mentoring relationship is worth it. To track feedback and measure your workplace mentoring program Together provides feedback forms at the end of each session for both
the mentor and mentee to fill out. This gives meaningful qualitative feedback for administrators to understand if the program is working and what to change if necessary. Important factors to keep in mind when evaluating the feedback from participants and monitoring your program include:
A mentoring program doesn’t start and end at pairing. To ensure a successful workplace mentoring program administrators should keep their finger on the pulse of all pairings and make adjustments as needed. Mentorship within remote workplacesIn light of the massive shift to remote or hybrid working organizations may feel that
mentoring programs aren’t possible in virtual environments. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, virtual mentoring can be more effective because it requires less logistic hassle like deciding where to meet and what to bring. Instead, mentors and mentees can commit to a weekly or monthly schedule of conference calls where they check-in and dive into giving and receiving mentorship. Is virtual mentoring effective?Virtual mentoring is equally as effective as in-person mentoring if not more so. One of the primary difficulties of remote or hybrid workers is isolation. To combat this, companies will organize group events like happy hours or games nights. But after a day full of Zoom meetings many employees dread another call with the whole team. Zoom fatigue is a common challenge for virtual workplaces. Instead, companies should implement virtual mentoring for hybrid workplaces to organize one-on-one mentoring relationships. Unlike group calls, building rapport is easier because participants don’t have to feel like they’re hogging the mic. They can speak to one person rather than many. Additionally, in a one-on-one mentoring relationship the conversations and connections are more meaningful and refreshing. Mentors and mentees build an authentic relationship based on a mutual desire to grow and learn which makes the discussions relevant and engaging for both parties. How do I mentor someone remotely?To mentor someone remotely focuses on the following things in their remote mentoring programs:
Mentoring is based on clear communication and genuine feedback. Keeping these in mind when following the best practices for virtual mentoring will guarantee success for any mentoring relationship. Together: making mentorship easyThe purpose of mentoring is to help mentees tap into the knowledge of those with more experience than themselves and learn faster than they would on their own. It’s also an opportunity to grow their network and connect with leaders rather than only their peers. For mentors, it’s an
opportunity to prove their knowledge and leadership skills. They can validate that they’re a clear communicator and receive the intangible benefits of giving back to more junior employees. We learn best by teaching and being a mentor is an effective way to hold leaders accountable to be role models for the organization. Businesses that organise formal mentoring programs stand to benefit from building a strong culture that’s more connected, more engaged, and filled with employees who want to grow within the organisation rather than leave. Together's platform has won awards for its ease of useTo start a mentoring program with ease consider using Together's mentoring platform. We've won awards for our easy-to-use tools that speed up the pairing process from weeks to minutes. It may be reasonable to say that in the future, companies with effective mentorship programs will be the ones attracting the top talent and generate novel innovations that lead to tremendous success. What reasons are there not to have
a mentoring program within your organisation? Is a process by which an employee can be trained and developed by an experienced person?Mentoring is a process by which an employee can be trained and developed by an experienced person. Normally, mentoring is used as a continuing method to train and develop an employee.
What are the types of training?8.2 Types of Training. Technical or Technology Training. Depending on the type of job, technical training will be required. ... . Quality Training. ... . Skills Training. ... . Soft Skills Training. ... . Professional Training and Legal Training. ... . Team Training. ... . Managerial Training. ... . Safety Training.. What is the difference between job shadowing and job swapping?Job shadowing means new employees accompany experienced colleagues like shadows. They watch them while they work, which helps them learn much quicker. In swapping, employees switch responsibilities and tasks for a fixed period of time. This is the purest form of job rotation.
What is the most common training delivery method for formally training employees?The most common method of training, on-the-job training (OJT) uses more experienced and skilled employees to train less skilled and experienced employees.
What are the types of learning and development?The following is a list of the most common types of learning and development programs:. Orientation. ... . Onboarding. ... . Technical skills development. ... . Soft skills development. ... . Products and services training. ... . Quality training. ... . Safety training. ... . Team training.. When senior managers look for and prepare high potential lower level employees to take over from them in the future this is known as?Succession planning is a focused process for keeping talent in the pipeline. It is generally a 12- to 36-month process of preparation, not pre-selection.
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