Table of Contents
Learning how to work in a professional environment can take training, but employees learn valuable skills like customer service, active listening, compliance, cooking skills, and more. What if there was a way to accelerate learning so you could fill your long-term business needs?
Creating a mentorship program can future-proof your workplace and help you hire internally. Many companies avoid mentoring because it requires a lot of work, however, companies that tap into mentoring have been known to accelerate their growth.
You may also be asking yourself why you should take charge of creating this new initiative instead of your manager, or HR. It will be a great addition to your resume when you decide to look for a new work opportunity.
Why a workplace mentorship program is necessary
Mentoring is a helpful experience that lets younger employees learn from senior staff members (and vice versa). Having a mentor at work provides a lot of benefits for employees, some of which include:
- Increase employee productivity
- Create a well-rounded workforce
- Encourage cross-organizational knowledge sharing etc…
Companies that can tap into the benefits of mentoring create many opportunities for their staff members. Mentors can develop naturally as your staff gets to know each other. Organic mentorship isn’t scalable if your organization wants more people to reap the benefits of mentorship at work.
How to build your workplace mentorship program
If you are concerned about turning a mentorship program from a vision into a reality, let’s discuss how to build a mentorship program for your team:
1. Define the goals you have for your mentorship program
Before you begin creating an employee mentorship program, let’s start by defining the program’s goals. What do you want staff members to accomplish? What are your long-term goals as a business?
Perhaps you want to create more mid-level managers at your company, so you could create a program focused on accelerating leadership skills. On the other hand, maybe you have a lot of high school students working with your organization, and you want to provide essential job skills, so you create a work skills mentorship program.
2. Create your mentorship program curriculum
As you build a curriculum, consider the following:
- What do you want your employees to learn?: Are there any conversations or activities that will help your team achieve the desired outcome?
- How much room will you give for the mentor relationship to build?
- What strategies can you recommend to speed up that process?
- Is there a prize or an award for people who make it to the end of the mentorship program? For example, you could give away a stipend or put great mentees in a management accelerator program.
3. Pick the right participants
Once you know what the program will look like, it’s time to find great program participants.
It’s important to note that great employees don’t always make great mentors. Teaching and helping isn’t a skill that everyone can master right away. You have to make sure that every advisor you enlist has the skills to help teach younger employees.
On the flip side, some of your employees won’t make great students. You have to pick staff members who are dedicated and excited to improve their work ethic and excel in the program. Which team members would have a great transformation? Are there any employees who have great potential and just need a little extra attention? Pick team members wisely so you have a better success rate.
Lastly, you have to watch and ensure that you put the correct pairs together. Some personalities might clash, so you have to ensure that you connect with the right employees.
4. Ensure that the mentorship program curriculum is followed
After pairs have been introduced and the curriculum has been shared, it’s time to make sure that relationships are being forged using the parameters you set. As your employee mentorship program progresses, check in to ensure that:
Employees learn the skills they need to
Mentors understand the curriculum and teach it effectively
As a leader, your goal is to support both parties going through the program you created. Mentors may need help steering the ship and leading employees. Mentees may need help to best utilize their time with an advisor.
5. Get feedback along the way
As your program kicks off, you will likely want to gather feedback to make sure that the program feels valuable to both mentors and mentees. We suggest providing a survey for feedback after the 1-2 week mark, halfway through, and at the end of the program.
Once you have this valuable feedback, go through it, organize the major themes of the feedback, and report on your findings. Addressing any major questions or concerns early on can help your team make the most of the program.
If employees want to provide feedback between your surveys, create an easy way to provide feedback anonymously. If they don’t need anonymity, you could also have employees reach out to you personally. Getting feedback quickly will enable you to address program issues before they become serious problems.
After you run your first program, you need to make adjustments to make the next one more efficient and helpful for your team. Take some time, and start the program again with more knowledge and renewed passion. New employees need access to the mentorship program you have created.