Post GFC, you need to be confident that any investment will produce the return promised and be a secure and wise use of your funds. The resources you put into mentoring will add to your triple bottom line but only if you are strategic in its planning and implementation.
Why Mentoring Now?
It is vital to show employees you value them and see a future for them. Employee disengagement means lower productivity and poor customer service resulting in higher costs and lower revenue. Now, more than ever, you need to build human capital and organisational capability. So, implementing a mentoring strategy that develops people and brings out their best is a very positive move.
However, mentoring is not a magic bullet, it won’t fix everything! So choose wisely what you target as its goals. Think about the purpose of mentoring and what you believe it can achieve.
- Why do you want mentoring?
- What are the needs mentoring will meet or gaps it can fill?
- How will mentoring make a difference?
Most importantly, in an organisational context, consider: where will mentoring deliver the most value? Look at your organisation’s strategic aims this year. What are the corporate objectives? What are the challenges? Where could mentoring contribute real benefit?
Planning Your Mentoring Strategy
Only when you have answers to the question of “why mentoring now?” can you progress strategically and specify aims and objectives for mentoring. You need to decide whom you’ll target to participate in mentoring and then determine the outcomes that would indicate success. You can then plan a program of activities that will support people to produce the desired results.
Resources
You’ll need to plan the logistics required to adequately support mentoring and secure the necessary resources. These include people, material, time and money. Mentoring is a very cost-effective strategy for individual and organisational development and yet under-resourcing is common. Invest in the planning process so that you know the budget required from the outset. You will need to identify and document the quantifiable as well as qualitative return on investment to make a business case for investment.
Mentoring represents the very best of human endeavours. It establishes connections and builds relationships. It provides personal and professional growth that benefits people and organisations. Get strategic with your mentoring because that’s how mentoring works!
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