Start a Mentoring Program
Why Start a Mentoring Program in Your Organization?
There are many benefits of creating a mentoring program in your organization. In her book, Mentoring for Success, author Elizabeth Weinstein, PhD, lists several advantages for introducing mentor-mentee relationships into the workplace:
Healthy Work Environment
- Helps support the organizational mission.
- Encourages creative ideas to flourish.
- Enhances cooperation and establishes a foundation for effective teamwork.
- Improves communication between different levels in the organization.
- Helps employees adapt to the changing workplace by sharing information, concerns and possible strategies for addressing issues.
- Makes a statement about the organization's values.
Leadership Development
- Develops future leaders, resulting in effective succession planning.
- Creates an opportunity to promote and retain employees with leadership potential, especially women and minorities.
- Enables future organizational leaders to develop and practice skills.
- Motivates mentees to work towards being effective leaders.
Cost Effective
- Results in increased productivity because of the improvement in employee skills and motivation.
- Reduces organizational turnover. Mentees receive individual attention and plan for their careers in the company.
- Requires minimal time commitment.
- Makes hiring of new employees more cost effective if young people can be mentored in intern positions and gain the appropriate training before becoming an employee.
- Requires a low financial investment.
- Uses talent that might not have surfaced otherwise.
Diversity
- Advances capable individuals, particularly minorities and women.
- Helps organizations to meet diversity goals.
- Assists in retaining the "balance" of the organization. Mentees bring a variety of experiences and backgrounds that enrich the organization.
Training
- Enables new hires to be easily assimilated into the organization.
- Reduces the need for scheduled skill development training opportunities.
- Provides on-the-job training.
- Encourages employees to be active and life-long learner.
In addition, there are also benefits for individual mentors and mentees:
Mentor Benefits
- Develops skills in coaching, relationship-building, consulting and teaching.
- Helps to rejuvenate the long-time employee.
- Assists in decision making by seeking the mentee's perspective and input.
- Validates the skills and experiences gained, which provides a sense of achievement.
- Creates a feeling of knowing that the mentee is learning and growing.
Mentee Benefits
- Allows the opportunity to try out new ideas using the mentor as a sounding board.
- Provides career development planning.
- Absorbs the new hire into the organization.
- Help to identify skill development needs and seeks alternatives for meeting those needs.
- Learns about the organizational culture (policies, procedures, systems and relationships).
Source: AMI's Self-Study Book Mentoring for Success