Why Mentorship Programs Make a Difference

A company’s greatest asset is its employees, therefore taking good care of your employees is key to an organization’s success. A proven practice is implementing a robust company mentoring program that will provide numerous positive outcomes for leadership as well as employees, specifically for new hires. Providing new employees with a suitable mentor makes all the difference from the start.

Mentors help provide training, support, and guidance and helps the new employee to acclimate to their job environment while also getting them acquainted with the organization as a whole more efficiently. This process allows new hires to not feel like a stranger, creating a sense of fellowship and comfort. Connecting a mentor with a new employee creates a strong and positive workplace foundation.

Investing quality time on a mentoring program has many benefits such as increased employee retention, employee engagement, job satisfaction and as a result it creates a strong base for accelerated job productivity.

Most importantly, mentorship builds a company’s culture which plays such a key role in the success or failure of your business. Having a good company culture motivates employees and promotes dedication. Therefore, having a workplace mentor program helps to promote the vision of the organization. 

Define Goals and Create a Checklist

Establishing a clearly defined and structured mentorship program in your workplace will produce the greatest outcome. Selecting the right mentor is the crucial first step. A good mentor must be qualified, knowledgeable, and have a good understanding of your company’s core values and culture.

The partnership should begin by establishing the desired goals and a timeline schedule. To complement the mentorship program, it’s a good idea to also put in place a structured training program that teaches your company processes and procedures.

Secondly, create a training checklist. This is a powerful way to ensure you stay on track and avoid mishaps such as forgetting important details. A checklist should include the learning component, completion date, status date, and who is responsible for the training. This list is a visual tool of all the training items that need to be completed.

Providing learning materials and hands-on training allows for a better understanding of how the new employee is engaging—or not. Another helpful tool is to create a 30-60-90-day planner to establish goals and timelines that need to be completed within 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days.

Next, schedule recurring meeting sessions to evaluate the process being made by the new hire. These meetings are a great opportunity to measure progress, review goals, and update learning objectives. Having ongoing meetings quickly improves communication skills and allows the new employee to accept feedback from a consistent source. These ongoing meetings provide consistency and clarity and demonstrates how committed you are to their success. 

Long-Term Benefits

Investing in providing quality mentoring for your employees is crucial to long-term business success. If your mentorship program is successful, then your employees will be successful. As a result, your company will gain many benefits such as increased employee retention, increased employee engagement, increased job satisfaction, and accelerated job productivity. If there is no proper mentoring, it can hinder the employee’s growth and ultimately causes loss of employees. Furthermore, mentoring is not limited to new employees.

Providing mentoring for current employees is an effective way to help them advance in their career. Providing employees with ongoing mentorship training promotes professional growth and develops new skills. Creating future leaders within your organization via a mentorship program is instrumental because of the wide range of benefits. Invest in your employees and the outcome will be powerful.