Business Mentoring is where a skilled person assists a business usually externally however, a mentor can be sourced from inside a company especially for onboarding new employees. Let’s consider both applications for this post.
The scope of onboarding mentoring has scaled far beyond the traditional method. Employers implement onboarding mentoring as a learning and developmental strategy for boosting employee ‘getting up to speed’ as well as for their growth and retention.
Mentoring during the onboarding process requires a certain commitment level to succeed. But, first, why is this form of mentoring important?
A recent Deloitte survey found that employees who plan to continue with an organization for at least 5 years have a 68% chance of working with an external business mentor once they reach the executive or CEO level.
During onboarding mentoring, mentor partners with new employees at the starting stage of their employment, especially for the first few months.
Business mentors such as Profit Transformations know their onions and understand the best advice and encouragement a new employee needs to get through the initial workplace challenge.
They professionally guide a new employee using their wealth of experience while socializing them with other team members and their operational activities.
In a nutshell, they walk new employees by hand, helping them adapt quickly to their roles and responsibilities.
While the mentee benefits significantly from the business mentor’s role in this organization, the mentor also derives satisfaction in many ways (we’ll delve into that later).
The employee is exposed to quick feedback, advice, encouragement, guidance, and quality information.
Criteria Employers Use When Choosing A Business Mentor For Onboarding Mentoring
Before settling for a mentor, organizations need to be sure that the mentor understands the scope of their responsibilities.
That’s because the company will rely on them to guide, introduce, and socialize the new employee.
A mentor plays a critical role in the success of the onboarding process. They ensure that all work is executed in an organized manner throughout the mentorship journey.
The mentoring will be supporting throughout the mentoring process. That said, here are the strategies a mentor will use to maximize their mentoring prowess.
1. Established Trust
The mentor defines the role and provides answers to all of the employee’s questions or concerns. The business mentor will ensure that the employee shares his/her expectations about the mentoring process.
2. Introduces tasks
The business mentor will introduce the task and expectations related to the employee’s position.
They’ll make a real-time example or demonstrate how the task should be performed. The mentor will explain how this task relates to the coordination of operation.
3. Monitor the application
A mentor will study the new employee’s approach to work ethics and ensure that they approach their roles ethically. A mentor will constantly provide feedback every step of the way.
4. Transfer knowledge effectively
To better help the new employee master their role, the mentor will encourage a practical performance of their position. The mentor will gradually withdraw while remaining available for questions and inquiries.
5. Create objections for individual application
These objectives will guide employees on what’s expected from them when executing their duties and must be on competency.
Regularly keep the employee abreast of their progress.
The mentor will clearly inform the employee of the behaviors expected from them and provide feedback on their progress, advising them on what to improve on.
6. Encourage team development
The traditional onboarding process does not encourage team building with new coworkers. It might become difficult to get acquainted with new coworkers. This is where a mentor comes in, especially an external business mentor who can introduce and facilitate regular a full team meeting or more than one group of team meetings, with all employees included.
7. Get adapted to workplace culture
Impacting culture can be challenging during the onboarding process. Ideally, you must live in a culture to become a part of it. This is where a mentor can take over.
A business mentor will give the new employee a sense of how it feels to work for the organization. They give live-in expectations and provide details that the new employee wouldn’t find in the organization handbook or any other formal material.
8. Open up employer’s schedule
The employer has handed over a part of their onboarding process to the mentor.
They’ll hold the employee by hand, mentor them and handle some responsibilities which the employer would have performed.
The truth is, a mentor opens up part of the employer’s schedule, allowing more free time to handle other responsibilities. They’ll be able to devote time to other tasks like planning long-term strategies.
9. Empowers mentors too
As aforementioned, not only does the mentoring program for onboarding get the new employee mentored, mentors also benefit.
By assigning the onboarding mentoring process to the business mentor, they’re also enjoying a sense of empowerment.
The mentor will be proud to shape the latest generation of the workforce, which could up their confidence and passion for delivering more results.
10. Boosts productivity
An external business mentor can make a significant, measurable difference to the productivity of new and existing employees.
“Happy employees are more productive” is a well known quote and a business mentor can introduce happiness increasing strategies, such as team meetings with all employees where each person can provide input, ideas and ask for assistance with their role.
Learning from an expert business mentor with decades of experience in building teams can literally transform a workplace environment with a bottom-line net profit increase frequently being seen.
11. Improve role clarity
Maybe it’s due to vague job descriptions or inaccurate info during interviews, most employees enter a job without having a clear understanding of what their roles will be. Unfortunately, the traditional onboarding process focuses on the general info of working for a company and provides less information about what their roles are expected to be. Even if they have a good grasp of what their role should entail, they might not have a total conviction of whether they should claim ownership of a certain role or leave it to a colleague.
A mentor clarifies the roles and responsibilities of a new employee. Of course, the mentor should be experienced in the employee’s position, which will enable them to convey info they might not find in the organization’s job description.
Mentors can guide new hires in where they need to shift their focus on and areas outside their scope and responsibilities.
Nicola Holder 