Art of Mentoring corporate logo, flying geese colored version
Contact Us
Menu
Art of Mentoring corporate logo, flying geese colored version

View Our Webinar : The Secret To Keeping Your Best Talent In 2022

Overview

With the rise of The Great Resignation and the growing skills shortage, retaining information and transferring knowledge is becoming increasingly more important to retain and attract top talent.

In this webinar Art of Mentoring and HowToo will explore how mentoring and learning can help improve staff retention or capture knowledge before it leaves.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this webinar:

  • The role that learning and mentoring play in retention of talent
  • The tools and techniques to support effective retention of information and ease of knowledge transfer
  • How enabling teams to create learning and utilising mentoring can reduce the learning curve, and help drive successful outcomes
  • We’ll explore case studies where other organisations have addressed their retention challenges with learning and mentoring

Presented by

  • Melissa Richardson, Founder and CEO, Art of Mentoring
  • Lisa Vincent, Co-Founder and CEO, How Too
  • Gina Meibusch, Senior Program Manager, Art of Mentoring

Presented in partnership with 

5 Things We Learned from The Secret to Keeping Your Best Talent in 2022

Art of Mentoring’s CEO and founder Melissa Richardson sat down with Lisa Vincent CEO of course creation tool, HowToo to discuss “The Secret to Keeping Your Best Talent in 2022”. 

The topic clearly resonated with the industry, with over 600 individuals registering to attend.

Led by Gina Meibusch, Senior Program Designer at Art of Mentoring, the discussion touched on the challenges of retaining and hiring talent in the current talent market, and how organizations can meet these challenges with a strategic approach.

Here are five things we learned from The Secret to Keeping Your Best Talent in 2022.

#1 The pandemic affected everyone

It’s practically cliche at this point to talk about how much the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world on its head, but even as the end appears in sight (knock on wood), the effects continue to ricochet through the world of business.

While the first phase saw managers and business leaders grappling with newly-remote teams, the end of 2021 revealed the dissatisfaction that had been bubbling away for workers all along. Queue the Great Resignation – workers leaving their roles in droves in search of higher pay, better conditions and better career development opportunities.

“We’re really talking about a war for talent,” Melissa pointed out in the webinar.

As a result, businesses need to overhaul their employee value propositions to boost attraction and retention of their workforces – or risk haemorrhaging dissatisfied workers.

#2 Employees are looking for real support

A big paycheck isn’t enough to satisfy employees – and with historic stagnation in wage growth, even those aren’t easy to come by anymore. Instead, employees are seeking companies that can support them in holistic ways, from meaningful work, to organizational trust and personal wellbeing.

One of the key areas companies need to focus on is Growth Opportunities. In his HR Predictions for 2022 report, Josh Bersin writes “Learning, skills and career pathways will become business-critical.”

By placing career growth and learning as a key pillar of their Employee Value Proposition, companies can attract and retain good people far more easily.

#3 Training & mentoring are peas in a pod

When tackling complex needs like growth opportunities, companies may look to a single solution. However, a single approach is rarely enough to create the culture of growth and learning that employees are looking for.

Instead, by combining approaches like training and mentoring, businesses can not only create a more robust culture, but also get more out of each tactic in the process.

“I think mentoring is a really perfect partner for training… We’re encouraging people not to make mentoring about teaching a new skill. It’s better to handle that as training. It’s much more effective that way, and infinitely more scalable,” Melissa shared.

“I agree,” Lisa added. “The combination of the two will get the best growth outcomes for individuals and organizations.”

#4 Capturing the wisdom and knowledge of baby boomers is essential

The baby boomer generation is rapidly approaching retirement, and they take with them decades of experience and knowledge, unless it is captured and shared first.

“There’s a wealth of knowledge and experience among baby boomers that needs to be captured,” Lisa pointed out. “A culture of learning creation, capturing and sharing from all directions is really critical.”

Both mentoring and training are essential for preventing this priceless resource from walking out the door. Many baby boomers are keen to leave a legacy behind, and are happy to participate in mentoring and training initiatives to pass on their experience.

“Technology also plays a key role in capturing and sharing knowledge in a way that is useful and needed,” Lisa added.

