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Development, both on personal and professional fronts, can become stagnant due to the lack of guidance. A way out could be to consciously invest time and energy in learning new things or skills that can help you in going up the development curve. This journey can become easier with some guidance. Having a mentor can make things easy by offering a path of timely assistance, practical guidance, and expert advice.
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In the past few years, many organisations have identified the benefits of mentoring in improving employee retention rates, performance, employees’ well-being, and more. According to a study, 84% of the US Fortune 500 companies use mentorship programmes. These mentoring programmes come with several benefits.
Benefits of Mentoring for Business
1. Positive Working Environment
Mentoring plays a huge role in contributing to a happy working environment. When a company instils a mentorship program, it encourages a culture of nurturing that helps its employees to learn and grow. Employees with mentors often feel more contended with their work; they do not experience a lack of appreciation. Happy and satisfied employees mean a positive working environment and results.
2. Knowledge Sharing
Mentoring boosts knowledge sharing and management in an organisation. The mentees find a way to upgrade their knowledge base, learn more skills, and develop corporate vision and values, among others. While training juniors, the mentors get a chance to brush their data, learn new facts, get exposed to different ideas and opinions, demonstrate their leadership skills, strengthen their professional network, and the like. The company benefits when the employees become more efficient. Besides, mentoring also helps companies cost-effectively transfer knowledge.
3. Better Retention Rates
The benefits of mentoring extend to helping companies have better retention rates. Studies have found that employees that are a part of mentorship programs are likely to have 50% higher retention rates than those who are deprived of the benefits of mentor programs. Mentoring helps improve employees’ involvement with the company and appreciates their hard work. As a result, they prefer continuing with the same company rather than searching for new jobs.
4. Significant Cost Savings
Replacing an existing employee is costly for most organisations. According to a report by Gallup, the company may have to spend 2X of a current employee’s salary or more while replacing them. So, when mentoring helps improve retention rates, it also helps companies save a large amount of money. For example, Red Hat managed to save around $6 million in retention over 2.5 years, courtesy of its structured mentoring program.
Benefits of Mentoring for Mentors and Mentees
1. Increased Job Satisfaction
Employees feel happy and successful when they achieve their professional and personal goals. While mentors help mentees hone their skills, strike a work-life balance, and achieve their career goals, their job satisfaction gradually increases. The mentors feel contended and meet their targets better when they successfully train their juniors and make them competent.
2. Boosts Self-Confidence
The benefits of mentor programs go a long way in boosting the self-confidence of employees. Lack of self-confidence has always been a reason behind underperformance for many. Mentoring can help mentors and mentees believe in their abilities and be confident about their decisions. For example, mentors can help mentees by assisting them in choosing their career paths appropriately and supporting them in their choices. Helping others allows the mentors to experience a sense of pride that ultimately boosts their self-esteem and confidence.
3. Overcoming Isolation
Many people feel isolated at their jobs when they are new, belong to a monitory group, or cannot cope with the pressure. Whatever the reason, they feel anxious and slowly isolate themselves, drastically affecting their performances and mental health. Mentoring can help them overcome their anxiety about their abilities and future. Mentors help them deal with their problems instead of isolating themselves and also find them a solution. Moreover, the employees find a go-to person who can guide them with their professional concerns.
4. Managing Anxiety
A study conducted by Harvard Business Review revealed that employees who mentored their juniors were able to manage anxiety better than those who chose not to mentor. Helping others allowed those employees to attach a better purpose to their jobs; they found their jobs more meaningful. Mentees also have a chance to better manage anxiety through mentoring as they get the guidance of experienced people and learn to face unexpected situations without becoming anxious.
5. Personal Growth
Amentoring program benefitsa person’s personal growth by promoting overall growth and development. The mentor and mentees are exposed to new ways of thinking, problems, innovative solutions, and the various ways to approach a particular situation. Mentoring encourages communication among people from different backgrounds, allowing people to learn from each other’s personal and professional experiences. They become more aware of their working environment, their roles, and ways to achieve their goals.
6. Character Development
Mentoring helps employees understand the importance of empathy and helping others grow and develop. This, in turn, makes them considerate of others’ problems and patient in dealing with them. With more exposure, employees learn more about the values, ideas, or skills they need to learn. Their self-awareness increases and they realise their strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, they learn the art of self-analysis. All these things help their character develop and benefit them in their careers.
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7. Learning About Feedback
Every person needs feedback to identify their flaws or abilities, work on them, and achieve their goals. However, not everyone knows how to give feedback or accept them in the right spirit. While managers may struggle to deliver feedback using the right words without going overboard or hurting anyone’s sentiments, employees may fail to understand the importance of feedback. They can feel humiliated and targeted, lose their self-confidence, and isolate themselves. This will ruin the entire purpose of the feedback mechanism. Mentoring helps them see feedback correctly and understand its significance. Mentor benefits people at several levels of the organisation by assisting them to embrace feedback productively. Mentoring can benefit everyone associated with a business in one way or the other. Also, it opens up new opportunities for the business as a whole. Implementing mentorship programs after strategic planning can help companies improve their success rates while becoming employee-friendly.
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