Developing An Effective Mentoring Program For Successful Business Run. Know How?

Over the years, there have been several discussions about the 'effectiveness of mentoring in the workplace.' Now, we've arrived at a point where everyone recognizes the significance of it. Statistics reveal that 71 percent of Fortune 500 companies offer mentoring programs to their employees. It can aid the organization with employee retention, workforce engagement, sustained improvement in productivity, diversity training, etc. The only questions that remain are: How to utilize it efficiently and design an effective mentorship program for your company?

So, let us take a look at how to do this:

What's your requirement?

Why are you launching this program? What do you plan to achieve with it in both the short and long runs? Who needs mentoring? Who are your capable mentors? Begin the process by finding answers to all these questions. Ensure that the mentorship programs are aligned with your company's long-term goals and strategies to make a worthy difference. It also enables the program to yield positive results for your company and survive long enough to make a difference to the company and its employees.

Selecting the right mentors

Not all employees, however senior or experienced, are fit to be mentors. So, identify those with the right qualities that make them exceptional mentors and train in mentoring to polish their skills. Assigning one mentor to a mentee is not an efficient practice. An employee will have many areas where s/he needs a mentor's assistance, and no mentor will be capable of adequately guiding them through all these areas. So, a good practice will be to create a pool of mentors and mentees so that a mentee has the opportunity to get guidance and insights from more than one mentor under one roof. If a mentor has to be allotted, then conduct a personality compatibility test. As odd as it may sound, it is proficient as compared to random matching.

Who needs mentors?

It is a fact that not every employee needs to be mentored, and it is also not practical to mentor everyone. Provide an opportunity for all employees to sign up for the program. Also, get the opinion from managers on who might need mentoring from their teams. Convey the advantages of mentor programs and what the employees can expect from them?      

Embracing Technology

A face-to-face mentor-mentee relationship is a key to developing the all-important trust factor. Still, there are situations when this is not a practical option. At this stage, technology can enable companies to keep the mentor program running even if the mentor and mentee are far away from each other. Especially so in this internet and cloud-enabled world, distance mentoring is popular.

MentorCloud provides this option. Your organization can use our platform to connect with professionals and learners who share your goals and ambitions. With MentorCloud, it is possible to transcend geographic boundaries, foster a meaningful collaboration, and unlock the potential talent of your workforce. In our ecosystem, you have the opportunity to take this further and turn it into a community-sharing event, the scope of which surpasses the standard mentorship infrastructure.

If this post resonated with you, check with your organization to see whether you are part of the MentorCloud network. If not, sign up for a demo here! Our vision is to create a mentoring planet in which true equality is achieved, and hard work is rewarded, but it's only possible with your participation.