#5 How to build a learning culture

Without a learning culture, providing proper growth opportunities is impossible. In a learning culture, employees have agency to upskill and reskill themselves, and are rewarded for their efforts.

“It starts with finding and recruiting people with curiosity to learn,” said Lisa. “It will be easier if your people are already eager and motivated by the concept of not knowing, getting out of their comfort zone and continuing learning.”

Lisa also shared a number of other ways to build a learning culture, including:

  • Encourage experimentation
  • Democratize learning creation
  • Making learning a core value and priority
  • Set up personalized learning plans
  • Encourage learners to share their skills
  • Apply learning and neuroscience with the AGES model.

A multi-pronged approach is essential any time a company is attempting to build or change culture internally.

Hear the case studies

Both Melissa and Lisa shared case studies from customers that employed strategic mentoring and training programs.

To hear the case studies and catch further insights from the discussion, you can watch the webinar recording here.

The Role Of Mentoring In Reframing Employee Engagement And Retention

The impact of COVID–19 and remote working has propelled the need for human connection and belonging into the spotlight. Employees want to contribute to purposeful work, establish meaningful connections in their work environment, and their expectations of employers are much more than simply making money.

Organizations are identifying the need to move from short term fixes, to implementing significant cultural changes to meet the needs of their employees. The growing trend toward implementing purpose–led Mentoring within organizations to meet this need and to curb the impact of The Great Resignation, is a no–brainer. Proactive organizations want to get ahead of the curve and implement programs to retain valuable talent and provide opportunity for development. The expectations of employees have shifted, are you ready to meet their needs?

Join us as Art of Mentoring’s Co-CEO, Alex Richardson reframes what it means to engage employees meaningfully to retain talent, and positively impact the culture of your organization.

What you will learn:

  • What outcomes you can expect from mentoring
  • How mentoring can attract, engage and retain your valuable talent
  • The role of mentoring in culture and organizational health

Hosted by:
Alex Richardson
Co-CEO and Chief Growth Officer, Art of Mentoring

 

eBook: How To Choose The Right Mentoring Software

You’re ready to launch a mentoring program, or you have an existing program in place and are managing it with countless spreadsheets, emails and post-it notes. You know there has to be an easier way to implement this using the right technology! A solution that saves time and creates a more engaging experience for your participants. However, with so many mentoring software options to choose from, how will you decide which is right for you?

Our eBook will help you to navigate the decision-making process and present key features that you may not have previously considered, and that are fundamental to a program’s success.

Fill out the form below to download our free eBook on the How To Choose The Right Mentoring Software.

 

 

View Our Webinar : Setting Your Association Members Up For Success Through Mentoring

Overview

Membership Associations create valuable communities for like-minded professionals, and association networking is an important part of the professional and career development benefit that that membership provides.

Associations take that benefit to the next level however, when they create personal connections among members through mentoring. Association mentoring programs give members unique access to each other in partnerships where the mentor and mentee receive support and guidance to jointly achieve meaningful growth and change.

In this webinar, you’ll hear from 3 association leaders who have realised the value of strategic mentoring programs across different industries and very different member bases; you will learn about their decisions and their journey to implement mentoring for their membership, and the gratifying results for their participants, the association, and their industry as a whole.

Presented by

  • Gina Meibusch, Senior Program Designer, Art of Mentoring
  • Pip Thomas, CEO, Association of School Business Administrators
  • Stephen Durkin, CEO, Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
  • Neal Logan, Career Development Manager, CPA Australia

 

Why mentoring programs derail (and what to do about it)

In 2016, 2017 and again in 2022, we surveyed organisations and found that only just over half were actually satisfied with the results being delivered by their mentoring programs. An analysis comparing those that were satisfied (leaders), with those that were not (laggards), revealed once again in 2022 that lack of program success is highly correlated with a lack of program structure, training, support and resourcing. Yet, mentoring can deliver a high return on investment, when designed and implemented well. According to our colleague, Professor David Clutterbuck, highly effective mentoring programs:

  • Deliver substantial learning for at least 95% of mentees and at least 80% of mentors.
  • Lead to at least one third higher retention amongst people mentored, than peers who are not.
  • Demonstrate measurable improvements in mentee job commitment, engagement and relationships at work (particularly with their bosses!).
  • Improve and reinforce mentors’ confidence and ability in coaching their own direct reports.
  • Provide useful insights into people management undercurrents – broader issues that can lead to improvements in HR policies and processes.
  • Give leaders greater confidence in succession plans.
  • In the context of diversity, equity and inclusion, have a clear and substantial contribution towards the achievement of equal opportunity targets and have a measurable impact on cultural awareness.

