3 Ways Mentoring Can Change Your Business

Formal mentoring programs are on the rise. 71% of companies in the Forbes 500 offer mentoring programs to promote employee development, create company culture, push diversity and inclusion and to develop future leaders.

Mentoring programs are often tailored to a specific company's needs. Employees company to company may be running into different barriers so they need different programs. For example, retention rates may be plummeting and a mentoring program could be designed to increase company loyalty and connection while another company may want to start developing future leaders through mentoring.

Here are 3 types of mentoring programs and how they can boost any business.

One - Reverse Mentoring

Reverse mentoring is a contemporary take on traditional mentoring. Reverse mentoring pairs older, veteran employees with younger newcomers. The younger newcomer mentors the veteran on new information, social media, technical skills, workplace trends and innovative new age techniques that the older employee mau never have been exposed to.

This type of mentoring breaks down silos and stiff corporate structures that too often have invisible barriers between juniors employees and top flight management. Reverse mentoring forces cross-generation interaction and builds company culture. Usually when reverse mentoring is done right the learning is a two way street as veterans will also inevitably pass on years of hard one knowledge to their younger mentors.

Another added benefit to this type of mentoring is that younger employees dain exposure to management and parts of the company they wouldn’t ordinarily see. It is an excellent way to promote employee engagement and build connections.

Two - Career Mentoring

This is one of the most common types of mentoring in today’s workplace. This is traditional mentoring brought to the modern world. Veteran employees are paired up with newcomers and mentor them on their career paths. These relationships often last up to a year or longer and have massive benefits to employees and the company overall.

With career mentoring, employees are allowed to get into the driver seat and take full ownership of their careers. It can’t be overstated how positive an effect this can have on a company. When employees are given the opportunity to participate in such a program, they feel cared for and they know that someone in management is looking out for them. This really boosts retention rates while simultaneously making your employees more productive and engaged.

Too often, employees can feel stagnant in their roles. Doing humdrum work from the eyes of the employee doesn’t produce high morale. They can feel worthless or stuck in the rat wheel even if the company considers their work valuable. Eventually, they will leave or look for other opportunities that are more fulfilling. Career mentoring solves all that. It opens the door to new adventures and allows employees to interact with the company in brand new ways bringing new purpose and meaning to their day-to-day activities.

Three - High Potential Mentoring

Finding good employees is not easy. But, when a company has them, they need to do everything in their power to retain and develop them.

Most high potential employees know they are high potential. They are educated, confident in their skills and they are aware of their value in the marketplace. These types of people also tend to go where they feel they will grow the most as they have many opportunities available based on their skillset. This can make it difficult to train and retain them.

Mentoring programs can take this issue into account. A company can isolate it’s high potential employees and future leaders and then get ahead of the curve by pairing them up with top management executives. Granting high potential employees this importance early on can make them feel special, cared for while also retaining them while concurrently grooming them for future roles.

Conclusion

These are just three ways mentoring can help improve a company’s culture, engagement and retention. There are dozens of approaches and tailored programs to fit the needs of any company. The key to making it all work smoothly and maximizing results is taking advantage of formal mentoring programs and utilizing powerful software so the entire process can be supervised. Trying the handle dozens or hundreds of mentorship relationships through email and excel spreadsheets will give even the most organized person a headache. 

Mentoring is a powerful tool that can take your business to the next level.

Mentor Resources can help any company to leverage technology to create tailored career development programs that are cost-effective. Our mentoring software - Wisdom Share is a cloud-based program that is simple and comes with guided workflows. Included are tools for administrators to attract, enroll, connect, and guide participants. We also provide analytics to ensure you can monitor your employee development program and easily see ROI metrics. 

Reach out to us today for a Free Demonstration of our software.