The why and how of building an internal mentorship program

Introduction

Regardless of their experience or qualifications, everyone stands to gain when they have a mentor.

Seeking the advice of a mentor can be useful in countless scenarios, especially regarding career progression and satisfaction. Moreover, mentors may also offer impartial opinions on family, health, and relationships.

Benefits of mentoring programs in the workplace

Internal mentorship programs are initiatives that are driven by an organisation's leadership and management teams.

They are designed to encourage more experienced and senior team members to offer their support to junior employees.

Aside from the clear benefits that mentorship brings to an organisation, there are other wider cultural benefits too.

Mentors create a safe place for employees.

When employees have access to objective company mentors, they can seek advice and guidance without the fear of it impacting the relationship with their manager. Moreover, knowing there is a person they can go to when they are in a difficult situation helps reduce anxiety and stress.

A cost-effective way to offer professional development

Keeping employees up to date with their professional development is crucial to ensuring their success and that of your organisation.

But, the cost of hiring external agencies to run professional development workshops can be expensive and out of reach for some small businesses.

Building a well-oiled internal mentor program allows employees to enjoy the benefits of ongoing professional development without financially affecting the business.

Mentorship opportunities benefit company culture

Aside from all the other direct benefits mentor programs provide, they also create an abundance of positivity within an organisation, consequently benefiting the company culture. 

When people look forward to coming to work and feeling part of a community, they experience many health and wellbeing benefits, this is also true for remote workers too. 

As an employer, you may notice your teams don't get sick as often, and absence rates drop. Or, they may be more productive due to a renewed sense of pride in their role.

What to look for in a good mentor

Identifying prime mentor candidates is the first and most important step of the mentorship program.

Generally speaking, there are three specific qualities to look out for when scouting for mentors:

Diverse experience

Knowledge might be power, but the true value of a mentor is their experience — or wisdom. Mentors need to be able to draw on their own personal experiences to offer sound advice, and exposure to diversity is a fundamental part of this.

Even when someone has decades of industry experience, if they haven’t held different types of roles or lived in different places, they may not be able to relate to a wide range of people.

The more diverse someone’s experience is, the better a mentor they are likely to be.

Availability

Most mentor programs consist of experienced people who collectively cover a wide range of expertise. These mentors tend to have busy schedules, often restricting their availability.

Incentivising mentors is a great way to reward their commitment so their responsibilities are taken seriously. Incentives could range from rewards to hours in lieu, for example.

Communication skills

A mentor must be able to communicate effectively. It doesn't matter if they are the most senior person in their role, if they cannot teach what they know, the mentee is unlikely to find the program rewarding.

Be proactive

For a mentorship program to flourish and achieve results, the managers must create opportunities for mentors and mentees to get together regularly.

This encourages mentors to give back and inspires other employees to pay that altruism forward. The organisation as a whole benefits from this, facilitating that full circle of positivity.

We also recommend thinking of novel ways to bring mentorship to the forefront of your organisation. Publicly recognising both mentors and mentees is a great way to do this. Not only does it cement mentorship into your company culture, but it's also highly motivating.

You could even create a mentorship award for mentors who have gone above and beyond.

How can Perkbox help?

Perkbox is a comprehensive, all-in-one employee experience platform that can help you deliver the best mentorship program possible.

From thousands of mentorship rewards to a culture tool that can house scheduling docs, mentorship group details, and more.

What's more, because everything is accessible from the app, there are no more convoluted mailing lists, and mentors can receive rewards regardless of where they are based.