When playing a sport, the game is more fun and runs more smoothly if everyone on the field or court has the same understanding of the rules and how to play.
No one is born knowing how to play basketball, or baseball, or football, or hockey. Coaches need to help young players understand the game before they can excel, and good coaches make for great players.
The same is true in the workplace: Great mentors make for outstanding employees.
If you think your company can’t benefit from a mentoring program, consider this: If your overall productivity drops because employees need to be corrected or retrained, that’s profits lost because of a lack of information getting to them. A mentoring program can help correct that.
Mentoring programs can also help improve your workplace culture.
Consider this:
Mentors can help reduce turnover.
An employee who feels they have someone to go to for problems at work or for advice on how to do their job are more likely to feel cared for and respected. Employees who feel they have a place and an important role to play in their job are less likely to look for a new opportunity. That improves your employee retention without having to spend a dime and keeps your company humming right along.
Mentors can improve morale.
Everyone needs feedback from time to time. Mentors, especially those who work with one or two employees, get to know their proteges and will understand better what they need and how they’re progressing. Who better to chime in and offer positive feedback? And who would be in a better position to call out issues and help correct them, in real time, before they become a problem? A few words of encouragement can make a world of difference.
Mentoring programs can help deepen your internal talent pool.
By working closely with one or a few employees, mentors from within the company can best identify for their managers the employees that show the most potential and promise. These workers can then be considered for promotions, helping to fast-track their career and further reducing turnover and keeping production where it belongs.
Mentors can be a bridge between managers and employees.
By fostering a relationship with their proteges, mentors can get a better understanding of working conditions and any issues that might be bubbling under the surface and out of view of management. This information, passed on anonymously, can help address problems early and head-on.
Mentors benefit too!
Having someone trust you and look up to you can be incredibly fulfilling. Knowing someone will take your advice to heart can help a mentor refocus their own efforts on their work and try to serve as a better example. Serving as a mentor can elevate someone who’s already doing a good job and make them an even better leader, possibly making them eligible for a promotion as well.
Establishing a mentoring program can have huge benefits for the mentor, the protege and the company overall. It takes some time to get going, but the long-term benefits are many.
Contact Debbie’s Staffing for More Advice
For more advice on how to start a mentoring program, contact Debbie’s Staffing. We’re well-versed in ways to improve company culture and boost morale that can help raise your employee retention and eliminate staffing shortages. Call Debbie’s Staffing today!