Why Your Business Should Have a Mentoring Program in Place

Workplace mentoring is far more than having someone show the new hire around and introduce them to their coworkers. Nor is mentoring limited to new hires. There are a number of benefits for everyone involved when you arrange mentors for employees at all levels of your organization. Let’s look at a few reasons why your business should have a mentoring program in place.

Better Onboarding

Mentoring is generally associated with new hires because it is so beneficial to them. It helps them get up to speed much sooner, allowing them to become as productive as you want them to be as soon as possible. But you can also mentor existing employees when they transfer between departments or move up in the organization, helping them to become effective rather quickly in their new role. When you have a formal process for training new hires, your organization will see the quality of their work go up since they’re taught the right way in the first place.

If you don’t already have a mentoring program in place, you should consider working with a mentor corporation such as Menttium. These companies can help you set up your own in house or cross company mentoring program that will allow your employees to access resources both in and outside of your company. They can also provide advice on how to avoid common pitfalls as well.

Improved Morale

Employee morale and satisfaction is higher in companies that provide mentors. Individuals who participate in mentoring programs have even better job satisfaction, which eventually reduces employee turnover. Using mentoring to grow existing employees into middle management material boosts their morale too, since they feel like the organization values its people and that they have a future with the firm.

Those who are mentored are far more likely to stay longer within your organization as well. Using mentoring to cultivate future managers and executives encourages everyone to participate in succession planning and career growth. Another side benefit of mentoring is that it gives employees an avenue for finding resources, answers and support they may not get from their direct manager. This reduces their frustration, a common reason cited when someone quits.

Greater Productivity

Mentoring has already been said to make new hires more productivity. When you ask senior members of a department to mentor the younger ones, whether or not they’re new hires, you’ll also see productivity benefits. Your younger employees won’t have to rediscover solutions the experienced staffers already know. They won’t waste time hunting for solutions when there’s already a proven one known to other team members. Mentoring facilitates knowledge transfer that makes everyone as productive as possible.

Sometimes it is necessary to iterate the benefits of mentoring to those who would be the mentors. By asking them to formally mentor someone so that they learn these skills, they’ll be better able to delegate that work so they can focus on their unique area of expertise. It reduces the risk that your organization loses key skills if someone quits or retires.

Mentoring programs are a cost-effective way to improve morale, engagement and productivity and can lead to greater innovation and quality. The question now isn’t why you need to set up a mentoring program, but when and how you’ll implement it.