Mentoring programs are an essential part of any organization's success. They provide employees with the guidance and support they need to reach their professional goals, and can be especially beneficial for women and people from underrepresented groups. In this article, we'll explore nine types of mentoring programs, as well as more than a dozen real-world examples of successful mentoring programs to inspire your own. Individual mentoring is one type of program that can help employees feel more satisfied in their roles.
According to a study conducted by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, 30% of women said that their mentoring relationship was extremely important, compared to 23% of men. Similarly, 32% of minorities considered it extremely important, compared to 27% of the general sample. A diversity-focused mentoring program addresses these needs by targeting underrepresented groups and creating equitable opportunities for professional development. Research by McKinsey & Company revealed that organizations with ethnic and gender diversity are, respectively, 35 and 15% more likely to achieve higher than average financial returns.
We saw with our client, Best Buy, that their in-house mentoring program helped 87% of minorities and underrepresented women improve the quality of their work and prepared them to take on more responsibilities. Being promoted to a management position for the first time requires an enormous amount of skill improvements, but the support of a mentor can make the transition a little easier. We found that among our apprentices, 92% of them felt that they had increased their skills for the job, with the help of their mentor. New managers may have doubts about themselves in their new roles.
If left unaddressed, this can lead to poor performance, low self-awareness, and an inability to provide useful guidance to direct reports. Mentors can help managers overcome this lack of trust by encouraging them, sharing objective feedback, and guiding them through challenges. Not only does a match survey ease the burden of making matches manually, but it can also remove significant biases from the process. In addition, it's important to remember that matchmaking goes beyond skills, interests, and job descriptions; it's also important to consider the apprentice's goals.
Supporting a diverse culture through mentoring leads to a stronger and more productive organization. The goal was for almost all Randstad employees to go through mentoring at some point in their career with the company. Mentoring programs provide both trainees and mentors with immediate feedback and practical experience in communication and active listening skills. In addition to promoting a culture of learning, mentoring programs strengthen the culture as a whole by making it more inclusive. These include formal programs related to specializations, group opportunities, and other more informal mentoring that is developed within the organization. Once both parties realize the value of mentoring, it's much easier to get the budget and time needed for future learning and development initiatives and turn your company into a true learning organization. In many workplaces, starting a mentoring program to support the improvement of employee skills is critical to success.
As recent graduates or people starting a new career, having a mentor means having an example to follow. With the help of Scotiabank, the Forum will help more women entrepreneurs access mentoring, resources and community needs and to learn first-hand the experiences of experienced business owners. For example, the organization emphasized mentoring and made it an integral part of its onboarding and leadership development efforts. The Forum is an excellent example of how to expand a mentoring program by using technology to do the heavy lifting. It should come as no surprise that mentoring makes a big difference for employees and their long-term success. If you're considering a workplace mentoring program for your workplace, here are some successful examples from California to New York to Boston that you can use to inspire your own.
