Mentoring Toolkit
Those who have torches will pass them on to others.
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How do we hang onto our brightest young talent and prepare them to lead?
Simple: Recruit more experienced employees to help teach and guide them. Not only can a mentoring program boost our bench strength for top jobs but people who learn more on the job are far less likely to quit.
The benefits don't stop with protégés (mentees): People who mentor often are more productive, better socialized, and less stressed. They also tend to develop a loyal network of supporters, gather valuable perspective from younger employees, and gain insight into other parts of the business.
Why Mentoring? Mentoring has many benefits including, attracting and retaining talent, increasing productivity, career growth, and the sharing of institutional knowledge. It can also be practiced in a variety of ways, adapting to different settings, resources, and needs.
Mentoring supports career growth and the passing of institutional knowledge. For companies, mentoring provides an opportunity to grow a junior level employee into a management level employee reducing costs associated with hiring and turnover. It also provides a mechanism for sharing key intuitional knowledge across levels, generations, and departments.
One of the most cited benefits is attracting and retaining talent. Research shows this is specifically relevant regarding millennials. According to findings from the 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey, connecting employees to mentors was one of the key ways cited employers can attract and retain millennial talent. Furthermore, it highlighted millennials intending to stay with their organization for more than five years are twice as likely to have a mentor than not. Also, according to this article in the Journal of Applied Psychology, findings from a meta-analysis of 43 mentoring research studies showed mentored individuals vs. non-mentored individuals have higher job satisfaction and are more likely to stay in their job.
Mentoring also leads to increased productivity. According to the Association for Talent Development (ATD) “Mentoring contributes to the success of the mentee by improving performance, increasing confidence, and addressing strengths and weaknesses.” It also cites workplace and career benefits to the mentor, including a sense of responsibility and company ownership and providing opportunities for a leadership role for those who many not be a supervisor or manager.
Below are some mentor resources to help you get started. In addition to the quick tips and ideas for working with your mentee, there are some do's and don'ts from The Ohio State University Mentoring Toolkit.
For additional resources on mentoring, please see list under "More Resources".
Below are some resources for mentees. To get started you'll find quick tips, a sample template for goal setting and some articles on finding a mentor.
Additional Resources
Mentoring Toolkit from The University of Washington - This toolkit is aimed at individuals interested in being mentored.
Organizations with resources on mentoring
Other Mentor Toolkits
Resources for Developing Mentoring Programs
- “Five Tips for Success Mentoring Program Implementation by the Association for Talent Development (ATD)
- “The Value of Establishing a Mentoring Program Within Your Organization” by Kent State University
- “Top 10 Mentoring Best Practices” by Chronus
- Nontraditional mentoring programs
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