According to recent research, 83% of workers participating in a mentoring program admitted that their experiences positively influenced their desire to stay at their organizations. And, luckily, there are many types of mentor-mentee relationships that your organization can help promote via various types of mentorship programs.
Here are four mentorship programs you’ll want to consider implementing in 2019.
1. Skills-Based Mentoring
You’ll want to develop and implement mentorship programs where mentors help mentees develop new and advanced skills on a rolling basis. Why? Unfortunately, the average skill inside the workplace only lasts around 5 years nowadays, and technology and automation are constantly changing the ways in which everyone works.
What’s more, upskilling is becoming more and more necessary inside every workplace, as there are millions of jobs that remain vacant for prolonged periods of time due to applicants who lack newer and emerging skills.
Skill-based mentoring programs, however, will provide your employees with opportunities to learn new skills from one another on a rolling basis as they continue to complete their everyday work tasks. Such mentoring programs can be peer-based as well as master-novice based.
2. Career-Oriented Mentoring
As learning and development become more personalized for each learner, you’ll want each learner to have a mentor who can help him or her navigate the challenges and opportunities for his or her desired career path.
For example, a marketing representative who is interested in managing a marketing team one day could greatly benefit from a mentor who will help him or her explore opportunities to learn and develop skills related to becoming a marketing manager while encouraging him or her to lead teams or projects, as well as to help him or her write résumés and prepare for interviews, etc.
3. Virtual Mentoring
Remote work and flexible work are trending upward inside most workplaces. And as you implement and encourage more employees to work remotely, you’ll want them to be able to take advantage of mentorship programs where they can connect with their mentors or mentees virtually.
So, consider implementing more robust communications platforms and virtual meeting platforms for these programs. And be sure to develop guidelines for virtual mentors and mentees, so they continue to stay connected and participate on a regular basis.
4. Peer Coaches and Mentoring
As rates of mental illness and depression continue to increase across the workforce each year, you should consider pairing employees with peer coaches who help them stay motivated, engaged, continually learning, and reaching their career objectives.
Peer mentors are especially beneficial for employees who are new to your organization, who just landed their first management role, or who might be new to your country or industry altogether.
As you work to reassess and revamp your mentorship programs in the new year, consider the four types of mentorship programs mentioned above.