In today’s business world, no one gets ahead without some kind of help from others in their industry or workplace. Mentorship is an important concept for high level professionals, but unfortunately it’s something that not every workplace offers.
Seeking mentorship can be a tough road for your employees who want to move up in the world, and if your company doesn’t have a focus on mentoring new employees you may end up with higher turnover and decreased employee satisfaction. Mentors like Carter Reum help startups get up and running and every company should consider mentoring their new employees, especially in 2022 as workplace dynamics have shifted over the years.
Changing Professional Landscapes
The job market is a completely different beast than it was even just a few years ago. In part this is due to the economic downturn as a result of the pandemic forcing businesses to change the way they operate. It’s also changed who and how businesses hire for new positions and who gets promoted. In a time when businesses are growing nervous of a looming recession, mentorship among employees could never be more important than it is right now.
Employees need to feel like they are supported and as secure as possible in their workplace.
Help Employees Move Up
Internal mentorship can create more motivated employees seeking more responsibilities and to move up from their current position. Often, employees become stagnant in their current position because they simply don’t know how to go about starting the process. A mentor can help employees begin those steps, adjust their workflow and show more promise to the company to be considered for open promotions.
Every company has different criteria for advancing employees, but employees won’t know what those criteria are without feeling empowered to ask. Different types of mentorship can help empower employees to speak up and ask for the advice they need to move up and make positive decisions about their career.
Support A Diverse Workplace
Mentorship programs are disparagingly in favor of male employees and executives. Female workers reportedly experience formal mentorships a fraction of the time that men do, which in turn causes low levels of female executives. Folding mentorship in your workplace model can help close some of these gaps and give a wider range of people the opportunity to move up into executive positions at your company.
The same is true for employees of color. The unfortunate truth is that employees from black, brown and indigenous communities have far less resources on the job to move up. Mentorship programs can help create more space for these communities to hold leadership and executive positions.
Higher Retention
The more opportunities to move up, the more help you provide and the more diverse your workplace is, the more likely it is that your employees will stick around for the long haul at your company. The biggest reason that employees leave a position is money, and the second biggest reason is feeling they are unable to move forward in the company or ask for a raise.
If employees feel like their time is valued and they can seek help from executives at the company, the more likely they will be to stick around and see how far they can move up in their position. Without those opportunities, employees may feel like their job isn’t taking them anywhere in the long run.
Stick to Goals
Mentorships not only help teach people how to move through their workplace, they also help people stick to their goals. Having someone to hold you accountable for your goals can help you stay on the path and continue checking in both with yourself and the person mentoring you.
These days it can be easy for employees to jump from job to the next, but having a mentor can help them stick around and work toward higher level goals rather than seeking out another job in the same category as the last.
Conclusion
Mentorship is as important as ever in 2022. Without mentors and mentees, the amount of new employees who can take on executive jobs drops and employees lose interest in their job.
We all need the help of someone with similar goals to move forward in our careers. No one gets there 100% on their own and businesses can put themselves in a good position by being one of the few that have mentorship folded into their company lifestyle. Senior employees can get incentives for participating in mentorship efforts, whether they are official or personal relationships within the company.