Developing A Successful Mentorship Program
Keeping up in the modern-day workforce and remaining competitive means hiring young employees and developing leaders among them. You need to be thinking about your future leaders now. Attracting talented young employees and developing their leadership skills is an essential part of succession planning and talent development.
Keeping up in the modern-day workforce and remaining competitive means hiring young employees and developing leaders among them. You need to be thinking about your future leaders now. Attracting talented young employees and developing their leadership skills is an essential part of succession planning and talent development.
A successful mentorship program will help you not only develop talent, but also attract it. Your Generation X, Y and Z employees may not have a lot of leadership skills to bring with them from past experiences, but pairing them with seasoned leaders in your organization will help those with leadership qualities build the skills they need to help you succeed.
WHY MENTORSHIP FOR TALENT DEVELOPMENT?
Mentorship programs can help your organization in a number of ways:
Speed up the onboarding process for new employees
Improve employee satisfaction
Increase employee retention
Decrease the loss of experience and information when employees retire
To experience these benefits of a mentorship program, first you need to get started. Here’s how you’re going to get started:
DEFINE OBJECTIVES AND GET SUPPORT
Without a plan or support from leadership, many of whom are likely mentor candidates, your program won’t get far. Outline the measurable goals for your mentorship program. Goals need to be specific, measurable, and relevant to your business goals. Some specifc goals might be to increase retention or productivity by X percent. Once you’ve established your goals, get buy-in for your plan from your current leadership team. Having at least one advocate in the C-suite will go a long way in helping you get it up and running successfully.
APPOINT THE RIGHT MENTORSHIP PROGRAM MANAGER
For your mentorship program to succeed, it will need a strong advocate and maintenance. Your program manager needs to provide training, coaching and support to mentors and mentees along the way. Program managers also need to promote the program to potential participants and adjust the program based on feedback and issues that come up along the way. Choosing the right person for this role, someone dedicated and passionate about the goals, will help your program stay strong and relevant. Skipping the manager or choosing someone who isn’t up to the job could mean your program fails before it even gets started.
BALANCE STRUCTURE AND FLEXIBILITY
A successful mentorship program needs structure, but too much structure will stifle it. Mentorship is about individual growth, and each individual is going to develop differently. Tracking goals and keeping on target is essential, but some degree of flexibility needs to be built in to your program. Some skills may be better developed in a group, others one-on-one, and each mentee may have a different learning style or skillset to work on.
Once you’ve built your program, it’ll only work if you can recruit participants and get the word out that opportunities exist within your organization for talent development. Simply building it is not enough, but it’s a great start.
Set yourself up for success; help your employees develop talents and grow into leadership roles within the organization. Compete and win in the talent war by developing a successful mentorship program.