According to Forbes, 100% of the US Fortune 50 companies have mentorship programs. This is just one piece of evidence that implementing a mentorship program is beneficial for business. In this article, we’ll discuss why a robust mentorship program is key to creating a sustainable working environment that fosters growth and contributes to a company’s success and profitability.
Key Benefits of a Mentorship Program?
9 out of 10 people who were mentored at work state that they’re happy or satisfied with their job, according to statistics. However, mentors also receive perks. Mentoring a new hire is one of the best ways to hone soft skills needed to up your grade, such as communication, feedback exchange, sharing knowledge, guiding your team members in a certain direction, and more.
Your business also benefits from mentorship programs. They usually have a long-lasting positive impact on your corporate culture, atmosphere and operational activities. Here are a few most prominent advantages of implementing a mentorship program.
- Cut Down Learning Costs and Timing, Make Learning Efficient
In a one-on-one learning and working relationship, mentors can pinpoint areas of improvement faster. Mentorship also creates a more supportive work environment and a safe space to exchange feedback.
After we have implemented a digitized, LMS-based mentorship program at our own company, we were able to deliver tailored learning for all of our frontline positions. It would have taken our learning department months or maybe even years to cover a variety of positions should we have used a traditional approach. The digitized mentorship program made the interaction less time-consuming for the mentors, so they could do it without much distraction from their main working activities.
- Invaluable Leadership Experience and Fresh Perspective
Hiring an executive is much more expensive than nurturing one within your company. Enrolling our employees in a mentorship program as mentors allowed us to create a thriving talent pool within our company, and empowered our employees to advance in their careers. It’s not just mentees who acquire new knowledge and skills, often mentors learn as well. Working in a close bond with a mentee allows a mentor to see familiar processes from a different angle and opens up many opportunities for their improvement.
- Digitizing Valuable Knowledge
People come and go, and when they go, they take their skills, knowledge and experience with them. When you introduce a mentorship program, you can digitize this knowledge and set a framework for future learners.
- Improved Employee Retention
According to multiple pieces of research, employees enrolled in a mentorship program reported that they would be likely to stay in a company longer, and mentioned that they are more satisfied and happy with their job.
Key Steps to Implement a Mentorship Program
We at iSpring implemented our own mentorship program a few years back. Since then, we were able to fine-tune it, gather a lot of feedback, and watch it in action. Now we are ready to share some first-hand experience, key steps and best practices on how to create a successful mentorship program.
- Establish Clear Goals, Measurable Milestones and Outcomes
A good mentorship program starts with a clear understanding of what you want to achieve.
Using an LMS, you can introduce clear milestones for your mentors and mentees. This will make progress tracking much easier. For instance, we have introduced checklists that our mentorship program participants follow to clear out their goals in a very transparent way. You can also use defined KPIs such as mentee satisfaction, trial period pass rate, skill development and longer term retention rates to measure the success of your program.
- Carefully Select Mentors, Provide Training and Support
Being a top-tier expert and being able to impart this knowledge are two skill sets that are very much divorced from each other. That is why all good mentorship programs have to start with a well-designed mentor course. Your mentors will benefit from learning the basics of instructional design, clear guidance on how to give feedback, and tips on providing constructive criticism.
Having a checklist of key mentor qualities and interactions helps you understand whether a person is fit for the role of mentor or not. It is worth your while to document a list of mentor activities and responsibilities so that a prospect mentor can measure their abilities and time against it.
- Develop a Structured Program
Traditionally, a lot depends on the personality of the mentor, but mentors are as different as people are. To make this dependency less prominent, it’s best to provide well-structured support material that both mentors and mentees can rely on. However, it shouldn’t be just the material, you need to document defined roles, responsibilities, and expectations, and make everyone involved familiar with this information.
- Automate Administrative Tasks
It is in your power to significantly ease the process for both mentors and mentees by removing a lot of bureaucracy stuff from the picture. Things like schedules, reminders, follow ups, feedback collection, statistics and analysis of participants engagement and performance can all be automated using an LMS.
- Promote Values of Learning, Mutual Aid and Knowledge Sharing
Mentorship should never be a burden. That is why it’s vital to provide all the support to the mentors, but it is also important to make them see what they are gaining. It’s good to reward successful mentorship, but our practice shows it doesn’t have to be necessary.
In our company, being a mentor is actually a privilege. Mentors have better chances to advance their careers, but they also learn something new. They are shown that they can contribute to their own development as well as to the growth of iSpring in a way that really counts. You will know that your mentorship program works efficiently when there is no lack of employees willing to try themselves out as mentors.
Key Takeaways
Implementing an effective mentorship program is an experience that can profoundly transform onboarding and learning. It yields extensive benefits on many levels, from personal gains for mentees and mentors, to revolutionizing knowledge exchange and information development in your company.
It fosters a sustainable working environment, enhances employee retention, and promotes a culture of continuous learning and mutual aid. It also has a very clear financial impact on your business.
According to Forbes, companies that have introduced mentoring programs had profits 18% better than average. At the same time, those without mentoring programs had profits that were 45% worse than the average.
