When it comes to mentoring, the benefit to the mentor and mentee are clear. But are there any upsides for the organizations that introduce these programs? In this post, we’ll share seven ways that mentoring can be beneficial for your company.
7 ways mentoring can benefit your organization
1. Develop new managers
Managers are at the frontlines of every organization. As a result, they have a significant impact on many aspects of your company, including areas like recruitment, employee retention, and even business outcomes. In fact, 77% of senior leaders see managers as important to help achieve business goals.
While it’s clear that managers play an important role across various organizational functions, many managers aren’t able to maximize their potential because they’re not being given the tools or support they need to succeed. That’s why we encourage companies to invest in mentoring programs, which have been shown to increase skills for the job, boost confidence, and improve work quality. This not only sets your managers up for success but also leads to significant benefits for your organization.
2. Retain your high potential talent
Your high potential (HiPo) employees work 21% harder than their peers and bring 91% more value to the organization compared to non-HiPos. Knowing this, it’s easy to see why it benefits organizations to retain as many of their top-performing employees as possible. But how do you get them to stay?
Research shows that a lack of mentoring is one of the main reasons your most talented employees decide to leave. Investing in a comprehensive mentoring program can give your HiPos the long-term support they want and encourage them to stay at your company – which results in better outcomes for your business.
3. Foster diversity and inclusion
Many studies point to the fact that mentoring programs can support your diversity and inclusion efforts – whether that’s by retaining more of your underrepresented employees or preparing them for future leadership roles.
Specifically, the Harvard Business Review found that, on average, mentoring programs boost the representation of Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American women, and Hispanic and Asian-American men by anywhere from 9% to 24%. Another study by Heidrick & Struggles found that mentoring programs are especially important to women and people in underrepresented groups. 30% of women said their mentoring relationship was extremely important compared to 23% of men. Similarly, 32% of minorities found it extremely important, compared with 27% of the overall sample.
Cultivating a diverse workforce doesn’t only benefit employees – it has also been found to boost both innovation and financial results for the organization. That’s why large companies like IBM, Ernst & Young, and Kraft Foods have mentoring programs dedicated to increasing diversity. If you want to see similar benefits at your company, a mentoring program is a good place to start.
4. Strengthen company culture
Introducing a mentoring program can also have a significant impact on your company culture. Demonstrating your commitment to the development of your employees comes with many benefits. For instance, you can increase retention, improve productivity, and generally make your workforce feel cared for. All of these positive outcomes further strengthen your culture and makes your company a great place to work.
5. Improve employee engagement
Mentoring can be a powerful tool to improve employee engagement. A study found that more than 9 in 10 workers who have a mentor are satisfied with their jobs. Not only that, but employees with mentors are also likely to be better paid and feel more valued for their contributions at work – both significant factors in overall workplace happiness.
When employees feel fulfilled in their jobs, they’re more likely to be engaged. This, in turn, leads to other benefits like higher productivity, lower turnover, and improved cost savings when it comes to health.
6. Recruit new talent
87% of Millennials rate professional career growth and developmental opportunities as important to them in a job. Given this, mentoring can help attract high-quality candidates into your talent pipeline. This can save your company valuable resources since filling a vacant role takes an average of 23.8 days and can cost thousands of dollars, depending on your recruiting strategy.
7. Increase knowledge sharing
Whether it’s through a bottom-up mentoring program or your more traditional leadership mentoring program, both are effective ways to increase knowledge sharing within your own organization.
What are the benefits of this? As you might expect, knowledge sharing encourages more collaboration across the organization. This, in turn, can lead to increased productivity and even innovation – which happens when people of different backgrounds and ways of thinking come together to share ideas.
