Mentoring Programs within Organizations
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The document discusses mentoring programs and their benefits for employee retention, succession planning, and skill development. It describes how mentoring allows senior employees to pass on knowledge and expertise to younger employees. The author provides details on the structure of effective mentoring programs, including the five stages of goal setting, initiation, cultivation, separation, and redefinition. The document also gives an example of the mentoring program implemented by Cox Enterprises, where the author participated. The mentoring program helped develop leadership skills and pass on the unique culture of the organization.
Mentoring Programs within Organizations
- 1. Running head: MENTORING PROGRAMS 1 Mentoring Programs and their success within Organizations Tammy Clarke Saint Leo University
- 2. MENTORING PROGRAMS 2 Mentoring Programs and their success within Organizations Mentoring programs in organizations are beneficial to employee retention and promotions. It is critical for organizations to develop their younger employees due to the baby boomer employees contemplating retirement. For many years, organizations were complacent in mentoring employees due to the fact that their top skilled employees were comfortable and well compensated to stay and continue the work. Now, more than ever, it is critical to utilize mentoring within a succession plan so that the organization does not lose efficiencies once the skilled employees retire. Furthermore, it is also critical to use mentoring programs not only for succession planning, but for development your teams to a higher skill level so that all members are within a range of skill level instead of having one or two employees that are highly elite in skill and knowledge. “Mentoring may be for generalized skill development or may also include succession planning for a designated management position” (Reeves, 2010, p. 63). Succession Planning and Mentoring Programs Organizations that support and promote mentoring programs to their employees will have positive growth and a positive reputation built. Most organizations that are large can sustain these types of programs yet the hardest area would be for medium to small organizations. Yet, it is critical to their growth to put in place a program that allows their highly skilled employees to pass along the knowledge and nuances to the job being performed. The key is to ensure that the organizational culture, whether the organization has 50 employees or 25,000, supports and encapsulates the mentorship program. “Organizational culture can hinder or facilitate mentoring endeavors in powerful ways. Thus, they must be considered in their design, development, and implementation” (Kochan, 2014, p. 105). Including the culture of the company in the mentoring program is especially critical when using this method for succession planning. Organizations are
- 3. MENTORING PROGRAMS 3 well aware of the baby boomer generation that are and will be retiring over the next decade and most organizations realize their core functions as well as their core culture were formed by their baby boomer employees. A good example is our U.S. Government, which has high tenured employees that started in the 1960s and 1970s and are now at the age to retire. In order to capture the essence of the job, department culture, and the feel of the entire agency, the government is realizing that beyond the function of the job, there must be a passing of understanding and behavioral tools necessary that are necessary for doing the functions. “Exactly what are these KSAs that should be passed on to the next generation of potential civil service leaders? Importantly, it is not simply knowledge alone that must be learned when assuming a new job; if so, knowledge could be easily learned by reading standard operating procedures, employee handbooks, or duties, responsibilities, and tasks to be performed from a job description. Rather, the new incumbent in a position must also learn the required skills sufficiently well that they subsequently become reflexive natural abilities as well” (Reeves, 2010, p. 62). In the mentoring program, the mentor can provide the mentee with how to develop their skills and abilities to perform the job. In these type programs, which should last approximately six months, the mentor and mentee have time to develop an understanding of how to communicate with each other as well as understand each other’s level of knowledge or the job. Attempting to lengthen the program longer than six months can cause reluctance in mentees and mentors to not participate again as well as cause stagnation within the partnership (Blanchard, 2012). By developing this relationship, the knowledge that the mentor has can be passed on to the mentee in a slower paced, relaxed environment that allows for the natural development of these KSAs.
