Can You Afford Not To Mentor New Hires?

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It’s been a tough few years for new graduates with employment levels falling, but the tide is turning and employers need to beware.

Think about the typical talent recruitment process: advertising, career fairs, responding to enquiries, processing applications, assessment centers, interviews, offers, orientation, induction and training. No matter how many (or few) graduates you hire, recruitment does not come cheap. It’s been suggested that the break-even point on graduate recruitment only comes after 3 years of employment.

It may come as a shock to learn that new employees are 10 times more likely to leave after 1 year as at 5 years. Clearly, making the first year of employment a good one is imperative!

Mentoring is a way of ensuring a return on the significant investment in recruiting young professionals. Mentoring as part of onboarding new hires has demonstrated its value in retaining and developing talent.

I’ve been evaluating graduate mentoring for over a decade and found new employees:

• Increase their organisational understanding and knowledge
• Enhance self awareness
• Are exposed to new ideas and approaches

Mentors say that, as well as satisfaction, they gain

• Stimulation by interacting with young professionals,
• Relationship skills that can be transferred to their workplace, community and personal life, and
• Insights into their own career and professional development

We see enhanced interpersonal and collaboration skills, personal and professional growth and extended networks, contacts and relationships with peers and support for all those who participate in mentoring.

Talented people are more likely to stay where they feel valued as employees, where they are given support and encouragement and provided with ongoing personal and professional development and opportunities to enrich their careers. A well-designed mentoring program delivers that. Mentors take an interest in the welfare and aspirations of new employees, help them get up to speed fast, so that productivity and engagement – bottom-line outcomes – are increased.

So, can you afford not to mentor new hires?

Set up a time to talk about your mentoring program. Call 02 4342 2610 (in Australia) or email ann@mentoring-works.com for an online meeting