If your current program is not delivering outcomes like these, or you are about to create a new program, here are some simple design guidelines – and traps you can avoid:

1.Start with the end in mind: By far the most important element to get right is the program purpose. If you can’t tell a convincing story about why your organisation needs a mentoring program, you might as well not even start. Everything else flows from this—the program design, measurable objectives, eligibility, matching and training strategy and a compelling reason for mentors to sign up. The best programs we see are those that are well–targeted and designed to achieve a specific purpose. Here are some examples:

  • A professional association mentoring program supporting graduates in their first year, when they are prone to burn–out, mental health issues and leaving the profession.
  • A government program designed to help people from different generations to work in reciprocal mentoring relationships to foster cross–generational learning and experience transfer, as well as to build a collaborative culture.
  • An enterprise–wide mentoring program to build career mobility and provide development options for employees who miss out on other training opportunities.
  • Mentoring to encourage and support women into more senior roles to meet diversity goals.

Without a clear purpose, mentoring programs become a ‘tick–a–box’ exercise to which no one in your organisation will fully commit to. They need direction, commitment, and a little bit of love to help them flourish.

So, the best place to start, is to ask: What is my organisation trying to achieve in the next 1–3 years and how will mentoring help?

2. Get your ducks in a row: Programs with low commitment, particularly from senior leadership, suffer from poor program management. When senior leaders commit to a mentoring program, they indicate to others the program is an organisational priority. The truly committed participate fully as mentors themselves, by role modelling and gently creating pressure for those below to step up. Find people in your organisation who are passionate champions for mentoring and get them involved.

3. Find the glove that fits: Getting the degree of structure right can be tricky. Too much structure (templates, tools, forms, reporting, guidelines) causes disengagement. Remember, mentoring is a very human process! On the flip side, not enough structure can leave people feeling unsupported, especially first-time mentors. The degree of structure needed will vary across industries and professions – some like more and some prefer less. By far the most common mistake we see is lack of structure. It simply isn’t true that if given digital access to a portfolio of mentor profiles, potential mentees will seek out and choose a mentor that is right for them. And left to their own devices, novice mentors can feel out of their depth, resorting to “telling” rather than “guiding”. Their lack of confidence about themselves as mentors gets in the way of authentic communication, which is at the core of good mentoring. Fully unsupported, unstructured mentoring initiatives often lead to what we call ‘fast knowledge transfer’ rather than true developmental mentoring. Good mentoring requires some skill on the part of the mentor, which can be trained. Mentees, too, need to be well-prepared to engage. So, don’t just match people up and then walk away – make sure you equip everyone involved, mentors, mentees, and program managers and sponsors, with what they need to ensure mentoring success. Even line managers of mentees and mentors may need to be briefed so that they can support the time devoted to mentoring.

4. Plan and take time to execute: Smart organisations plan their mentoring program design, starting with considering whether mentoring is the right intervention to achieve the organisational objective. They involve key stakeholders at the beginning who can help steer the program once launched. They also don’t rush the execution. Just as with any development program, it can take a few months to rally key people, promote the program internally and then invite people to apply. Rushing the execution to meet a deadline almost always ends up with something being compromised; usually the application and matching time is cut short, and poor-quality matches result.

5. Measure, measure, measure! This is linked to the first issue: If there are no clear objectives, then measures of mentoring success are unclear. This leaves a mentoring program open to being shut down on a personal whim by a leader who does not understand the organisational benefits. If you want your mentoring program to be sustainable, be able to demonstrate the ROI.

6. Don’t compromise: You can only have two out of these three – high quality, speed and low cost. We’ve already warned against rushing. If you have high program dropout rates, low goal achievement by mentees or low satisfaction rates from all participants, you are almost certainly under-resourcing your mentoring program. Well-resourced programs have a dedicated program manager who stays in contact with the pairs and nudges them along, educational resources to prepare the mentors and mentees before commencement and for larger programs, software that automates and streamlines program management.

