The advantages of mentoring in the workplace

Mentoring in the workplace is about so much more than passing knowledge from one employee to another. It also goes far beyond simply taking a new employee under your wing and showing them the ropes before they hit the ground running. Mentoring, when approached in the right way, has the ability to benefit and strengthen the entire workforce, building better relationships, happier employees and stronger future leaders. Let’s take a look at how the guidance of a team member benefits everyone.

What is mentoring?
Before we dig into how mentoring can strengthen a company from top to bottom, it’s important to distinguish exactly what the practice is. Mentoring within an organisation typically involves an employee in a more senior role who shares knowledge about their position and career path. The mentor provides guidance, encouragement and support to help their coworker find success.

Mentoring in the workplace provides benefits to the mentor, mentee, and company.

Benefits to mentees
Whether a mentee is a brand new hire or has been with the company for a while, they receive a handful of advantages by having some extra guidance. Employees who receive workplace mentorship are actually five times more likely to be promoted. Some additional benefits include:

• Development of new skills and knowledge.
• Increased professional development.
• Strong internal support networks.
• Reduced stress, anxiety and burnout.
• Reaching goals and milestones.

Benefits to mentors
It’s easy to believe that the mentee is gaining the most out of workplace mentoring, but mentors benefit as well. Similarly to mentees, mentors are six times more likely to get promoted and experience greater job satisfaction. Additional advantages obtained by mentors include:

• Improved leadership skills.
• Feeling more connected to their workplace.
• Increased accountability.
• The satisfaction of helping others and paying it forward.

Benefits to the company
An organisation that encourages and supports mentoring likely understands that the process builds stronger employees, which builds a stronger company. Individual teams as well as the company as a whole can grow with greater knowledge and skill transfers across employees. The company also benefits from mentoring with:

• Higher retention rates of employees.
• Better overall workplace culture.
• Improved onboarding experiences for new hires.
• Greater minority representation in upper management roles.
• Stronger leadership across departments.

Create exceptional mentors in your workplace
Mentoring will come more naturally to some team members than others. Some may feel nervous, underqualified or simply overwhelmed with the new set of responsibilities. ICML offers courses like our On The Job Training course and Coaching Skills Course that are designed to help individuals build the skills they need to be successful, confident and knowledgeable mentors. Regardless of current leadership level, these courses ensure mentors are able to identify barriers, give great feedback and adapt to different situations as needed.

If you’re ready to build comradery, up your leadership skills and generate a rock solid internal network, contact ICML to find a training option that works best for you.