If you are going to sell your boss on a mentoring program, you need to have a strategic vision of what that program is going to look like in your company. A strategic vision for mentoring avoids the pitfall of what your boss may view as another HR gimmick. Be prepared with information that demonstrates the value of mentoring.
So what are your boss’s greatest needs in regards to developing his/her employees?
Employee retention?
Offering a planned approach to employee’s career development, such as a corporate mentoring program, has become a “must-have” for organizations that want to attract and retain top talent. Mentoring builds loyalty and longevity in employee retention. Check out some statistics and information on talent retention.
Succession planning?
Mentoring is an ideal strategy for enriching your succession planning program. In succession planning, you’re targeting individual talent to take on increasingly more responsible positions and eventually assume a major position within your organization. Today’s workforce is evolving, and the best companies are responding to it by offering and fostering diversity initiatives to expand understanding and encourage collaboration across different demographics. But there’s still a big problem – most diversity initiatives don’t go far enough. And companies that offer insufficient programs are wasting time and money. This requires solid experience and solid advice from seasoned employees. Adding mentoring as a method of pairing such individuals with your talent pool ensures that the right expertise will complement your succession planning goals. It also ensures that the company’s expertise from experienced employees will not be lost once they retire or leave the company but will be retained by having been shared by those who are poised to take their place.
Promoting diversity?
There is a strong business case for workforce diversity and diversity initiatives, such as cross-cultural mentoring programs. Baby boomers are aging and remaining in the workforce longer, companies are conducting more business globally, women are playing a stronger role in executive teams, and a growing number of minorities are entering the U.S. workforce.
Mentoring has proven to be a highly effective technique to reduce the barriers to equal opportunity. A mentoring program can help to create a level playing field so that everybody has equal access to career development opportunity. At Management Mentors we have case studies and other mentoring resources you may like to present to your boss. We would encourage you to do even more research on the benefits of a mentoring program. Conduct online searches with terms like “benefits of mentoring,” and “corporate mentoring program.”
Good luck with your research and be sure to let us know if there is anything we can provide to you to help you to achieve the results you are hoping for. In the end you need a powerful champion in the organization that will support the mentoring initiative so that it can truly help enhance the bottom line by increasing the value of a company’s most important asset—its employees!