Tweet

Why even consider a Mentoring Program for Your Business

Written by: Michael Donovan

Article Overview: The benefits for a good mentoring program in a business include better retention, improved recruitment of talent, getting the best for promotion and succession and rewarding exceptional performance. Other issues include planning for talent deversity. Mentors make better leaders, supervisors have better teams and mentees gain directly. Think about it.

Why even consider a Mentoring Program for Your Business

Why even consider a Mentoring Program for Your Business?
[#1 in a series of 9 articles]

Series compiled by leading business-mentor, Michael Donovan –iMentor-pro

Retention

The most measured benefit for organisations lies in retention. Research data suggests that only one in five executives go looking for a new job or a new post in the same company (they usually look outside for opportunity); for those with a Mentor, the figure rises to four out of five. Seventy-seven percent of US companies report that mentoring programs were effective in increasing employee retention (the largest and most thorough research as yet undertaken anywhere).

Recruitment

Having a mentoring program is a significant factor in selection of an employer. Mentors also provide a very cost-effective resource to re-capture talented executives who have moved to other organisations. When these executives are ready to move again, the first person they often talk to is their former Mentor, if they have had a good mentoring relationship.

Induction into the organisation is typically improved by mentoring. People become acclimatised up to twice as fast as normal. At senior management levels, where the track record of success in external appointments is not high in general, mentoring is believed to make a substantial difference in acceptance of the new executive and getting that persona up to productive speed.

Other key areas of organisational benefit include:

Promotion

Mentoring programs play a key role in a Senior Executive’s career advancement and, for women in particular, is one of the most effective ways of enhancing their advancement. Almost no one makes it to the top without a Mentor of some sort.

- 75 percent of executives point to mentoring as playing a key role in their careers. (Source: American Society for Training and Development [ASTD])

- 44 percent of senior executives up to the CEO list mentoring programs as one of the three most effective strategies to enhance women’s advancement to senior management. (Source: Dr Belle Ragins for Catalyst)

- 80 percent of senior executives, in a recent survey undertaken in the UK, stated that having a mentor was one of the keys to their success. (Source: Clutterbuck Associates, UK)

- CEOs state that one of the top three factors affecting career growth was mentoring. (Source: AccountTemps survey of Fortune 500 companies)



Personal and Professional Development

The majority of executives who have been mentored cite mentoring as one of the most important aspects of their development:

- More than 60 percent of college and graduate students listed mentoring as a criterion for selecting an employer after graduation. (Source: MMHA)

- 76 percent of Fortune 500 companies top 25 companies offer mentoring programs. (Source: Fortune)

- 96 percent of executives say mentoring is an important development tool. (Source: AccountTemps)


Productivity

Productivity increases significantly as Mentees feel much more motivated when they are being mentored.

- Managerial productivity increased by 88 percent when mentoring was involved, versus only a 24 percent with training. (Source: ASTD)

- 71 percent of Fortune 500 companies use mentoring to ensure learning occurs in their organisation. (Source: ASTD)

- 95 percent of mentoring participants said the experience motivated them to do their very best. (Source: “The War for Talent” by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones & Beth Axeirod)

Succession planning

Many organisations find that mentoring provides a clearer picture of the talent pool available, and helps people position themselves more clearly against the likely needs of the business.

Diversity management

Mentoring has proved to be one of the most important elements of diversity programs. When an organisation has a strong cadre of effective Mentors, it has an extra impact upon the overall culture of the organisation. A number of organisations have used mentoring as the starting point for changing from a culture that was hostile towards learning, to one that is very supportive of learning behaviours (HPC).

Benefits for the Mentee

These are very wide, but the most commonly reported are:
- Greater clarity about personal development and career goals
- Being able to discuss, in an open and unthreatening environment, issues about their career and development
- Improved networking
- Practical advice on organisational politics and behaviour
- The opportunity to be challenged constructively
- Transfer of knowledge and, in particular, judgement
- Having a role model

Various research data suggest that Mentees achieve greater confidence in their own potential and ability, feel more secure in their role (especially at senior levels) and earn more than their non-mentored counterparts. There is also data to suggest that having a Mentor is a critical factor in the career success of 80 per cent of UK senior executives.

Benefits for the Mentor

The most frequently cited benefits for Mentors are:
- Their own learning (often Mentors report as much or more learning than Mentees)
- The opportunity to practise good developmental behaviours outside their direct line responsibilities
- Development of their own self-awareness
- Greater understanding of other areas of the business and/or of other cultures

Recent research among women leaders, who are being mentored by more senior males, indicates that more than half of the Mentors feel more secure in their roles.

