Establish a Workplace Mentoring Program That Pays Off - SkillPath

resources

Establish a Workplace Mentoring Program That Pays Off

56%

of organizations have seen an increase in employee engagement levels due to mentorship.

Source: The Brandon Hall Group's Employee Engagement Study 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Mentoring has morphed, and the wise old sage sharing 40 years of career advice is now only part of the picture. Reverse mentoring, peer mentoring, high-potential mentoring, eMentoring, diversity mentoring and a host of other buzzwords are popping up in today's competitive business world. Often noted as an enticing corporate perk and a promising way to encourage continuous learning, 71 percent of Fortune 500 companies and a quarter of small organizations currently offer formal mentoring programs.1 When mentoring programs are carefully constructed, the benefits to prot?g?s, mentors and organizations alike are tremendous. Not only do they help to speed up learning and boost employee engagement and retention, they also reshape workplace culture and promote diversity. However, establishing a quality mentorship program can be challenging. Ineffective mentorships can do more harm than no program at all. How can you create a workplace mentorship program that contributes to learning and engagement--and is also a perk for the participants?

90%

of mentees and mentors said the mentoring program helped them develop a positive relationship with another individual in the company.

Source: River's The ROI of Mentoring eBook, 2018

Establish a Workplace Mentoring Program That Pays Off

02

Take a Closer Look at the Real Benefits of Mentorships

Mentoring is a professional relationship that helps less experienced workers (prot?g?s/mentees) learn by observing, participating in and leading real-world experiences. More knowledgeable workers (mentors) model and describe behaviors and exchange valuable information that is often unavailable through formal training.2 To do this, mentors carefully analyze their habits, routines and the intuitive decisions they make so they're able to explain the reasoning behind these actions and choices.3

Job-specific mentoring has been around for decades as a way to supplement formal training and accelerate skill mastery and careers. However, its resurgence in recent years can be attributed, in part, to an accelerated pace of innovation and change in the business world and a growing concern and competition for talent.

Organizations are attracted by the potential gains attributed to mentorship as they work to create their own programs.

Organizations are formalizing mentorships and aiming these programs at millennial and Gen Z workers who want access to leaders and ongoing career direction.10

Six benefits of mentorships

1. Helps attract and retain talent

Employee turnover is lower in companies with mentoring programs.4 In a business climate where the brightest minds are in high demand and there are a record 6.6 million U.S. job openings, business executives worry about finding and keeping workers.5

To address recruitment and retention concerns, some truly amazing and creative employee perks-- think outdoor basketball courts and on-site libraries with cozy fireplaces--are becoming common in organizations nationwide. Because a lack of professional growth is a common reason for employee turnover, mentoring programs also make that list of perks.6

Many employers focus on retaining millennials, for good reason. By 2025, 75 percent of the workforce will be millennials, and an estimated 91 percent of these workers want to be leaders.7 However, the majority (71 percent) aren't happy with how their leadership skills are currently being developed and say they are likely to leave their current employer in the next two years.8 Further emphasizing this segment's drive for career development, two-thirds say they would take a pay cut to work at a company offering good mentorship opportunities.9

To keep these valued up-and-comers from taking jobs elsewhere, organizations are formalizing mentorships and aiming these programs at millennial and Gen Z workers who want access to leaders and ongoing career direction.10 And it's working. Research shows that millennials who plan to stay with an organization for more than five years are twice as likely to have a mentor (68 percent) than not (32 percent).11

Establish a Workplace Mentoring Program That Pays Off

03

68%

1

2

3

4

5

6

of millennials who plan to stay

with their current employer for

more than five years have a mentor

at work.

Source: Forbes, 2018

2. Improves employee engagement, motivation and satisfaction

Low employee engagement continues to weigh on organizations. Feeling valued is a key component of engagement that mentorship addresses. Studies show that 89 percent of mentees and mentors feel their company values them when they offer a mentoring program.12 The feeling of being valued also shows in employee engagement numbers, with 56 percent of organizations reporting an increase in engagement due to mentorships.13

This engagement boost extends beyond prot?g?s. Mentors also experience greater job satisfaction and a higher commitment to their employers.14

Reverse mentoring programs further extend this benefit by involving younger workers as mentors, tapping them to share their experiences with technology in a reciprocal way with more experienced workers.15

3. Reduces stress and minimizes burnout

About 36 percent of U.S. workers report regular work stress, and 40 percent describe their jobs as "very or extremely stressful." While some jobs are more stressful, certain personality types are vulnerable to their work environment, seeing it as threatening and demanding. They feel powerless to handle challenges on the job. While a mentorship program can't guarantee a stress-free work environment, the presence of a mentor can be effective in offsetting vulnerability to stress and burnout in these susceptible individuals.16

Research shows that prot?g?s experience less emotional and cognitive fatigue and gain a greater sense of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience when guided by more senior mentors.17 Mentoring relationships provide a context for mentors to discuss prot?g?'s concerns, share ideas for managing anxieties and find more meaning in their work.18 With this support, prot?g?s are also less likely to engage in counterproductive behaviors such as absenteeism.16

When guided by more senior mentors, research shows that prot?g?s experience less emotional and cognitive fatigue and gain a greater sense of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience.17

Establish a Workplace Mentoring Program That Pays Off

04

4. Accelerates learning and time to competency

The fast pace of innovation in today's world puts tremendous pressure on organizations to be agile. For that to happen, employees need to get up to speed quickly and keep learning constantly. The only way for organizations to ensure their workforces are fully productive and able to achieve business goals is to make sure employees are continuously learning.19

Formal training serves as the base for this corporate development drive. However, budget constraints, workload demands and a dispersed workforce are driving a trend toward DIY and on-demand learning,20 as well as a resurgence of interest in workplace mentorship programs.21

Mentoring fits the bill by decreasing the time needed to produce quality work. An American Society of Training and Development study showed that while training alone increased manager productivity by 24 percent, and training combined with mentoring support strategies increased productivity by 88 percent.22

5. Facilitates knowledge transfer and leadership development

Every employee has job-specific knowledge, and organizations want to ensure that intellectual capital stays within the company. Mentoring programs promote knowledge sharing and transfer, helping companies minimize the risk of losing a wealth of data and information that hasn't been passed on when workers retire or leave for greener pastures.23

In addition to transferring job-specific knowledge, mentoring also helps prepare young employees to step into leadership positions vacated by experienced workers. Otherwise, with some 10,000 U.S. workers reaching retirement age every day, organizations will be forced to promote promising young workers, whether they're ready or not. Businesses can't afford to take this chance--continuity and employee engagement depends on strong managers and leaders.24

Mentoring programs promote knowledge sharing and transfer, helping companies minimize the risk of losing a wealth of data and information.

Establish a Workplace Mentoring Program That Pays Off

05

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download