You’ve heard of the generation gap, right? It pits teenagers against parents, rock fans against rap fans, and Michael Jordan truthers against LeBron James backers. Unfortunately, these generational splits can also divide your corporate team.
Don’t let that happen. Instead, work to build tight bonds among your employees by developing a strong mentoring program. That way, you improve your ability to achieve success.
By following mentoring best-practices, you can improve team dynamics and significantly improve your culture. Here’s how to get started:
What Are Best Practices for Mentoring Programs?
Creating a mentoring program provides significant long-term benefits. You can amplify that impact by following a few crucial guidelines. These structures will allow you to get the most out of your investment in the project.
Define Your Goals
Mentoring is a long-term process. But that doesn’t mean it has an undefined impact. If you’re going to sink resources into a formal mentoring process, you should know what you want to achieve. Before launching anything, figure out what you want to accomplish.
Get Participants On Board
Any employee effort requires buy-in to succeed. If people are just going to roll their eyes and go through the motions, you won’t get the impact you want. Gather feedback during the planning stage and sell the idea to the participants. A dose of enthusiasm will get the project running smoothly.
Provide Incentives
Both mentors and mentees will need to devote time to the program. It’s natural for them to ask, “what’s in it for me?” Instead of lecturing them on team spirit, define some material benefits.
Some of these will be natural to the project itself. Mentees will gain knowledge. Mentors will learn a new perspective. You can also sweeten the pot with other benefits, perhaps a small stipend or time off for mentoring projects.
How Can Mentoring Affect Your Company’s Culture?
Hopefully, your mentoring program becomes more than a corporate initiative. If done right, it can serve as an important pillar for your overall culture. Putting these programs at the center of your team-building efforts will foster long-term growth.
Reinforce Institutional Knowledge
Mentoring helps you create long-term success. Older workers have built up a significant amount of experience. If they leave, either for other opportunities or into retirement, that knowledge leaves with them. That’s why you want them to pass it on to your younger workers. As time moves on, you retain that institutional wisdom.
Unite a Multi-Generational Workforce
The leading wave of Gen Z is entering the workforce. Boomers are retiring in record numbers, but they remain an important complement to your workforce as well. In the thick center of the bell curve, you have your Millennials and Gen X employees.
Getting the most out of your team requires contributions from each group. They all have specialized experiences and skills that, when combined, can take your performance to the next level. Mentor programs encourage these interactions.
Don’t Rely Only on Formal Programs
Once mentoring becomes a central aspect of your routine, formal programs will contribute only part of the process. A well-constructed corporate culture will naturally encourage the exchange of ideas and the interaction of diverse groups of employees. You should see natural mentorship bonds form, even without your direct intervention.
Contact Recruiting In Motion to learn more.
Managing a diverse workforce takes some thought and preparation. It also requires that you staff your organization with the right employees. A top staffing agency, like Recruiting In Motion, can bring you the broad-minded, innovative workers you need.
