Increasing productivity, reducing turnover, and leadership development are not just concerns for HR. Now that the ability to find, recruit, and keep talent is more difficult than ever, implementing a mentoring program at your organisation can push you ahead of the pack—even for small teams.
There are so many benefits to mentoring for both team leaders and their teams; here are a few of the most impactful ones.
Leadership Development
The more they engage in mentoring, mentors report gaining more leadership identity, skills, and confidence. In fact, the more mentors provide mentoring support, the more they not only see themselves as leaders, but the more confident they become in leading projects.
And guess what? Developing budding leaders in your small team is great for everyone. According to the Center for Creative Leadership, leadership development boosts employee engagement, increases a company’s ability to deal with gaps in the talent pipeline, and reduces the costs and headaches associated with turnover (more on this later).
It also helps with succession planning. As you move forward in your management career, you’ll have members of your team ready to jump in and lead in your stead.
Employee Development and Happiness
Here’s a fun fact: Employees who participate in mentoring programs are 5 times more likely to advance in pay grade — and better-paid employees who also have career development opportunities (like those gained through mentoring) tend to be happier too.
You know what else makes employees happy? Having a career mentor. And happier employees tend to be more productive—which is always good for organisations, but especially in small teams.
Retention
A study conducted by Gartner and Capital Analytics used statistical analysis to examine the financial impact of mentoring. They found that retention rates are much higher for mentees (72%) and mentors (69%) than for employees who did not participate in the mentoring program (49%).
Additionally, keeping your team members means less disruption and less time looking for and training new people—meaning you can simply get to work. This is vital for smaller teams where small disruptions can severely impact operations.
Diversity and Inclusion
Mentoring can also provide opportunities for networking and skill development that can minimize the challenges that underrepresented employees face, especially when it comes to inclusion and career progression. In fact, a study by the American Sociological Review found that mentoring, in comparison to other corporate tactics (such as grievance systems, mandatory diversity training, or job tests), increased minority representation at the management level by 9% to 24%.
And it doesn’t end there. Mentoring programs can also boost and improve promotion and retention rates for minorities and women by 15% to 38%.
Company Culture
Having a small team doesn’t mean you shouldn’t worry about company culture. In fact, while the team is small is the perfect time to build a foundation of good company culture!
In Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization’s Guide, author Zachary Lois shares how a culture of mentoring can benefit an organisation’s overall company culture:
“Mentoring helps manage and maximise knowledge, connecting and pooling pockets of organisational knowledge that strengthen and speed up organisational learning.”
He goes on to explain that this happens because the workplace is humanised when relationships of the head, heart, and soul are built through mentoring. Furthermore, it’s not just the organisation that benefits, but its customers, clients, and the community it touches as well.
Ready to learn more about how a mentoring program could benefit your small team? Check out our awesome tip sheet, The Business Case for Mentoring. Already ready to pitch a mentoring program to a higher-up? Then head on over to get a free copy of our Program Proposal Template.
