For an organization to grow and thrive, it must make employee development a top priority. As an organizational leader, you want to educate and retain talented employees, and to do so you need to build a strong mentoring culture within the workplace. Mentoring creates continuous learning opportunities, preserves institutional knowledge and builds lasting relationships among employees.
Find a Good Fit
For a mentoring program to become an integral part of your organization, it has to be woven into your core mission and values. Set specific goals for the program and align your actions and expectations to fit into your organizational culture. Assign roles and responsibilities and track the program’s progress as part of your overall employee development strategy. As you identify mentors in your organization, provide them with the necessary training and support they need to be successful. Allow mentors to give regular feedback on their personal challenges, successes and suggestions.
Communicate & Educate
It is important to talk about the mentoring culture you are working to develop. Publicly identify the lead mentors in your organization, and carefully match them with small groups of mentees. Encourage groups to meet regularly for communications skills training sessions, skills sharing and other educational opportunities. Acknowledge small and large victories of the mentoring groups in staff meetings, newsletters or weekly emails. As mentees begin to complete goals and gain knowledge, they will naturally seek out new goals and eventually move into the role of mentoring newer employees.
Commit Time & Money
A successful mentoring and employee development program requires an investment of time tacmeds.com and money, but the ultimate return on investment is substantial. Create a strong infrastructure for mentorship within your organization; give ownership of the program to one person who ensures it has funding and time dedicated to it.
Learn From Mistakes
Sometimes it takes a couple of false starts to get a mentorship program running smoothly. You may discover a partnership is not a good match or lack of time or resources is creating roadblocks. This is a normal part of the process and no reason to be discouraged. Be flexible enough to reevaluate your initial decisions and make adjustments to correct any problems. A mentoring culture must evolve and grow constantly to be sustainable.
Have you established a mentoring program in your organization? What are the best practices you recommend?
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