Doing business today requires having low-cost, yet high-quality, solutions. Starting a mentoring program in your business allows you to capitalize on your greatest resource, your employees. Mentoring programs are a cost-efficient way to get employees engaged and empowered.
What are the benefits to the mentor? Being involved in mentoring provides some tangible benefits that can reward mentors professionally. Some key benefits to mentors include:
- Encourages the mentor to share knowledge, which helps increase the mentor’s sense of self-worth
- Strengthens the mentor’s interpersonal relationship skills and develops professional relationships
- Helps re-energize the mentor’s career
- Leads to more personal satisfaction and enhances job satisfaction.
- Opportunity to reflect on their own goals and practices
- Fosters leadership skills in mentors
What are the benefits to the mentee?
Being mentored is one of the most valuable and effective development opportunities you can offer employees. Some key benefits to the mentee include:
- The opportunity to develop new skills and knowledge
- Increases the mentee’s self-confidence
- Improves the mentee’s interpersonal relationship skills
- Assists with problem solving
- Advice on developing strengths and overcoming weaknesses
- Guidance on professional development and advancement
What are the benefits to the company?
For employers, investing in business mentoring is a useful and cost-effective way to develop your emerging talent and keep your most knowledgeable and experienced performers engaged and energised. Some key benefits to the company include:
- Fosters more loyal employees/members – this can lead to reduction in turnover rates (which saves money on recruitment and training costs)
- Creates a more positive work environment
- Improve staff morale, performance and motivation – and improves productivity
- Develop a culture of personal and professional growth
- Promotes a sense of cooperation and harmony within the organization
Mentoring can be a WIN/WIN/WIN (for the company, the mentor and the mentee) but it must be embedded formally into the culture of the company.
More and more companies are seeing the benefits of structured internal mentorship programs. In fact, 96% of Fortune 500 companies have implemented some form of mentoring in the workplace as part of their overall talent and organizational development strategy.
Mentoring may be a need to have and not a nice to have.