When you want employees to stay with your company for the long haul, you need to provide career advancement. One effective way to do that is through mentoring. With a mentoring program in place, you can create a positive outcome for employees, as well as leaders and your company overall. For instance, a robust mentoring program offers benefits, such as:
- Higher retention
- Boosted morale
- More informed leadership teams
- Enhanced customer service
- Knowledge transfer when a senior employee retires
- Onboarding for new hires that is more effective
But where do you begin? Here are some steps to help you set up a successful mentoring program and leverage its many advantages:
Choose the Right Leaders
Just because a particular employee is in a senior position, doesn’t mean they’d be a good mentor. It’s essential that they have the time, patience, and right personality to truly take another employee under their wing and guide them toward a more successful career. So don’t go about haphazardly choosing senior staff members to be mentors.
Also, consider that a good mentor might not be a company leader at all. They could be a top performer in a specific department who can impart critical knowledge, skills, and guidance to another employee.
Match them with the Right Employees
Another consideration is the personality and needs of the employee in terms of mentoring. One critical aspect of a powerful mentoring program is chemistry. If there isn’t any between the mentor and the mentee, or if it’s negative in any way, then the arrangement isn’t going to work. It’s essential to, therefore, truly make strategic, well-thought-out connections between those you pair in a mentoring program.
Set Goals and a Timeline
For the relationship to work, there need to be some parameters. For instance, what is the mentee looking to get out of the mentoring arrangement? Do they want to grow in a certain area career-wise, make a lateral transition into a different department, or work toward a promotion? It’s critical to define the goals that you are all trying to achieve and then set a timeline and checkpoints to monitor progress.
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