We know that retaining good staff is critical to company success. Keeping good people saves us the time and money needed to train or retrain new people. It keeps productivity levels humming. Perhaps most important it retains the credibility of our organisations, keeping customers and other key stakeholders confident in our ability to deliver.

We also know that staff retention is about far more than money. Study after study has shown that people stay because they feel valued, engaged, challenged and connected.

We might be thinking that staff retention isn’t something to worry about in these tough economic times. And it’s true, employees are more likely to stay put when fearful about the economy. But this doesn’t necessarily apply to our best, most productive staff members. And we don’t want to suffer an exodus when the economic malaise lifts.

Enter mentoring. Widely considered a tool for junior staff development, mentoring is also a powerful tool to retain staff at all levels. According to the mentoring expert Professor David Clutterbuck, a well-constructed mentoring program will increase the chance of people staying by one third on average.

SURPRISED? WELL CONSIDER HOW MENTORING IMPACTS ON THE INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED:

1. Participating in a mentoring program makes staff feel valued by their organisation. This is obviously true for mentees, but also true for mentors who appreciate having their knowledge and expertise recognised.
2. A mentoring program raises awareness and understanding between different levels within the organisation’s strata. Senior management become aware of frustrations experience by juniors and are able to take timely action.
3. Mentees feel heard, given the opportunity to voice their career frustrations and concerns.
4. Mentors feel reinvigorated, finding a sense of purpose in the opportunity to help someone else’s career.
5. The mentoring relationship enables people to shape a career strategy within an organisation and points them toward internal job opportunities.
6. And if you do lose someone, the mentoring process has the surprising effect of attracting them back. When former staff start looking for their next opportunity, they are likely to turn to their former trusted mentor for advice. A well constructed mentoring program makes your staff feel valued, builds connections between different organizational levels and provides a foundation for building long-term career strategies within the organisation. It is hardly surprising that increased staff retention is an outcome.

WHAT IS IT?

Also known as “upward mentoring”, reverse mentoring turns the traditional hierarchical approach to mentoring on its head. Rather than having a senior player take a less experienced player “under their wing”, reverse mentoring relationships place the more senior person as the primary learner and emphasise the experience of the junior person.

The objective of reverse mentoring is primarily to enable leaders and senior managers to stay in touch with their organisations and the outside world. But the advantages go both ways as more junior personnel have an opportunity to understand and be heard by more senior and experienced people.

WHEN & WHY SHOULD IT BE USED?

There are two main objectives that reverse mentoring has proven successful in achieving.

Advance the technical skills and understanding of senior management.

Executives are increasingly required to make strategic decisions in response to technological changes. It is difficult to capitalise on opportunities presented by burgeoning social media sites or cloud computing technologies if you are unfamiliar with how they are being used.

Companies such as General Electric, Ogilvy & Mather and Cisco Systems have all addressed this dilemma by implementing reverse mentoring programs, whereby junior staff members more literate in the latest technologies help executives to brush up on their skills. As well as providing a safe environment for senior management to learn, these relationships also give junior players a sense of purpose and belonging.

EDUCATE LEADERS ABOUT DIVERSITY ISSUES

It is easy for executives to declare that the organisation is “committed to the advancement of women” or “encourages a diverse workforce”. But it can be difficult to make a meaningful difference to gender and diversity issues from the ivory tower position of a corner office.

When a division of Procter and Gamble wanted to reverse a growing turnover amongst women in junior and middle management posts they recognised that the traditional hierarchical approach to mentoring would only reinforce a potentially patriarchal culture that may be at the heart of the problem. Instead they implemented the “Mentoring Up” program that matched senior male managers with junior female mentors, who were tasked with providing informal, non-threatening feedback on issues specific to women. In other words, their job was to help management to understand diversity issues at a human level. The program enabled women to develop quality relationships with senior executives, to become more visible within the organisation, and to be heard: not surprisingly retention rates amongst women increased.

HOW TO MAKE IT SUCCESSFUL?

