The importance of mentoring. And seven surefire ways to make it work for you

Since the Great Resignation, employees globally have been increasingly reevaluating their work and seeking to change jobs. Many of them cite the following reasons for taking the plunge:

• Long-running job dissatisfaction

• Burnout

• The goal toward a better or more supportive work culture and conditions

For the modern employee, being productive at work is no longer enough. Their commitment is directly related to how valuable a company makes them feel. They understand that a job is a means to an end, which is why they consider their mental and emotional health alongside their professional responsibilities. It is a movement towards self-care and work-life balance. Because of these new boxes to tick, how can you, as the hirer, inspire your workers to stay?

The answer is employee development. You must emphasise the importance of mentoring. 

Organisations are discovering that if they don’t invest enough in employee development, they risk job dissatisfaction, turnover rates, and a diminished commitment to the job and company. The Harvard Business Review states that mentoring is an effective way to address growth in your team members. It adds that more than 70 per cent of Fortune 500 companies offer some form of mentoring to their employees. HBR even goes as far as to recommend that mentoring programmes should be mandatory. 

Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln define mentoring as a developmental process, a relationship between a person with experience (mentor) and another with less experience (mentee). The focus is on the growth of the latter. The process involves knowledge-sharing and conversations around topics that help or hinder the mentee’s career development. 

In the HR.com report "The State of Coaching and Mentoring 2021," more than 50 per cent of the HR professionals surveyed stated that their organisation will consider mentoring over the next two years to combat feelings of isolation, burnout, and stagnation among employees.

Because mentoring provides emotional and career support, it has the potential to contribute immensely to job satisfaction and retention. Mentoring also aids in developing a leadership pipeline because mentees receive a guide to succeed. Best of all, mentoring is attractive to organisations because it uses available resources – the more senior people in the company.

If successful, mentees stand to gain a lot. A 2020 study involving 54 mentors and 54 mentees conducted by the East Carolina University Department of Psychology enumerates the following benefits:

• An increased sense of affiliation to the organisation

• Deeper contentment with the job role

• More favourable attitudes toward the organisation

• Mitigation of work-related stress

• Alleviation of physical and psychological strain

• Enhanced belief in one’s ability to succeed, and a

• Decreased inclination to resign

Moreover, the research reveals that mentored new hires adjust smoother to the organisation, resulting in better productivity. Meanwhile, second- or middle-tiered employees who receive mentoring find their growth goals addressed.

Mentoring can help workers navigate office politics and decode team norms. Apart from more obvious goals like knowing how to do a task faster, it can also help mentees develop their career ambitions.

The benefits of mentoring are reciprocal. Mentors also report positive outcomes such as better managerial and leadership skills and improved mental health. Additionally, Michael Gill and Thomas Roulet's research report that mentoring gives mentors:

• Lower levels of anxiety about work

• Enhanced meaningfulness of their work, including day-to-day tasks, and

• Therapeutic benefits

A Center for Creative Leadership study found that those who mentor in the workplace are perceived to be more effective, have a tighter commitment to their work, enjoy a greater sense of well-being, and expand their network. CCL also believes that “great leaders need to be mentored, and great leaders need to mentor.”

Pair mentees with mentors and request them to meet regularly – at least once a month, within or outside the workplace. This arrangement allows mentees a venue to seek guidance and ask questions that they may have been too insecure to ask their immediate supervisors.  

Mentors help the mentees by challenging their negative self-views and providing coaching, positive feedback, and support. Mentors share their personal experiences – both challenges and successes – thus inspiring the less experienced employee. Additionally, mentors serve as role models on how to manage work stress. 

So far, you've learned about the typical mentor-mentee relationship in the workplace. However, there are variations. For example, mentoring programmes can be formal or informal. A company officially instigates formal mentorship. Meanwhile, the latter happens organically, with mentees and mentors agreeing to the relationship and defining goals and the frequency of interaction on their own. 

Mentoring programs can also vary in terms of structure. It can take place as one-on-one interactions or with one or two mentors handling a group. Peer mentoring can also be another setup you can try. It's when a colleague with more experience shows a new hire the ropes.

The mentorship process can also vary. Reverse mentoring happens when a less experienced or younger employee mentors someone with more experience and tenure. On the other hand, speed mentoring is when mentees move briskly through a lineup of mentors to ask questions and receive brief answers. It's kind of like speed dating. 

Mentors and mentees can interact remotely via email, phone, an online video platform, or in person. 

Here are eight steps to get your mentoring program started:

1. Set your goals. Determine what you want the mentoring to accomplish. Setting goals early helps the mentor and mentee work towards a target. It also allows the participants to measure the progress of the programme. Do you want it for new hires or for employee growth?

2. Provide structure. Decide on the mentoring type that works best with your company and goals. It usually depends on your organisational makeup. For example, if there are not enough mentors, you may put mentees into groups. Also, consider the workplace culture. If the organisation is performance-driven, a mentor may hesitate to teach the less experienced employee for fear that it will allow the mentee to outperform them. 

3. Pair mentors and mentees. Some companies send out questionnaires to both mentees and mentors so you can match them according to their needs and expertise. Bigger organisations also use specialised software for a more impartial pairing. 

Initiate participants on the benefits and importance of mentoring. You must also recognise the active participation of mentors. It can be highly motivating and may attract other employees to volunteer.

4. Set a timeline. Determine how long your mentoring programme will run. It can be as short as three to six months for onboarding new hires, or nine months to a year for career development programs. 

5. Schedule mentoring sessions. Consistent meetings make it more likely that the groups will follow through. Track progress with regular check-ins but allow the mentoring groups some flexibility to work around their schedules.

6. Set guidelines. Any employee development program benefits from setting guidelines. Can schedules be moved? How should the participants communicate with each other? Is it possible to meet outside of the office? How do the groups report their progress and how will feedback be given? Guidelines keep participants on track and working smoothly.

7. Provide a journaling or feedback process Reflection is crucial throughout the mentoring process. For this, a journal would be good for tracking reflections and insights. Just make sure that the mentoring space remains safe for all participants, meaning their work performance evaluation will not be affected by the mentoring journals.

8. Make it easy to back out of a mentor-mentee relationship. Sometimes, the best-intentioned pairings just don’t work out. Priya Priyadarshini of Microsoft believes that mentoring is personal and fluid. So if either party feels that it would be best to end the relationship, the programme should allow them to do so without any fuss. Besides, mentoring needs to change throughout an employee’s career and an employee may require different mentors at different times. 

Here’s a bonus tip: Don’t fret if a mentored employee decides to move to a different company. Worrying about this will cripple your plans from the start. Instead, remember that if the mentored employee does transfer companies, later on, you would have expanded your network, too.

Now that you understand the importance of mentoring, establishing a programme in your organisation is a great way to provide employee development for those who are newly hired or need to grow, and those who have knowledge and experience to share. For more solutions like this, visit our Employer Insights page. If you have not signed up yet, register now on JobStreet to find the most suitable jobseekers for your company.