It doesn’t matter if you are building automobiles or developing software, if your employees are not engaged the competition will pass you by. Employee engagement does not happen with a strategic plan. Employees need care, attention and career growth which results in boosted retention rates and improved productivity.
Without a proven vehicle to engage employees, your workforce will stagger and eventually drift out of the company to greener pastures.
Actively working on employee development creates several benefits.
Stay competitive and relevant. Companies that engage employees not only seem more exciting to customers but also employees. When most of your workforce is engaged and feels part of the company culture this attracts talent. Talented employees aren’t solely hunting for a paycheck, they also want to be part of something special they can engage with.
Cure a skill shortage. In many industries, there are a lack of certain skill sets within the workforce. Many employers are dealing with skill shortages in terms of accounting, law, software, HR, etc. Investing in mentoring programs or employee development multiplies skills across a workforce.
Boost retention rates using employee development programs. Employees who are engaged, mentored and developed stick around. Talented people can’t always be bought. Monetary compensation simply isn’t enough to keep talented employees performing at high levels. They need to be constantly growing their skillset to keep their interest up otherwise their performance slips and they might look for more interesting work elsewhere.
Employee Development Through Mentoring
Workplace mentoring is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to employee development. Veteran, seasoned employees (usually executives) are matched with newer and younger employees in a mentoring relationship. These mentoring relationships develop employees rapidly, teaches them new skills and gives them access to mentors who inject them with years of knowledge in a short time frame.
In order to be successful mentoring programs need the following ingredients:
- A strong matching process. Matching mentors with mentees is the most important part of a mentoring program. Using powerful software and surveys, a thorough matching process can set up mentors and mentees for success before the program even begins.
- Goals need to be set. Mentoring relationships don’t run on auto-pilot. They need a road map and the best way to guide one is to have goals set at the start.
- Set aims and targets against time. Participants need to understand the commitments that come with a mentoring program. Without consistent meetings and targets mentoring programs will halt.
Using mentoring as an employee development tool enables companies to boost productivity, increase employee engagement and reduce turnover rates. Employee development can have a massive and direct impact on business growth.
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.