Workplace mentoring is a “learning partnership between employees for purposes of sharing technical information, institutional knowledge and insight with respect to a particular occupation, profession, organization or endeavor”. If this process is done correctly, the organization may reduce turnover and increase productivity. It can be via two ways, Formal mentoring and Informal mentoring. Informal mentoring, meaning the mentoring is unstructured and unofficial, is a situation in which for a new employee is taken care of and taught by a ‘seasoned’ employee voluntarily (i.e. providing career guidance). On the other hand, formal mentoring is done formally and in a structured process, often when the predecessors (staffs who are about to leave the organization soon) are required to transfer their knowledge to the selected employees to in order to minimize the loss of Knowledge Management and encourage the growth and development of new or junior employees.
Effects
One positive effect of Workplace Mentoring includes the assistance toward new employees in order to receive the resources they need. This allows for the new employee to perform better at their careers. As a result, new employees typically learn different roles through their transition.Workplace Mentoring therefore has a tendency to create an amicable environment through transition for the new employee. This type of work environment can be found in many careers throughout the country. Workplace mentoring is not limited to a certain age and is not restricted to the mentor being older than the mentee. In many cases, the mentor may be older than the mentee.
Examples of Workplace Mentoring
Relational Mentoring:
This is a style of mentoring that is based on peer interaction. Whether it be an older associate, or their boss the mentoring comes from a close bond with another associate.
Reverse Mentoring:
This type of mentoring takes place when, a younger member of a company is the mentor of an older member of a company to foster a better pipeline of leadership in a company.
Informal Mentoring:
This type of mentoring can be an example of a subset of relational mentoring. Informal mentoring is where the mentor-mentee relationship is not defined by rules. This can allow new employees to be trained in a variety of different ways. An ex. Is a new cashier training under an older cashier on how to do their job, if they train with several cashiers they will not receive all the same information.
Formal Mentoring:
This is also another type of relational mentoring, but unlike informal, the mentoring has a strict guideline in which the mentoring follows, allowing for a company to train an employee how they want.
Types of Workplace Mentoring Programs:
There are many types of mentoring programs that employers use to develop and engagement employees in the workplace. The most common categories are: Career Development, Functional Expertise and Diversity & Inclusion. See specific program examples in “Types of Workplace Mentoring Programs.
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