Why and How to Build a Mentoring Program
Posted May 14th, 2015
Every employer hopes that his employees will take professional development seriously. But the companies that actually accomplish that goal are the ones that take a proactive approach. Simply encouraging people to pick up new skills is not enough. Successful employers encourage, facilitate, and incentivize it. And many rely on a mentoring program to achieve it. Read on to learn why mentoring programs work so well, and how easy it is to set up one of your own.
Why Build a Mentoring Program?
Mentoring programs don’t just offer one benefit, they offer myriad benefits in all settings, especially IT:
- Recruitment and Onboarding – Offering a mentoring program helps attract a higher caliber of talent, and introduces them to the culture of your company faster.
- Talent Development – Mentoring programs help you turn everyone in your organization into the best professional they can be.
- Support Top Talent – Separate mentoring programs dedicated to your top performers can help keep this talent motivated, engaged, and supported.
- Retention – Employees who feel supported and acknowledged stay with their companies for longer.
- Productivity – Mentoring is a form of ongoing, long-term professional development which helps keep employees productive without needing lengthy retraining.
- Knowledge Sharing – With another big wave of baby boomer retirement, a wealth of knowledge will walk out the door. Mentoring is an effective way to distribute that knowledge in advance.
How to Build a Mentoring Program
The good news is that a mentoring program does not have to be an expensive proposition, and you can set up one that works in relatively little time. Follow these steps:
- Identify why you want to start your mentoring program, and what goals for success look like.
- Recruit mentors, attract participants, and make sure both parties have any necessary training.
- Connect the right mentors with the right mentees in the right setting.
- Provide resources and support to keep productive mentor/mentee relationships on track.
- Measure the impact of your mentoring program and make any necessary revisions.
Remember, too, that most of the heavy lifting required by a mentoring program takes place between the mentor and mentee. Once your program is up and running, it largely guides itself with a minimal amount of input from managers. And like all the best programs, the outputs far outweigh the inputs. If you are interested in learning more about improving your recruitment and retentions strategies while optimizing your workforce, contact the team at Bayside Solutions.
