How to implement mentoring in the company?
Mentoring is an increasingly popular form of personal development in our country. Recently, it has become an interesting alternative to coaching, especially since it can be used as an element of HR strategy as part of extensive organizational projects and brings, both mentors and mentee (mentored people), many benefits that help develop new competences. Ultimately, it is also a real added value for business, because it translates m.in into an increase in employee effectiveness, strengthens the feedback culture, counteracts burnout and reduces turnover in teams.
According to the definition of the European Mentoring Centre, mentoring is voluntary, independent of the hierarchy, help given by one person to another, thanks to which he can make significant progress in knowledge, professional work or way of thinking. Robert Dilts in his book „From Guide to Inspiration” says: The style of leading in mentoring is leadership through inspiration. Inspiring others involves motivating and encouraging them to do their best or give a little more. Mentoring and leadership through inspiration emphasize values and arming beliefs with future opportunities.
In its assumptions, the mentoring process consists in drawing the mentored person (mentee) from the knowledge and experience of a more experienced person (mentor); however, the mentoring relationship provides mutual benefits. Both parties learn from each other, are inspired, and can also look at their daily duties from a completely different perspective.
To implement mentoring in the company, you should:
- Definethe goal and define the target group
First of all, it is worth asking yourself about the goal and what group would we like to take care of mentoring? Do we plan to develop the talents of the organization? Do we want to empower budding managers? Or maybe a good idea would be reverse mentoring, during which young employees are mentors of experienced ones?
It often happens that the company’s employees, as part of a mentoring program, help a group in need of support. These can be, for example, women – managers, women returning to the labor market on maternity leave or young people starting their careers. With such a project, it is worth finding a social partner who will implement it with us; will take care of the recruitment of the target group and help us determine the needs and priorities.
- Determine what benefits the project can bring to the company
The mentoring program serves the development of both mentors and mentee, helps in building awareness of their own needs and goals, strengthens soft skills, enables appreciation of employees – mentors, their previous successes and role in the organization.
Think about what exactly mentoring can bring to your company, team and environment? What will it change? What will it strengthen? How will it affect the processes in the company, the implementation of the mission and vision? To what extent is it consistent with the objectives of HR and the Management Board?
- Definethe basic assumptions
After defining the goal and benefits and deciding to organize the project, think about how many people from your organization can get involved in it? What duration do you foresee? How much attention can mentors give to their mentees? In the case of multi-month projects, meetings of 60-90 minutes and following every 2-3 weeks are usually recommended; the mentoring process also lasts between meetings, issues developed during the session can be tested in practice, and the mentee during this time focuses on tasks for own work, experiments and checks how much new ideas can be implemented.
Determine how you will measure the achievement of the assumed goal – as a declaration, submitted e.g. in a survey or specific numerical indicators (e.g. the number of mentee that received a promotion after the end of the project).
- Recruit mentors and prepare them accordingly for meetings
Establish internal rules for applying to the project. Verify the skills of candidates. Then plan training activities that will enable mentors to prepare appropriately for the process. It is definitely worth organizing a meeting that will bring mentors closer to the very idea of mentoring, its principles and course. It’s also a good idea to train mentors with mentoring and coaching tools that can help them run their sessions.
A potential mentor does not need to have experience in mentoring. It is important that he knows to what extent mentee can help and what experience he can share. This is a good starting point for further work. The role of the mentor is primarily to build a relationship based on dialogue, share knowledge and support in the development of new competences taking into account the individual needs of the mentee. The mentor is responsible for navigating the educational process, the meeting schedule and the idea for the sessions, while the mentee is responsible for achieving the goal set in the mentoring contract. The commitment of mentee and readiness for intensive development work is very important throughout the process.
- Take care of the proper start and course of the project
The mentoring program should give the opportunity to get to know both mentors, mentors and mentee – so I encourage you to officially open the program, for example through a joint virtual meeting, during which the organizers will remind the assumptions of the project, and the participants will be able to talk to each other or say a few words about each other.
During the programme, the group of mentors should be supported by organisers as well as internal or external consultants. Supervision is very helpful – meetings during which mentors can share their experiences, concerns and questions with the group and a person more experienced in communication and conducting development processes – an external expert or, for example, a person from the HR department.
- Remember about evaluation
Like any project, mentoring in the company should be properly summarized in the form of a report. It is worth collecting opinions from each of the participants, even in the form of a questionnaire (separate for mentors and separate for mentee), containing both open questions, regarding impressions, loose conclusions, suggestions for changes for the future, as well as closed, e.g. „Assess your chances of getting a job in the IT area after the end of the project on a scale of 1-10”.
Mentoring should be a well-thought-out and long-term project, and its goals must be consistent with the company’s strategy and goals. Properly implemented mentoring processes strengthen the organizational culture and brand of the employer, increase the motivation of employees and give them the strength to act and change development. In the long run, therefore, they help to reduce costs related to, for example, rotation. Mentoring distinguishes the company on the market and enables the implementation of CSR activities. If they are in line with its mission and vision, they strengthen the company’s image as a socially responsible organization.
Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.