When mentoring pairs fail to engage well, or stop engaging altogether, it most often is because they have not been matched well or have not reached a shared understanding of their commitments to each other. Preparing mentors and mentees to articulate clearly what they each want and can offer, and helping them to discuss this together once matched, can make all the difference.

© Melissa Richardson 2022

View the recording below of our 2020 webinar.

 

 

Strategic Mentoring: Your Best Weapon To Attract, Develop And Retain Talent

Employee expectations have shifted. Values have changed. Working from home has become a way of life, and employees are seeking more purpose from their careers. The question is, does your organization have the programs in place to provide the support your employees need to grow in ‘the new workplace?

Join us as we delve into the process of strategic mentoring and the important role it plays in organizational health. We will explore the impacts of mentoring on attraction, development and retention, and learn that not all mentoring programs are created equal. We will unpack what sets a quality mentoring program apart from others to deliver impactful results for your organization, and what the risks are of not doing it well. Gain insights on key questions to ask yourself when establishing a program and the steps required to deliver a program that will achieve results.

What you will learn:

  • Understand the value of strategic, purpose led mentoring
  • Learn what is in it for the mentees, the mentors, and the organization
  • Key things to consider when starting a mentoring program

Hosted by:
Alex Richardson
Co-CEO and Chief Growth Officer, Art of Mentoring

 

 

Mentoring in the Workplace 2022

The concept of mentoring is certainly not something new. In fact, the word originates from a character in Homer’s classic poem “The Odyssey,” which dates back to three millennia ago.

But that doesn’t mean that the concept has been static. Traditional mentoring relationships have often formed naturally, with older people often passing along knowledge and wisdom to younger ones. Structured mentoring programs in organizations have become a powerful tool for learning and development. A core set of best practices have emerged to guide organizations.

To better understand this evolution and current trends, we partnered with the HR.com Research Institute to hear from over 330 industry professionals in virtually every industry vertical.

In this study, we explore a variety of related topics:

  • The global state of mentoring today
  • The characteristics and purpose of mentoring programs
  • Success and satisfaction with mentoring programs
  • The various types of mentoring and how they are delivered
  • How organizations with more successful mentoring programs tend to differ from organizations with less successful programs

 

Mentoring in the Public Sector

Many of the studies on mentoring have been conducted in the educational, arts or corporate sectors. There is far less research on government mentoring. So, what do we know about what makes public sector mentoring different? Is it different?

To some degree, the same individual and organizational benefits derive from mentoring, no matter the sector. Government mentoring programs have been found to attract new talent to the public sector, increase retention, and develop leadership (Barrett & Greene, 2008). In our own research, we have found that mentors and mentees in government agencies report the same kinds of outcomes for themselves as other mentoring program participants, including greater self-awareness, self-confidence, career/ job satisfaction and enhanced affiliation with their supporting agency.

An Australian paper (Ehrich and Hansford, 2008) reviewed public sector mentoring studies and found that the reported impacts of mentoring were the same or similar to those on private sector organizations, namely;

  • Develop skills and competencies required to do the job more effectively
  • Affirm the mentee’s choice of career, enhance their commitment and in turn give mentors satisfaction with their role and career
  • Improve the culture and climate, retain staff, improve the profile of the organization, and reduce absenteeism

Are there any differences, really? Two US researchers conducted a literature review to find out (Bozeman & Feeney, 2009), and developed a three-tier model to explain public sector mentoring and how it differs from mentoring in other organizations. The tiers in their model were:

Interdependence: Public agencies are interconnected in ways that private companies are not. In many countries, government departments are connected by common people

systems and rules, common procurement protocols procedures, and similar budget and accounting processes. Government employees are expected to co-operate with employees from other agencies. With changes of government, restructures are common in public agencies. Employees can find their agencies moved virtually overnight, only to find the move is reversed at the next election.  The researchers argue that mentoring must take these varied accountabilities into account and could be offered as a means of coping effectively with greater externally-imposed procedural and accountability constraints.

