Workplace Mentoring Program

How to Start a Workplace Mentorship Program

The skills gap in the U.S. is getting worse.

Employers are very worried about the skills shortage, which is caused by a lack of tech training to keep up with the growth of AI (artificial intelligence), retiring Baby Boomers, and a lack of soft-skills training in students.

57% of organizations plan to use mentoring and coaching and 56% plan to do reskilling training in the next twelve months to close the gap.

If your business has a skills gap, you might be wondering how mentoring could help.

Could a small business use it?

In this article, we'll talk about what a mentorship program is, how it can help your business grow, and the seven steps you need to take to be successful.

Do you want to learn more about HCM solutions? Talk to us.

What is a Program for Mentoring?

Mentorship programs help new hires or employees at the bottom of the career ladder find more experienced mentors who can teach them skills and knowledge that will help them move up the career ladder.

If the mentorship program is set up right, it can help employees grow in their careers, but only if the mentors and mentees are a good fit.

These are important traits for a mentor to have:

Listening with an open mind.

able to figure out what's going on with the mentee.

Able to provide constructive solutions.

It's important for mentees to:

Have a positive attitude.

Have an eagerness to learn.

Show your commitment.

Get ready to take on a bigger job.

Mentoring comes in different forms:

One-on-one: focused on building relationships and skills for each person

Situational: Made for building a specific skill

Long-term mentoring to help people reach their career goals

Group-based: people learn together in small groups

Peer-based means that people learn from each other, sometimes without the help of a mentor.

In reverse mentoring, employees with less experience can teach those with more experience a certain skill.

Two great examples of mentorship programs are EY's "reverse mentoring" program, which lets senior leaders learn about the roles and experiences of their employees, and GE's "diversity-focused" program, which aims to empower women.

Why is it important for a company to have a mentoring program?

Mentorship programs are a good way to help employees grow and learn. When a program works well, it has an effect on the whole organization and helps both the mentees and the mentors.

If you want to make your workplace more welcoming, a mentorship program could help. 41% of women say that having a mentor would make them more likely to stay.

But your organization gets even more out of this.

A mentoring program is good for your business because:

Fill in the gaps in skills. Knowledge transfer helps employees learn new skills. And reverse mentoring helps older workers learn from Gen Z workers about technology.

Increase staff retention. Since 41% of workers quit their last job because they couldn't move up in their careers, mentorships will make staff less likely to leave.

Foster leaders. Through mentoring, mentors will learn how to be better leaders, and mentees will learn how to be better team players. Both of these things will help your company grow.

Attracts talent: If your mentorship program works well, you'll be able to find talented people who want to learn and help your business grow.

Improve engagement. A good mentorship program will make workers feel like they are valued, which will make them more engaged.

Help people feel like they belong. Starting a new job can make people feel alone. A mentorship program will make them feel cared for and help them feel like they belong to a group.

Mentoring will show employees that the company cares about their professional growth and will make them more productive. More confidence and better skills will lead to more work getting done.

How to Start a Work Mentorship Program

Setting up a mentorship program might seem hard, but if you follow the steps below, you'll be ready to succeed.

1: Figure out why you want to do something.

Think about why your company needs a mentoring program.

Have you got a:

Skills gap

Retention problem

Hard time getting good people to work for them

Lack of diversity among those in charge?

Once you know your reason(s), figure out why your staff would want to be a mentor or a mentee in the mentorship program.

Your program will last longer if you use a company-wide survey to find out what your people and company need.

Set goals and measurements.

Use what you've learned to set goals and figure out the ROI (ROI). Also, set goals and measures for the employees who will be taking part in the program.

Measure:

Engagement metrics

The goals of a business

Personal progression metrics

Setting benchmarks will make it much easier to figure out how well the program is working.

3: Make the program.

If you haven't chosen a leader for the program yet, do it now. Give this person on your staff the job of running the program, designing it, and promoting it.

Based on what you learned from your research, the program outline should answer these questions:

What sort of plan do you have in mind?

How long is it going to last?

How do mentors and people they help apply?

What do you need the application forms to tell you?

Who will do the interviews for new employees?

How many spots do you have?

Will they take place online, in person, or both?

Will you give them new mentors if the current ones don't work?

How will you get people to sign up?

How will you know if you've done well? (Think surveys, interviews, and measuring how productive people are.)

You should make a map of the whole process, including the evaluation at the end, so that you can see how it will work and find any problems ahead of time.

4 - Select Participants

Choose mentors and mentees based on what you want to achieve.

Choose if your program is open to everyone or only to a select group of employees.

Get people to join by telling them what's good about the program and getting rid of any problems they might see. You might have to cut down on their work to make room for you.

After choosing the participants, you'll need to figure out their goals, needs, weaknesses, and strengths so you can put them with the right person.

Mentorships are more likely to work out if you choose mentors with good reputations and mentees who are smart and willing to work.

5: Put your candidates together

Match mentors and mentees carefully by using the information you got from their application form, file, and onboarding interview.

You can match in three ways:

Giving the mentees, say, three candidates to choose from.

letting the person in charge of the program choose a mentor for each mentee.

Using an algorithm that looks at how well a person and a job fit together.

Different methods are needed by each organization. Giving staff options will increase the chance of success, but it's important to be ready for candidates to be turned down.

6: Give them ongoing training and help

Once the program is up and running, let everyone know what you expect from them. Also, let mentors and mentees talk about their goals and ways to measure success.

Then, give your candidates training to help them do their best. Help them out when they need it.

7- See How Well You Did

To make the program work, don't let it lose steam.

Build a community around the candidates and hold events regularly to keep the relationships going.

At the end of the experience, you will need to keep track of how well it went to see if your program needs to be changed for the next group.

You can find out what people think by talking to the candidates and sending out surveys. And don't forget to keep track of the metrics you set up at the start.

If your mentorship program is very successful, you might want to make it a requirement. An ROI of 870% was found in a case study where the management of an inbound call center made mentorship mandatory.

Looking Ahead

The skills gap in the U.S. workplace is getting worse.

Companies are turning to mentoring, which is a very effective way to improve employees' skills, keep them engaged, and help them grow.

It might seem hard to start a mentorship program. But if you follow our steps, like setting goals and measuring for success, your organization will soon see the benefits.

Some of these benefits are higher productivity, better employee retention and integration, and a better employer brand.