Communication, clarity and commitment are the 3 C's of effective mentoring. Clarity in terms of program intent, communication between participants, and commitment to achieving development objectives through the program are the factors that make the program truly successful. Today there are almost 8 billion people in the world, of whom about 3.4 billion are employed. Even with so many people adding their skills and talents to the world, most likely want or need professional development and career advancement.
Fortunately, your organization is not tasked with improving the skills of the 3.32 billion employed workers. However, you can help your staff and your organization achieve their respective objectives and improve employee retention by creating and expanding workplace mentoring programs. The type of mentoring programs you create and develop in your organization is limited only to the needs of your workforce and to your creativity and imagination. A LinkedIn study found that 94% of workers would stay longer in an organization if it invested in their learning and professional growth.
Mentoring programs can help you attract, retain and engage your talent. This directly translates into cost savings for your company in the form of lower billing costs. Rotation is expensive and costs organizations up to twice the cost of an employee's salary, according to Gallup. Meanwhile, companies that set up mentoring programs for their organizations realize enormous savings, especially when they use a software-based approach.
Mentoring program participants say they have improved their skills (91%), their productivity (88%) and their desire to stay in their organization (83%). The satisfaction that mentors and mentors have with their mentoring relationships is also a blessing. To that end, there are several different types of mentoring programs that might work well for your organization. For mentoring connections, you must understand mentoring behavior to identify obstacles and opportunities.
A mentoring program that is well planned and directed can have a tremendous impact on the lives of many people. For example, in a DEI mentoring program, you might want to compare the promotion rates of program participants with those of non-participants. The decision to implement a mentoring program is a great strategy for improving employee metrics, such as retention. By establishing checkpoints and a structure, a formal mentoring program allows mentors and mentors to have a relationship that is productive and beneficial to all involved.
One of the best practices in successful mentoring programs is to ensure that all mentoring programs have goals and action plans. Mentoring programs or associations connect people who have specific skills and knowledge (mentors) with people (protected) who need or want the same skills and advantages to advance in work, skill level, or school performance. Reflection questions will help you decide if you want to start a mentoring program, and an overview of the rest of the sections in the chapter is provided. In addition, with a formal program, more mentoring relationships can thrive, especially with people (employees and students) who are traditionally underserved by informal mentoring in nature.
Business mentoring and corporate mentoring programs are growing at a rapid pace, and 84 percent of Fortune 500 companies now offer mentoring programs and innovate their approach. This introductory section provides a general discussion of the raison d'être of such programs and describes the benefits they offer. The Chronus mentoring software makes it easy to guide or facilitate program connections, allowing participants to be highly productive.