Opportunity structure: While mentoring can play an important role in diminishing career opportunity barriers in both private and public sectors, government agencies have historically had a distinctive role in ensuring equal opportunity. Government agencies in many countries have been in the vanguard in providing increased opportunity for minority groups. They use Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs to develop human capital and also to ensure that the government workforce reflects the diversity of the population at large.

Public Service Motivation: People who work for government agencies, by and large, have different motivations compared with private sector employees. Public sector employees are more likely to be motivated by altruism and service to community (Rainey, 2003).

The context for private sector managers is profit motivation of the employing organization. For public managers, it’s the public good.

So, is and should mentoring in government be different from the private sector? My conclusion is that the model is useful to explain why public agencies can and should choose to initiate the TYPES of programs that they do. For example, on the point of Opportunity Structure, we do see more diversity and inclusion emphasis from our government clients, both in terms of offering specific programs for minority applicants, as well as ensuring that diverse applicants are accepted into programs.  We also see a little more emphasis on the intended impact of mentoring, not just on the individuals involved, but on the agency and its stakeholders (including the general public). The content of mentoring conversations sometimes includes the complexities of interdependence and how to navigate that.

Otherwise, there are abundant similarities between government mentoring and mentoring in any employing organization. The usual rules of good mentoring program design apply in all sectors. Overall, we observe that public sector agencies take employee professional and career development quite seriously and mentoring is now widespread in all levels of government in many countries.

© Melissa Richardson, Art of Mentoring

 

Barrett, K., and R. Greene. 2008. Measuring Performance: The State Management Report Card for 2008. Government Performance Project. Governing, March, 24-95.

Bozeman, B. and Feeney, M. (2009). Public Management Mentoring: A Three Tier Model. Review of Public Personnel Administration. Volume: 29 issue: 2, page(s): 134-157. Article first published online: November 13, 2008; Issue published: June 1, 2009

Ehrich, Lisa C. and Hansford, Brian C. (2008). Mentoring in the public sector. Practical Experiences in Professional Education, 11(1). pp. 1-58.

Rainey, H. G. 2003. Understanding and managing public organizations (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Recording: Creating transformational mentoring relationships

Webinar: Creating transformational mentoring relationships for mentees, mentors and their workplaces – an interview with Lisa Fain

There are some people that are seemingly gifted with natural mentoring abilities however there is an underlying ‘art of mentoring’ that is not an easily obtained capability and is likely a skill that the best mentors are aware that they are ever evolving and mastering.

In different contexts for example their style or approach must shift or adapt to the environment which the best mentors can identify as a relationship becomes further established, moving into new phases of the relationship.

Alex Richardson, Art of Mentoring’s CEO, interviews Centre for Mentoring Excellence CEO and leadership expert Lisa Fain on her new book, co-authored with her mother, mentoring expert Dr. Lois Zachary.  Lisa is a global speaker, and an expert in the intersection of cultural competency and mentoring. Her passion for diversity and inclusion fuels her strong conviction, that leveraging differences creates a better workplace and drives better business results.

The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships, Third Edition, is a comprehensive resource to help businesses and organizations fulfil their needs by using mentoring to promote growth and development, accelerate learning, fast-track leadership, improve retention, elevate morale, strengthen recruitment, and promote diversity. This rich, practical, and actionable guide is designed for leaders, managers, and educators in educational, non-profit, corporate, and government sectors.

What would your life or career have been like without the mentors that helped guide you? Or conversely what would it have been like if you had great mentors in your corner?

Join us for an info-packed interview with Lisa and help the ripple effect of effective mentoring spread far and wide.

Alex and Lisa explore:

  • Where mentoring comes from and how it exists in our daily lives already?
  • What makes mentors effective and how much do they need to know to get started?
  • Discussion on some of the techniques outlined in the book and the phases of the mentoring lifecycle
  • Why mentoring impacts diversity goals, wellbeing, employee engagement and other common workplace issues
  • The opportunity for mentoring done well at a program level – what’s the impact of quality mentoring beyond the mentor and mentee individually?

Presented by:
Alex Richardson, CEO and Founder, Art of Mentoring
Lisa Fain, CEO, Center for Mentoring Excellence

 

Read Art of Mentoring’s Founder, Melissa Richardson’s review of The Mentor’s Guide