Building Internal Mentoring Programs

Companies Should Start Using Their Existing Staff to Mentor Employees for Long Term Success

The role of companies today is becoming more of the educator. Technology and processes are changing so quickly that by the time a student graduates from school, they will need a whole new set of skills in order to make it in the workplace. Companies must be ready to become that educator and mentor of the workforce.

A recent college graduate can't be expected to have a confident handle on the changing world of business the moment he or she enters the workforce because the rules are being rewritten daily.

New employees starting with a company most likely receive information from the HR department that requires them to fill out a packet of paperwork. Some may receive a structured day of training, welcoming them to the team and reviewing their War and Peace sized employee handbook explaining their new duties. 

For those companies who have embraced the digital age, employees may have received log ins for online corporate universities where they can watch videos or read courses on various compliance requirements, soft skills courses or corporate policies and procedures. This is a beginning; but what about building an employees skill sets?

Luckily, on-the-job training has changed drastically in the past several years. Thanks to technology, business is moving at the speed of light. Corporations to both mid and small sized businesses not only have a vested interest in recruiting the best for their companies, they also need to keep employees working at the top of their games once they are hired. Many organizations, have the resources to “train” employees, but where companies can truly benefit is by allowing their tenured staff to “mentor” employees.

Utilizing existing staff to help mentor not only new employees, but emerging leaders can create a community within an organization and strengthen the culture to create passionate leaders committed to the growth and success of the company.

Mentoring does not have to be complicated, but it does have to be planned and organized for success. One of the most fundamental and cost-effective ways to do this is to automate part of the planning and mentoring process to make it easily duplicatable.

Ginger Bell, a corporate training and education specialist shares that in her experience, a good corporate learning culture is built around the premise of utilizing a blended approach for learning and mentoring. Online universities can act as a conduit for broad knowledge, orientations and training programs that teach specific skills or compliance related issues but a company must utilize a mentoring program supported and enhanced by online communication, goal-setting and scheduling tools.

Mentoring is a dialogue, a conversation and a guided approach to learning, that can only happen when a mentor and mentee know what the goals are and what to expect. Companies can build a bridge of knowledge by creating a mentoring community and utilizing the expertise of their staff.