Sodexo and Intel might not be in the same industry but they do have one thing in common — Mentoring. The success of Sodexo is attributed to its ability to build enduring relationships with stakeholders and offer jobs in local communities, providing their employees with training that promotes career development and internal promotion. In addition to that, Sodexo also offers three different levels of mentorship to their 420,000 employees. But this doesn’t stop at Sodexo as Intel, for example, matches its 95,000 employees to in-person and virtual mentors as needed. So it’s no wonder that more than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies invest in a mentoring program for their employees. When a program is done well, mentors, mentees, and the company all reap substantial benefits. Mentoring is essential for job performance and satisfaction and career success for mentees. Many studies also suggest that a mentoring program can “bolster recruiting, boost employee engagement, help train future company leadership, increase diversity, and raise rates of employee loyalty and retention.” It’s no secret that the younger generations of workers are chronically dissatisfied with their jobs, the older generation struggles to remain employable as we progress further into a digital era. This contributes mightily to the epidemic of disengagement and underemployment plaguing today’s workforce. How can a company retain its dissatisfied employees and engage them more? Studies and surveys suggest that millennial and Generation Z workers want mentors, and they want them now. The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey indicated that 68% of respondents said they planned to stay in their organizations for a minimum of five years if they were provided with a mentor. Companies that invest in a mentorship program tend to cultivate their company culture more effectively and retain their workforce for longer than those that do not. Outside of the realm of factual evidence, however, companies that use their existing talent as mentors for new employees create personal connections among employees. The mentor/mentee relationship is something that an employee can draw upon throughout their time with a company.
While all that’s said and done, mentoring isn’t limited to an in-house service that companies provide. Oftentimes young undergraduates and individuals wishing to make a career shift find themselves in need of guidance. Mentoring as a need only increases as the gap in the standard of living and wealth increases. We know that students from families and communities enduring economic hardship are less likely to grow up with adult mentors outside their families. Taking into account the past rough 18 months that the world was pillaged with a deadly virus, loss of jobs, climate calamities, and financial hardships, today more than ever we need mentors. Through mentoring, individuals have consistent guidance, support, and encouragement, and help people set goals and achieve them. When done well, the stability and security of a mentoring relationship can be the very thing someone needs the most. It’s a gateway to the kind of skill development, goal setting, maintaining a broader perspective on career options and opportunities, and belief in one’s self that leads to a fulfilling future. Mentoring isn’t just about an individual’s professional life, it’s holistic in its approach so that it spreads to one’s personal and mental growth. It is estimated that businesses whose entrepreneurs were mentored increased their revenue by 83% compared to the 16% of non-mentored businesses.
When we scale back and look at successful businesses and individuals, and we realize that most if not all, had mentors, the next question often is “ how do these programs work ?”. The most important part of a mentoring program is the quality of the mentoring partnerships. Nothing is worse to the credibility of a mentorship program than incompatible mentoring connections. It can be agonizing for both parties. This can mean going over your budget and the type of mentor program that fits your needs. While there are different mentors to choose from, each mentoring program has different goals, they vary from Succession planning and knowledge transfer from senior leaders to high potential employees, Skill development, and employee development Supporting diversity in leadership, and more. In our life, we have had role models we looked up to, some fictional and purely for inspiration, and some real-life people. They may have helped us get to where we are in our careers now or just been there for moral support. Role models provide us the guidance and opportunities that will help us solve the problems we face and reach the goals we aim for. We do recognize the benefits of such a relationship but are at times deterred or misguided. Mentors, to put it roughly, serve the same function as role models- the myth, however, is that this process happens organically. That is simply not the case. Mentor programs create a space for leaders and industry experts to transfer their experience to employees through structured programs. This being a scalable way to create and fertilize collaborative cultures. that have higher engagement and employee retention rates. It takes effort to get a mentor that just clicks for you, but the pay-off is worth it.
On the topic of types of mentor programs, there are paid ones and ones that cost nothing. This addresses the age-old debate “ should one pay for a mentor ?” Business mentors are invariably described as “invaluable” and “priceless” by the entrepreneurs and business people they work with, but a growing industry now surrounds what was traditionally an unremunerated position. To be clear, mentoring does not magically clear barriers. It is honest and respectful in that it does not say, “I aim to change who you are or replace something missing in your life.” It does, however, say “I am here to stand by you, believe in you, and I am invested in your path, goals, and success. Simply put, I will keep showing up for you.”. Mentors like Anthony Robbins, who has mentored Hugh Jackman and Andre Agassi, reportedly charge millions but for many, the idea of paying a mentor is anathema to the idea of mentoring. Dr. Hilary Armstrong, director of education at the Institute of Executive Coaching, believes there is room for both paid and unpaid mentors in the business. Senior mentors at the Institute of Executive Coaching charge around $800 to $900 an hour but if you have 10 sessions that cost goes down.
Despite the high cost, Armstrong describes mentoring as “a very valuable thing” and believes there is a historical divide between mentors that are paid and mentors that are not. According to Dr.Armstrong, “long-term mentoring relationships are usually an unpaid relationship and sometimes that emerges out of a more structured program.” In many cases, these relationships evolve into deeper connections that transcend the professional environment. However, Armstrong says there is a role for paid mentors as well as informal unpaid mentoring. “It’s sad to say but people seem to value them more particularly if they are short-term relationships if they are paying for them,” she says. Mentoring as a service benefits all generations of workforce from Generation-Z all the way up to the “Boomers’’ because mentoring isn’t limited to hard skills, it’s a great opportunity to open the discussion of biases, prejudices, and bigotry that an employee may harbor as a result of their social conditioning. It is unfortunate to see that in the 21st century, women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and disabled communities still face countless layers of social and economic oppression. When colleagues, bosses, and superiors are not socially seasoned it creates a workplace that is inherently stagnant and hostile. The collective motto during quarantine has been growing, and the meaning of it has been immensely variable from person to person, from mental, physical to spiritual, etc. this chain of growth should not stop when it comes to a professional setting. Our places of employment need to evolve, grow and invest in their employees. In transience, mentoring has the potential to improve the social and economic opportunity of millions if we have the public and political will to insist on it, and make the necessary investments of time and money. We cannot leave this powerful asset to chance. The past two years have taught us lessons and one of them is the finality of death and incompetence of leaders. If death is inevitable and the only thing we control is our own life, then we must invest in it.
