and recognition. Also, mentors are recognizing how they benefit
when company employees are trained to work to the best of their
ability. Effective, efficient workers make everyone’s job easier.
Implementing a Mentoring Program
in Your Organization
By recognizing employees as the firm’s most valuable asset and
sole conduit for serving clients, a mentoring program can improve
methods for recruiting, refining and retaining employees. In addition to finding and keeping quality employees, a primary goal of our mentoring program
is to cultivate exemplary behaviors of your
staff. As part of the program’s implementation, consider hiring a director of career development to establish the mentoring program as
part of the corporate culture. Design the program to fit the culture of your organization.
The next step to implementing a mentoring program is establishing goals. What
is the purpose of your mentoring program?
What is your organization hoping to achieve
or accomplish? What results are you expecting from the mentoring program? Once the
goals have been established, it is much easier to make decisions
regarding various program elements and it is possible to use the
goals as a way of determining whether the program detail
matches your business strategy.
Another key component to a mentoring program is one that
encourages upper-level partners and managers to mentor the less-experienced professionals on staff. The program allows for individualized career development under the guidance of an
accessible and trusted mentor. Employees may choose their own
mentors and meet with them as often as desired. Connecting mentors with their mentees is crucial to the success of your program.
Access to someone in your career area who understands your
situation provides much more value. The mentors should act as
a source of information and support and help to those being
mentored to plan their future and focus their career ambitions
at the firm. Honest feedback and insight are crucial for employees to reach their maximum ability.
The success of pairing a mentor with a mentee is dependent
on monitoring that relationship as it develops. Regular status
updates with both parties involved in the mentoring program is
a good gut check for an organization to determine how it is
going, what each one is getting and not getting from the connection and ways to improve the program for the individuals
involved. This also allows an organization to assess what participants need from others to help in their career development.
The final component of the mentoring program involves
communicating the benefits for both mentor and mentee.
Mentors must be assured that they will be getting something
valuable out of being a mentor. The value should come from
their time spent with their mentee and how they will learn and
grow from the experience. For a mentee, the value of the program must also be recognized. Value from a mentee perspective
Recognizing employees as the
firm’s most valuable asset and
sole conduit for serving clients,
a mentoring program can improve
methods for recruiting, refining
and retaining employees.
may come from their infusion into the organization, or a targeted path for career development and goals.
Measuring Success
Success of your mentoring program may come in a variety of
returns for your organization. Building relationships between
mentors and mentees as trusted advisers, confidants will help to
strengthen the culture of your company. Since its inception, our
mentoring program has produced amazing results firm wide.
The program has cut our staff turnover numbers and has been
instrumental in recruiting and retaining skilled professionals. In
our annual survey, we hear over and over again that the firm’s
focus on employee growth makes our firm a place where people want to stay to develop their career.
While there is no one way to maintain a top-notch staff at
your organization, using a strategic recruiting plan and a mentoring process and making your employees a top priority are
ways to help you remain competitive in one of the most rapidly
changing work environments in history.
Lauren Malensek can be reached at Lauren.Malensek@
cliftoncpa.com. Send story comments to
consultingmag@kennedyinfo.com.
Got something to say? Got your eye on an emerging trend? Do you have a best practice to share? Say it in “Consultants on Consulting.”
Send your submissions ( 1,200 to 1,500 words) to consultingmag@kennedyinfo.com. Please use “C on C” as the subject line.
Thoughts on these articles? Send comments to consultingmag@kennedyinfo.com. Please use “Letter to the Editor” as the subject line.
