A fifth of employees are not currently being mentored or acting as a mentor but yearn to be, according to a survey of 2000 respondents. The study conducted by global HR services group Penna found that 40% of employees have never been given the opportunity to be a mentor or mentee.
The most popular objective of mentoring for mentees is to acquire new skills (59%), with the least being to find a new job (10%). Mentees reported that the most desirable characteristics for mentors to possess are: expertise (65%), strong rapport (62%) and being challenging (59%). In addition, 64% of mentees agreed that an external mentor would be the least favourable option.
“Organizations are missing a trick here,” commented Penny de Valk, managing director of Penna’s Talent Practice. “We know that good mentoring supports an individual’s career. Talent management slipped down the agenda during the recession, but individuals are clearly hungry for opportunities to learn and develop and businesses can provide this through mentoring schemes. It’s no coincidence that 70% of Fortune 500 businesses run mentoring schemes, and 75% of executives said it played a key role in their personal career success, as it helps to both mentor and mentee to gain new skills and stay engaged with the business. Without it, businesses are at risk of losing talent who will seek learning opportunities elsewhere - even though mentoring can provide a simple solution to aid retention and engagement.”
The study found that only a quarter of mentoring programs are formally arranged and structured. More worryingly, 30% of mentees said the relationship with their mentor failed due to the process having lost momentum. “Organizations that do structure their mentoring programs give training to the mentee and mentor and get great results,” said de Valk. “The mentoring process loses momentum when organizations fail to structure the programs properly. Organizations need to look at whether the matching of mentor and mentee has been done well. There needs to be a light-touch contract at the beginning of the relationship which sets out where and when you meet and determines the quality of the relationship between mentee and mentor. Expectations about the mentoring relationship have to be managed at the contracting stage.”
Mentoring not only provides the mentee with the opportunity to learn new skills, and mentors the chance to hone theirs, but it also helps businesses to enhance their talent pipeline, remarked de Valk. “Employees are looking to their mentoring relationship for development and to help them navigate their career.”