- 4. MENTORING PROGRAMS 4 Team Building and Mentoring Programs Cox Enterprises (CEI), the parent company I work for, has provided the Florida CEI Mentorship Program for many years. I participated in the year long program in 2013. As mentioned prior, incorporating the organizational culture as well as ensuring the program supported and developed the mentorship to include and promote CEI’s mission and value statements was a key initiative when preparing the program and analyzing the mentors and mentees when partnering them. Being that CEI has several individual organizations under their corporate umbrella, the mentee’s were fortunate in that their mentor could be within another division of CEI. In my case, my mentor was a manager in Cox Communications in Pensacola, Fl. As a group, we met quarterly in different parts of Florida to ensure that all divisions were able to make it in case proximity to their organization was necessary. When we were paired with our mentor, each partnership was able to develop a strategy on how to communicate and how often. My mentor and I spoke weekly on the phone unless work made it impossible. We emailed several times a week. The purpose for CEI’s employees within the program was to partner senior members with emerging or new leaders in order to development the necessary skills to be successful. Further, it was about passing on the CEI leadership culture, which is unique to the organizations that fall under CEI. Lois Zachary, author of Creating a Mentoring Culture: The organizations Guide, captured the key essence of why organizations should use mentoring because, “The relationship skills learned through mentoring strengthen relationships throughout the organization’ as these relationships deepen, people feel more connected to the organization” (2005, p. 4). Some organizations fear mentoring newer employees because they feel the employee will gather valuable insight and skills and then leave the company. However, when mentoring programs are
- 5. MENTORING PROGRAMS 5 approached as Zachary mentions, the organization creates employees that have acquired skills and understanding from their mentors yet they get more by joining into the culture of the organization and building relationships that are positive for their professional and personal growth. CEI chose to provide a mentor program to develop their employee within their culture, not just to develop an employee with a great skillset. “A congruent organizational culture becomes the placeholder for mentoring by maintain its presence on the organizational agenda” (Zachary, 2005, p.7). The Five Stages of Mentoring Programs While there are many organizations that have informal mentoring programs, it is important to note that if an organization wants to incorporate a mentoring program that will develop their employees within their culture, then ensuring that the program is structured to be successful is important. The following five stages of a mentoring program sets the foundation for how the program will evolve over time. And, as mentioned prior, utilizing a six-month program is also beneficial in development the relationships as well as the time needed to pass along skills and for the mentee to have time to develop the skillset while still being mentored. As noted by Newby, the five major phases of the mentoring program are goal setting, initiation, cultivation, separation, and redefinition (2013). In the first phase of goal setting, while Newby advises that mentors are not directly required to be involved, that many mentors will participate with their new mentee to assist in focusing on the right goals to set and to provide expertise (2013). In my mentoring program, the initial CEI mentoring meeting had allotted time within the daylong conference to set goals. CEI designed it so that mentor and mentee discussed the goals of the mentoring program between them. This discussion helped the mentor know
- 6. MENTORING PROGRAMS 6 what the mentee was looking to benefit from and grow in. The mentee was able to drill down the high level goals into more specific areas with the assistance of the tenured mentors. The second phase is initiation which is, “The commonality between the needs of the protégé and the experiences of the mentor may naturally bring the two together; however, in most cases an outside selection process is needed to ensure that all needs and experiences are optimally matched” (Newby, 2013, p. 142). Often, it is common to have the organizations program leader review the mentors and mentees and predetermine the matches based on the information provided on the mentoring program’s application or sheet of interest. In my experience, the goal setting and initiation period happened immediately once I met my mentor. In that initiation period, the two discuss objectives, goals, personal and professional information in order establish a connection. Often, if the pairing is done well at the beginning, then mentoring partners communicate and connect easily (Newby, 2013). It is critical at this stage that for the mentee or the mentor, if there is are hindrances in communication or an uneasiness, it is important to re-establish a new partnership with another mentor or mentee so that the program can be successful for both in the partnership and the organization itself (Newby, 2013). The third stage of the program is cultivation. As the word relates, this is the time where the mentor instills the attitudes, motivation and appropriate skills into the mentee’s exercises and daily uses in order for the mentee to evolve and become independent in utilizing these new skills and new attitudes. By midway, the independence of the mentee should be established. As Blanchard, the author of our textbook states, “it is important to monitor the mentoring process, as this is critical to its success. At specific checkpoints, both parties can be surveyed about the progress of the mentee” (2012, p. 234). During cultivation, ensuring that the goals are being
