Coaching systems in organizations often provide the fastest growth for their employees. According to RESEARCH REVEALS teachers can reduce staff turnover by up to 10% and training costs by up to 15%.
Why is mentoring necessary?
Coaching in an organization is aimed at training, developing and creating a qualified workforce, transferring experience and company values from more experienced employees to new team members. The mentor provides support, advice and guidance, while the mentee takes on the role of the learner.
Don’t confuse on-the-job training with mentoring. The former is usually done according to a predetermined curriculum, while the latter is a more individual activity guided by the mentee and focusing on his or her primary needs. The teacher’s role may serve as a “role model”, while the teacher’s role is usually to provide specific course content without “engaging” with the student.
Types of mentoring
Mentoring can be divided into 4 key types: traditional, iterative, group and electronic (virtual). Let’s take a closer look at them.
- Traditional teaching
In this case, the role of teacher is taken by an experienced specialist of the company – a manager or senior partner. He guides the newcomer on his professional path, gives advice, helps to cope with difficult situations at work, etc.
- Reverse mentoring
Reverse mentoring allows young professionals to share their knowledge with more experienced employees. Such employees can act as teachers for top managers in the use of new technologies. Reverse mentoring not only helps seniors acquire new skills, but also builds a sense of belonging by allowing junior and mid-level employees to influence leaders.
- Group management
In this case, one person serves as a mentor to several mentees at the same time. Team coaching allows busier leaders to support more people at once without being overwhelmed by new responsibilities. This is also an effective solution if there are few teachers in the organization.
- Electronic mentoring
Virtual mentoring takes place 100% online. This has become more popular with the advent of remote and hybrid work. Its high flexibility makes it an effective solution for creating additional training opportunities and expanding employee networks. By using it, organizations can connect people with company leaders, even if they are outside their geographic region. For example, ensure the transfer of experience from a middle manager in a subsidiary office to the head of the headquarters through virtual meetings.
Benefits of mentoring for mentors and mentees
Mentoring is the exchange of ideas, knowledge and skills from the mentor to the mentee. Meanwhile, mentors also get many benefits that help them grow in professional fields. In addition to the personal benefits of sharing knowledge and skills with students, teachers receive:
- Expand the skill set through continuous learning and collaborative, active listening skills.
- Understanding human personality types through interaction.
- Opportunity to become a subject matter expert.
- Achieving goals and leadership vision.
A structured mentoring program is definitely beneficial for mentees as well. It helps bridge the gaps between employee training and development processes, as well as:
- Develop professional, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills and competencies.
- Establish or develop relationships with colleagues and managers.
- Actively participate in projects.
- Developing leadership qualities.
- Ensure smooth transition from middle management to senior management positions.
Mentoring also has many benefits for the entire company:
- Create a workforce that aligns with the organization’s vision and mission.
- Attract the right talent pool and develop strategies for the growth and development of existing employees.
- Reduction of staff turnover through onboarding, reduction of losses due to the departure of potential employees.
- Reduce the risk of making critical mistakes that can lead to loss of income.
Company mentoring organization
Establishing a mentoring program is different for every company. However, there are several universal rules that can help any organization:
- Explain the objectives of the training program
It may be about improving productivity, improving leadership skills, or preparing team members to become managers and take on additional responsibilities and tasks. Whatever the desired result, it should be reflected in the subtleties of the program.
- Find a mentor and mentee
Recruiting candidates is a critical step in a teaching program and requires a thorough understanding of student job responsibilities and finding the right teacher to meet learning goals. The right combination leads to the establishment of a strong relationship between mentor and mentee.
- Provide mentoring training.
Before starting a teaching program, it is important to train the teachers and define the desired learning outcomes at the end of the program. Give them the tools and help them choose the method that best suits the success of the program.
- Communicate Expectations
Without understanding the expectations of the students, a successful teaching program is impossible. This is achieved through questionnaires, surveys and personal interviews.
- Measure your results
Measuring the impact of mentoring in the workplace involves revisiting the goals that were set before the program was implemented. Look at sales performance, employee engagement and productivity, and improvements in their skill sets to measure effectiveness.
Also remember the role of the HR department in organizing this process. For example, at REC’s GROUP we often organize events to bring people together. On Friday we paint, watch movies, do Just Dance and other group activities. This is necessary to create a relaxed atmosphere that helps make acquaintances, conversations, and build healthy communication between employees.
Instructional technologies and tools
Today, in order to improve the teaching process, it is possible and necessary to use the tools of modern technologies. Specifically, we use TRAKERS – this is a bot, where people write reports about the working day, reflect, talk about the main achievements, what can be done better, and then our internal bot of the corporation shares it with colleagues. The person receives to a person report, wrote him feedback.
There are cases where people find themselves a conditional mentor: after reading his report once, they begin to follow him in our bot, his achievements and to act in his direction. In addition, a person can write feedback on what can be improved. It is an excellent tool for organizing the training process in a company. In addition, within our company there is a department that deals with management training within the team. With its help, we train SEO specialists.
You can also use Chronus, a software that evaluates all participants using a unique internal system. The platform allows you to automatically select the most suitable profiles to create pairs of mentors and mentees.
Other tools you may find useful:
- Ways of communication
You may already have favorite communication tools in your company, such as Zoom, Loom, Notion, Teams, and even Skype. Standardizing the tools used helps teach more smoothly.
- Time Tracking Tools
Free tools like Google Calendar can help you schedule meetings.
- Organizational tools
You can use a spreadsheet as your tool of choice to run your program. The Trello platform can also be used as part of this process.
- Feedback Tools
Survey Monkey, Slack and Evernote can be useful for getting feedback.
Mentoring Issues and Challenges
Difficulties in organizing teaching also arise, for example, in the selection of teachers and mentees. Sometimes companies do not have enough available experienced employees – this is where you can turn to group mentoring. When workers are paired, you may face conflicting personalities or lack of commitment on the part of one of them.
To effectively match mentors and mentees, you must consider the goals of your program, the goals of the mentee, and the experience and expertise of the mentors. Understanding these key elements, as well as setting effective mentoring boundaries, will help find the best matches so you can minimize the amount of conflict between mentors and mentees.
Also, any change can be scary, and more often than not, employees are resistant to going in a new direction. Therefore, you are likely to encounter dissatisfaction when starting a coaching program. However, with any new initiative in your business, it is important to consider how you will track its success and value. Ineffective program evaluation means you can’t accurately track its effectiveness. If you don’t know how it affects the participants or your business as a whole, you won’t be able to improve or deliver results. whatever judgments about the program.
To overcome resistance to change, involve your employees in the process as much as possible. Consult them about your plans and make sure they agree. Second, make sure employees see that management supports the coaching program. When leaders are truly invested in these initiatives, employees are more likely to see value in them.
Coaching is a complex but necessary process in a company. Organizations will inevitably face many challenges when introducing a new initiative, but with timely analysis, planning and the use of the right tools, potential mistakes can be kept to a minimum. little.
In the future, the phenomenon of mentoring itself will develop, new tools will appear that can more effectively solve the important problems of this process. The development of the HR structure also contributed to the more successful matching of partners for training. And now the main trend can be seen in virtual teaching, because it is easy, simple and effective.