How can Mentoring benefit your Organisation?
Being mentored is one of the most valuable and effective development opportunities you can offer employees. Mentoring is primarily about developing capability and potential in the role rather than performance and skills and is distinct from training and coaching.
Where training can provide development in skills and performance, mentoring provides the support to reinforce and apply the skills and performance for the long-term and takes time and commitment from everyone involved.
Mentoring not only helps individuals but is has a ripple effect, it creates a positive company culture and increases productivity for your organisation. If you do not have a mentor program, it is probably time to start.
I have been mentoring for nearly 15 years and help organisations set up successful mentoring programmes and have seen first-hand the benefits that mentoring brings, if done right!
What are the benefits of Mentoring?
Companies that introduce mentoring programmes demonstrate tangible increases in productivity and efficiency as well as intangible benefits such as improved staff morale, greater career satisfaction. Another benefit is that mentoring can work in most organisations regardless of size, culture or sector.
According to a Forbes survey:
- 67% of businesses reported an increase in productivity due to mentoring
- Mentoring programs boosted minority representation at the management level from 9% to 24%
- 87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring relationships and have developed greater confidence
- 55% of businesses felt that mentoring had a positive impact on their profits
- 94% of employees said they would stay at a company longer if they were offered opportunities to learn and grow.
In Everyone needs a Mentor (2014), Clutterbuck describes how mentoring works and the business benefits of the approach.
Benefits of Mentoring to the organisation are:
Significant impact upon recruitment and retention (one study found that the loss of young graduates in the first expensive post training year was cut by two thirds).
Most staff turnover occurs during the first 6-12 months of starting in a job and a major cause is the inability to adjust to the new employer quickly enough. New recruits that are given a mentor are more likely to find their feet quicker and be more productive sooner and more likely to stay with the company longer.
Mentoring also cultivates an increased sense of commitment and loyalty to the organisation. By offering a mentoring programme, organisations become more attractive to potential recruits, especially graduates.
Increased productivity through better engagement and job satisfaction
Mentees who have a mentor that takes an active interest in their career and their progression in the organisation, are less likely to be frustrated if their progression is stalled at any time.
Mentoring can also delay the ‘plateauing’ in middle and senior managers, managers are less likely to become complacent and ‘retire mentally’ if they are faced with fresh challenges arriving from a mentoring relationship. This is particularly true of managers who become mentors, it is like they have a new lease of life!
Leadership Development
It is common for mentoring to be provided as part of a Leadership development programme, it is something I offer as part of a wider leadership training initiative. Mentoring in this context supports learning and the application of the learning back in the workplace. It is really useful for emerging leaders or ‘accidental managers’ who may lack confidence and experience, to be supported on an on-going basis. To have an objective sounding-board to discuss issues and gain advice and guidance in a safe and confidential way.
Effective succession planning
Mentoring can be used to identify those with potential, where the talent lies within the organisation and how that talent and potential can be nurtured for future roles, especially in leadership.
Existing leaders are a valuable resource in an organisation and by encouraging them to become mentors, they can not only pass along their experience and knowledge, but also help to create a sense of continuity for employees throughout the organisation. There is a sense of familiarity with the potential candidates and a feeling of trust that they have been well-prepared for the role.
Improved communication and collaboration
Mentoring can breakdown the tribal nature of organisational culture, that mentees are expected to straddle across different groups or tribes and become familiar with the languages and behaviours of these different groups. The mentees can effectively communicate with different groups and build networks across the organisation. This not only helps with their career progression but also improves collaboration between teams, exchanging of information, improving productivity and efficiency and the ability to adapt to change more quickly.
Improved retention
Keeping good people is increasingly being regarded as a core competitive advantage. Millennial workers intending to stay with their organisation for more than five years, are more than twice as likely to have a mentor.
The Harvard Business Review says that there are three persisting reasons why individuals exit organisations:
- Lack of career development opportunities
- Current leadership or management
- Better job opportunities
Mentoring can directly address the first two reasons, and indirectly influence perceptions of the third.
Opening up access to disadvantaged groups
In a recent study (Forbes), mentoring programs boosted minority representation at the management level from 9% to 24%. The same study also found that mentoring programs also dramatically improved promotion and retention rates for people of colour and women—15% to 35% as compared to non-mentored employees.
By having a mentoring program in place, an organisation can offer its workforce initiatives that will broaden its understanding and encourage collaboration and create an environment where equal opportunities become part of the accepted culture of the organisation.
Next Steps…
If you would like to explore mentoring in your organisation and how it can work for you and your staff, then please get in touch. Together we can identify what you want to achieve from a mentoring programme and how to go about achieving it.
I have put together an e-guide on Introducing a Mentoring Programme in your organisation, if you would like a copy, you can download it here: download our Introduction to Mentoring Programme.
For more information email me at enquiries@fptrainingltd.co.uk or call me on: (+44) 01332 527144