- 7. MENTORING PROGRAMS 7 accomplished is important due to the fact that the last two phases are more of a separation from the mentor and at the point, the mentee should have attained the skillsets and attitude. In the fourth stage, separation, the mentee can now function on his or her own with the new abilities provided by the mentor. During separation, the mentor should be utilized for consultation when the mentee struggles in unique situations, etc. (Newby, 2013). Often, the mentor provides support only when necessary and generally the mentee will initiate this communication. The final stage of redefinition will mean something different depending on if the program is providing succession training or if the organization is providing the program for leadership and employee enrichment. In the case of succession planning, redefinition can be the redrawing of the mentor and mentee’s roles and duties (Newby, 2013). The mentee at this point has the leverage of their own skillsets along with the mentor’s skillsets to determine a more specific career path or a new approach to department policies. Furthermore, as the mentee experiences more enriching projects and developments, there may be an opportunity for the mentor to rely on attributes of the mentee. In my particular experience, the mentoring program was established to provide leadership attributes and skillsets to the new leaders with CEI. It was successful in that I continued to rely on my mentor long after the program ended. Furthermore, as I developed and shared my experiences with my mentor, he too learned new abilities and the result of our mentoring program was that two leaders within CEI are sharing knowledge and support across businesses which means the CEI culture is embedded further. Conclusion
- 8. MENTORING PROGRAMS 8 Mentoring programs, formal or informal, may be the most useful program to ensure the KSAs of the mentor are passed on to the mentees. Some organizations are finding that informal mentoring within departments are gaining attention and are successful. Furthermore, the cost to manage this informal mentor program is less and therefore more utilized by organizations (Newby, 2013). The downside to using informal mentoring is not being able to track the progress of the mentee within the five stages as well as monitoring the progress of the mentee. It would benefit those organizations that cannot provide formal mentoring to develop a structure and progress chart for the department leaders to utilize and monitor their informal mentoring programs. In regards to the experienced and aging employees within our population, leaders of organizations are recognizing the need to capture that knowledge and specific skillsets and instill them in new employees. The biggest change in capturing that knowledge is also being able to incorporate the organizational culture into the mentoring process. The finesse and experience of the seasoned employees should be a representative of the organization itself. Therefore, as mentioned prior, informal mentoring could miss the opportunity of expressing this and end up becoming more of a coaching situation on the job functionality. It will be most useful to the organization to define the program to some capacity and the cost can be small enough to accommodate a small or medium sized organization. For larger organizations, mentoring programs are defined and established within the budgets, org charts as well as the Human Resource department. Finally, employees that new within the workforce or perhaps new to their organization, it would benefit them greatly to determine if there are mentoring opportunities in their career path. Determining a path and then setting goals for areas of growth as well as particular skills sets
- 9. MENTORING PROGRAMS 9 desired, will expedite an employee’s career path as well as provide valued KSAs and tools to maneuver within an organization. Employees in the position to be a mentee should recognize that the next decade will be filled with opportunities to fill positions from succession planning as well as be recognized as an emerging leader within an organization that aligns with the employee’s career.
- 10. MENTORING PROGRAMS 10 References Blanchard, P. N., & Thacker, J. W. (2012). Effective training: Systems, strategies, and practices (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Kochan, F. K., Kent, A. M., & Green, A. M. (2014). Uncovering the Cultural Dynamics in Mentoring Programs and Relationships : Enhancing Practice and Research. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Newby, T. J., & Heide, A. (January 01, 2013). The Value of Mentoring. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26, 2, 141-158. Reeves, T. (January 01, 2010). Mentoring Programs in Succession Planning. State and Local Government Review, 42, 1, 61-66. Zachary, L. J., & Koestenbaum, P. (2005). Creating a mentoring culture: The organization's guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.