1. Be very clear about the purpose of the program. Clarity about the broad organizational goals will help participants to take the process seriously.
2. Train both parties for their role. Junior participants need training in how to confront and challenge more senior participants, while senior participants must learn how to be open to these challenges.
3. Review relationships regularly to ensure they are on track. It is all too easy for both junior and senior participants to fall back into a hierarchical pattern of behaviour. In our experience only training and regular review can establish a pattern of effective “upward” learning.
4. Track issues or concerns that recur in multiple relationships. These concerns may be indicative of more widespread diversity issues that need to be addressed at an organisational level.
5. Start small. Developing safe and positive reverse mentoring relationships can be tricky. It is best to start with small pilot programs and then use pilot participants as a steering committee for roll out of the program on a wider scale.

When a mentoring program succeeds it can reap enormous benefits. A mentoring program that fails, however, has negative consequences; disappointed participants, stakeholders and a loss of trust in the sponsoring department can result. Before embarking on a mentoring program it is wise to consider the kinds of problems that programs may experience and the strategies that a program manager can adopt to mitigate the risks of failure.

When we’ve been called in to rehabilitate unsuccessful mentoring programs, here are the top five causes of failure that we have observed:

1. Failure to define the program’s purpose: A mentoring program, like any business investment, is undertaken for a reason – to increase inclusion of diverse groups in a government department, to retain middle managers in an organisation, to engage members in a professional association … Take the time up-front to discuss and develop a cogent and focussed program purpose. This will create a solid foundation and a point of reference for the effective design and smooth implementation of the program.

2. Failure to define and measure success: Mentoring program managers need to monitor the participation of the mentees and mentors, and the performance of the program overall. Don’t wait until it’s too late to find out that your participants are dissatisfied and disengaged, or that your communications strategy isn’t hitting the mark. Plan to evaluate your program at a number of levels, and measure progress toward success several times throughout its course.

3. Poor planning and preparation: When key stakeholders are not involved in the design stage, the program implementation plan can be inadequate. Consult with your communications team and the managers of your intended participants, to smooth the way for the rollout of your program. Identify the risks early and iron out potential problems well before the program is launched to the target audience.

4. Poor or no training for participants: Experienced managers, and sometimes even experienced mentors, do not necessarily ‘just know’ how to do mentoring. Effective programs provide activities and resources that ensure that mentors understand the key skills of effective mentoring, and that the mentees’ and mentors’ expectations are aligned through training.

5. Inadequate program support: Sometimes a great deal of effort goes into getting the program off the ground, but mentors and mentees are then left to work it out for themselves. Busy mentors (and mentees!) may need to be reminded of why they made a commitment to the program, and will appreciate encouragement and support in their efforts. Make sure you have sufficient program management time and resources to deliver basic administrative tasks, like responding to questions and inviting participants to program meetings. Make sure they know where to turn for help if needed and provide support for relationships that need a bit of hand-holding to start.

With a little forethought and adopting good practice, a mentoring program can be set up to succeed – a modest investment in time and effort before a program begins will deliver enormous returns.

© Gina Meibusch, Art of Mentoring 2022

We are often asked the advantages of mentoring to the various stakeholders involved. Here we list the most common rewards that individuals reap from a mentoring program.

BENEFITS FOR MENTEES

• Explore issues and concerns in a confidential and supportive relationship.
• Learn from the real life experiences of others.
• Align your own development to your company’s performance culture.
• Exposure to new, and often more senior, members of your organisation.
• Explore your career development plans, with guidance to make appropriate choices.
• Network and to learn about effective networking.
• Become more comfortable dealing with people of different backgrounds, experience and authority.
• Gain guidance in managing difficult relationships and interpreting feedback from other.
• Develop greater confidence, personally and within your organisation.

BENEFITS FOR MENTORS

Mentoring programs do not just benefit the mentees. Mentors find tremendous learning and development opportunities of their own. Here are some of the benefits that are frequently reported to us:

• Gain personal satisfaction by making a difference to someone else.
• Increase your profile and your professional networks.
• Learn and develop mentoring skills and enhance your leadership and interpersonal skills.
• Gain intellectual challenge by working on issues outside your day to day experience.
• Find reflective space in a hectic daily schedule.
• Sharpen your listening skills.
• Discover fresh perspectives that may assist with your own work.

BENEFITS FOR LINE MANAGERS

It is important that the mentee’s line manager is supportive of the mentoring relationship, not threatened by it. The mentoring program can provide direct benefits to line managers:

• Mentees relationships with their line managers and peers often improve through the mentoring process.
• Mentors can help mentees to gain an alternative perspective which may be helpful in managing their performance.

