Management Development

Mentoring for New Hires (On-Boarding): Part 1

There are seven types of formal mentoring programs. Mentor Resources is one of the leading providers of software for managing mentoring program


There are seven types of formal mentoring programs. 

Mentor Resources is one of the leading providers of software for managing mentoring programs with a few dozen pairs to thousands of particpants.  Our software can be tailored to nearly all of these.  Most of our customers run several mentoring programs with different objectives and participants, and our software has considerable flexibility to help you reach your mentoring goals.

By way of review, the seven types of mentoring programs we see with our clients are:

  • Mentoring for Succession Planning
  • Mentoring for Communities of Practice  
  • Reverse Mentoring
  • Mentoring for Career Development
  • Mentoring within Employee Resource Groups
  • Mentoring for Skills Transfer
  • Mentoring for On-boarding

On-boarding or Mentoring for New Hires may be the single most effective way to integrate new employees into an existing corporate culture.  A new employee is assigned a Mentor who is a peer.  The Mentor is there to explain the unwritten rules of the workplace and to shorten the learning curve of the new employee.

Every article and book about Millennials, the demographic group now in their 20’s, points out that these employees expect and seek a significant amount of feedback about their performance. Many managers (read this as “most Baby Boomers”) find this expectation draining.  This results in both the supervisor and the new employee frustrated and dissatisfied with the work environment. 

One effective solution is to pair the new employee with another, more experienced, Millennial as a Mentor.  Note, this experienced colleague is not the supervisor of the new employee, but someone who can give realistic feedback and temper the Millennial’s expectations to the organization’s norms. 

As a broad generality, Millennials view work as a central part of their life, not a separate activity that needs to be “balanced” against.   Therefore, finding work that’s personally fulfilling and socially connected is of paramount importance.

For these employees, mentoring can be a meaningful recruiting tool. Millennials assume work is a place to make new friends, learn new skills and connect to a larger purpose.  If an employer can offer the Millennial a clear path towards this, through a peer-mentor, the employer will be offering a compelling Employee Value Proposition. 

In plain English, your firm can get a better pool of candidates with peer-mentoring as part of the employment package and simulaniously take some of the burden off the line managers at the same time. Mentoring is one of the high priority factors Millennial strivers seek in an employer. 

Click here for a recent article from the Harvard Business Review on Millennials and mentoring.  Contact us directly for more information.

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