Benefits for the Supervisor

Supervisors in effective mentoring schemes typically comment upon:
- The value of a “second opinion” — someone the Mentee can take issues to, who does not have a direct involvement
- Improvements in the Mentee’s relationships with peers and the Supervisor him/herself
- A clearer sense of purpose and direction on the part of the Mentee

The bottom line for mentoring is that it achieves a great deal of change for a cost that is relatively small in comparison to remuneration and mitigated risk.

The content of ideas, concepts and experiences that make up this series of nine articles have been contributed from a number of sources and authors. Assembly by leading business-mentor, Michael Donovan, Managing Director, iMentor-pro 1300 720 190

Related Articles
  Who SHOULD be mentored?
  Passing the Leadership Torch
  Avoiding Pitfalls in Mentoring Relationships, Part II of III
  Crossing Boundaries With Mentoring
  How a Corporate Mentoring Program Prepares Employees for Success

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business: 1. Attend Networking Events 2. Cold Calling 3. Referral Program 4. Affiliate Program (most successful) The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Vision Values Mission Strategic Thinking Decision Making Communication Team Bonding People Development Coaching / Mentoring / Guiding / Grooming Presentation Thanks Robert
Think like an Association - Hey Sebastian, Maybe you could try thinking like an Association... I would study the structure or formats used by other Associations. What are they doing to add value for their members? The BBB plays a monitoring role for consumers by gathering data about business' that are behaving badly. And they're pretty successful at it too. Maybe you can offer a 'Platinum Program' that franchisors buy into. Accredited members only. Criteria could be strict: 1. Age (stability): 10+ years 2. Satisfied franchisees: 85% + satisfaction 3. Size (stability again): 250 units 4. Strong profits 5. Great management -Maybe a 'Gold Program' for those Franchisors that aren't quite at that level, but can strive to reach it... -Top 100, 500, 1000 Listing for qualified members... maybe a slap at Entrepreneur.com and their biased top 10 lists... -Maybe act as a monitor like BBB? -Maybe team up with FranSurvey OR do something similar for each member (not sure about Fransurvey's rep, but I like the concept) There's so much discontent within the franchising arena that I think if you were part of the solution, then you could create a win/win with your Association. The only downside is that this power can get abused if there aren't good checks and balances within the association.
Re: Fashion - Nana, At you choice you may choose to research the fashion industry a bit more. There is obviously a Business side to it as well as a creative side to it. Find out all the types of roles that exist in the industry. Some that come to mind merchandiser, Window dresser, floor plan organizer (someone needs to determine the layout of a retail store to best sell the goods), fashion consultant (Yorkdale mall has fashion consultants that take you around and tell you what looks great on you - you also get a cut from the sales). This is what I've observed from the business side, you may know more. All these roles I've written about will help you grow as a business person and make the contacts in the industry...possible stepping stones. But further more you'll also notice that you need to develop some business acumen possibly tailored to the fashion industry. When I was at Ryerson I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur someday too. I knew I needed some basic business courses to get a foundation to build from. I was in a Tech/Business Major (I'm sure Fashion has something similar - Fashion/Business Major) and then started to create my own minor. Here are some of the courses I took: Marketing, Law, Entrepreneurial, Management, consulting.. and a few more . Also, I'm sure that within the Fashion Major there are also courses you have to take where you can use your creative side and create designs. Typically within a Major there are focuses you can choose - ask the program coordinator. Your next step is to do some research. 1. Visit Commercial retail outlets like H&M, Banana Republic, or jacob. Tell the Manager your doing some research for University and would like to know what types of Corporate roles exist aside from the roles on the retail floor (like sales associates). If she asks you to elaborate then you can use some of the roles I mentioned above. 2. With this information in hand you can visit the Ryerson Fashion department and inquire with the Program Coordinator on what focus within the Fashion Degree would help you the most. In my program there were 5 different focuses within the Tech/Business program. Just a quick aside. A good friend of mine too has a dream of fashion. he want to create a niche fashion line tailored to skinny men (I can't mention the style). He's in Business school but not in the Fashion program... He's in International Business but all his Minor courses are tailored to running a successful business ... similar to the ones I mentioned above for myself. I have no doubt in my mind he'll make it 'cos his vision is that strong.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

In the Year 2020 . . . Process

4 Steps To Hypnotize Your Business Prospects

Ten Reasons to take Notes during Sales Meetings

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.