LESSONS IN DIVERSITY MENTORING

Today’s organisations must be able to capitalise on diversity – tapping into a multi-cultural workforce, managing the demands of an increasingly well-educated and experienced cadre of female managers and facilitating virtual teams and alliances in a global workplace. By facilitating cross-group understanding and supporting disadvantaged or minority groups within an organisation, mentoring is emerging as a powerful method for encouraging organizational diversity. However, mentoring within or between unique groups comes with unique problems. We outline below some of the key lessons that have been learned thus far in “diversity mentoring”.

1. DEFINE THE PURPOSE CAREFULLY

Any mentoring program should be clear about its purpose, but this is particularly the case with “diversity mentoring” because it is so easy to generalize. A mentoring program that is simply to “support women in the organisation” is likely to lead to a large number of lunch meetings where everyone wonders what they are doing here.

2. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

There is a genuine risk that good intention leads to unintentional insult. We have seen a number of instances where mentoring programs intended to support a specific group were perceived as devaluing that group. So for example a program designed to support a specific racial minority may lead the group to feel that they are considered “not good enough”. It is important to understand the perspective of the group you are trying to support.

3. MAKE PROGRAMS “OPT IN”

For any mentoring program to be successful it is critical that both the mentors and the mentees want to be there. This is even more important for diversity programs, particularly cross group programs where you are asking people to listen and understand others with substantially different perspectives.

4. ENSURE QUALITY TRUMPS QUANTITY

If you are running a diversity program it is tempting to want to include everyone who fits the diversity objective. But the truth is that establishing a bad mentoring relationship is far worse than having no relationship at all – particularly when dealing with delicate diversity issues. It is essential that programs are limited to the number of quality mentors available. A quality mentor will need to have strong communication and empathic skills and a track record in people development. (See our article on Selecting a Mentor for more on what makes a good mentor.)

5. SAME GROUP VERSUS CROSS GROUP? – IT DEPENDS

There is much discussion about whether diversity programs work best if the mentor and mentee are from the same group or different groups. Each has its advantages. A same group relationship is likely to establish a strong rapport and empathy between the mentor and mentee. On the other hand, cross group relationships are able to foster a greater level of cross-cultural or gender understanding which can be advantageous to the organisation as a whole. The decision goes back to our first lesson – know your purpose. If the purpose is to help disenfranchised employees to grow confident and comfortable within a role or an organisation then same group programs may be more successful. If the purpose is to foster communication and understanding within your organisation then cross group programs will work better.

6. INVEST IN TRAINING

There is little more frustrating to us than to watch organisations run mentoring programs without appropriate mentor/mentee training. It is critical to the success of any mentoring program that both sides of the relationship receive training. All training programs must be geared to help mentees understand their role in the process and to raise mentor’s “coaching” competencies. In diversity mentoring it is also critical that both sides of the relationship are trained to be aware of diversity issues, such as how stereotyping occurs and how different cultures or genders may approach the same issue differently.

7. ACKNOWLEDGE STEREOTYPING

Stereotyping is probably the biggest single barrier to success of diversity mentoring programs. In same group relationships stereotypes may be shared and go unquestioned – despite the fact that these stereotypes may be the biggest single barriers to success. In cross group relationships the stereotypes of one or both sides may lead to assumptions that unconsciously limit the potential of the relationship. It is critical that stereotypes be discussed and acknowledged during training, and that mentors, in particular, are trained to be able to openly and honestly discuss the role of stereotype in the mentoring relationship and in the mentee’s progress within the organisation.

8. BALANCE DISADVANTAGE WITH ADVANTAGE

Often diversity mentoring involves a relationship between a disadvantaged person and someone who is not. The most obvious example of this would be physically handicapped mentees working with the able bodied. This requires a tricky balancing act on the part of the mentor. On the one hand if the disadvantage is completely ignored then the mentee may feel patronized and there is a failure to recognise some of the limitations that may need to be overcome. On the other hand if the disadvantage is allowed to take centre stage this may limit the ability to set stretch goals. An effective way for mentors to deal with this is to balance disadvantage with advantage. Work with the mentee to establish a realistic balance sheet of the advantages and disadvantages they have in the workplace. This recognizes that the disadvantage is a reality to be faced, but also puts it into a framework that allows for progress.