Researching mentoring? Here are some mentoring statistics you need to know. (Updated February 2023)
General Mentoring Statistics
When looking at the success of Fortune 500 companies, there are many People and Culture strategies that overlap. Though it is undeniable, Mentoring Programs now hold a permanent fixture in today’s workforce and only increase in existence as we move up the ladder:
- 100% of U.S. Fortune 50 companies have mentoring programs.
- 96% of U.S. Fortune 100 companies have mentoring programs.
- 90% of U.S. Fortune 250 companies have mentoring programs
- 84% of U.S. Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs. [Forbes]
- 76% of people think mentors are important, but only 37% have one.
- People with mentors are happier at their current jobs than those without
- Only 14% of mentor relationships started by asking someone to be their mentor. 61% of relationships developed naturally. [Forbes]
- Most people opt for same-sex mentors (69% women, 82% men) [Forbes]
- 87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring relationships and have developed greater confidence [Women Ahead]
- 82% believe that mentoring relationships help foster meaningful connections between mentors and mentees, across departments and the organisation [Women Ahead]
- 84% reported that mentoring relationships provide two-way inspiration for mentor and mentee [Women Ahead]
- People who served as mentors experienced lower levels of anxiety and described their job as more meaningful than those who did not mentor [HBR]
- Mentors found that mentoring enhanced the meaningfulness of their work [HBR]
- The vast majority, 97% of individuals with a mentor say they find the experience to be a valuable one.
- 89% of those who have been mentored say they’ll go on to mentor others.
Workplace Mentoring Statistics
Companies that invest in their people by implementing mentoring programs have proven to fare better than those who don’t in challenging economic conditions:
- Companies with mentoring programs had profits that were 18% better than average, while those without mentoring programs had profits that were 45% worse than the average.
It’s clear that coaching and mentoring will maintain and increase in importance over the next two years:
- The pandemic caused a 30% increase in mentoring initiatives at organizations.
- Between 56% to 71% of organizations (or more) now use mentoring to some degree.
- Mentoring is now #4 on the list of learning and development strategies that L&D teams are considering. That’s an increase from #6 in the 2021 survey – the largest rank increase of any other strategy on the list.
As L&D programs are further developed, a diversified offering pays offs most with mentoring proven to compound ROI of L&D efforts:
- Companies with a larger percentage of effective mentors are more than four times as likely to say mentors in their organization receive specific skills training.
Career Progression and Development Mentoring Statistics
- 25% of employees in a test group who took part in a mentoring program had a salary grade change, compared with 5% of employees in a control group who did not participate. [Wharton]
- 28% of mentors had a salary grade change as opposed to just 5% among those who did not participate in a mentoring program [Wharton]
- Mentors were promoted six times more often and mentees were promoted five times more often than those not in the program [Wharton]
Employee Retention and Engagement Mentoring Statistics
- Retention rates were much higher for mentees (72%) and mentors (69%) than for employees who did not participate in the mentoring program (49%). [Wharton]
- 65% of people (or more) were looking for a new job in 2021. That continued in 2022 and is likely to continue into 2023. [PwC]
- 94% of employees said they would stay at a company longer if they were offered opportunities to learn and grow
- Among the Gen Z and Millennial workers age 18–24, nearly a quarter (24%) say that “having opportunities to advance” is the most important factor in their overall happiness at work [CNBC]
- More than 4 in 10 workers who don’t have a mentor say they’ve considered quitting their job in the past three months, compared with just 25% of those who do have a mentor. [CNBC/Survey Monkey]
- At every income level, more workers who have a mentor say they’re satisfied with their job than those who don’t have a mentor. [CNBC/Survey Monkey]
- US businesses lose close to 1 trillion dollars annually due to employee turnover as the cost to replace an employee can be up to 2x the employees’ salary. [Gallup]
- More than 9 in 10 workers (91%) who have a mentor report being happy in their job. Including more than half (57%) who are “very satisfied.” Among those who don’t have a mentor, each of those numbers drop by double digits. [CNBC/SurveyMonkey]
- Workers with a mentor are more likely than those without to say they’re well paid (79% vs. 69%) and to believe that their contributions are valued by their colleagues (89% vs. 75%) — two key components of overall happiness at work. [CNBC/SurveyMonkey]
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Mentoring Statistics
- Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations found that mentoring programs boosted minority representation at the management level by 9% to 24% (compared to -2% to 18% with other diversity initiatives). [Forbes]
- The same study found that mentoring programs also dramatically improved promotion and retention rates for minorities and women — 15% to 38% as compared to non-mentored employees. [Forbes]
Cultural Diversity
- Research indicates that mentoring relationships that are mixed gender or race/ethnicity are more likely to provide career benefits, whereas mentoring relationships based on demographic similarity are more likely to provide psychosocial benefits. [MLDC]
- 72% of DiversityInc Top 50 companies have reverse mentoring programs. [DiversityInc]
- Companies that have culturally diverse leadership teams are 33% more profitable. [McKinsey]
- Mentoring has been proven to increase the confidence and satisfaction women and minorities feel from their jobs.
- One study showed 74% of minorities participate in mentoring programs when they are offered. Of those, 32% stated their mentoring relationship was “extremely important” to them.
LGBTIQA+
- It is estimated that over 1.3 million at-risk LGBTQ youth have never had a formal mentor. For the over 1.6 million at-risk LGBTQA+ youth in the United States, just over 600,000 have ever had a mentor, and fewer than one in five (just over 300,000) have had a formal mentor.
- LGBTQ+ women are underrepresented in every stage of the management pipeline, considerably worse than LGBTQ+ men. While LGBTQ+ women make up 2.3 percent of entry level employees, they comprise only 1.6 percent of managers and even smaller shares of more senior levels. [McKinsey]
- The existence of a workplace LGBTI+ network reduced the perception that being ‘out’ at work will negatively impact future career progression by 5 percentage points (from 14 per cent to 9 per cent) [PWC].
Gender Diversity
- 69% of women who have a mentor choose one of their same gender, compared to 82% of men. [Olivet Nazarene University]
- 78% of women in senior roles have served as a formal mentor at least once in their career. [DDI]
- And 63% of women have never had a formal mentor [Source]
- 67% of women rate having a mentor as extremely important to their career advancement. [Source]
- Organizations with women in top-tier managerial roles add 6.6. per cent to market value of ASX companies [Workplace Gender Equality Agency]
- Only 54% of women report that they’ve ever been asked to be a mentor in their career. [DDI]
- 80% of women who mentor other women report that they choose to mentor in order to be supportive of other women:
- The biggest considerations for women considering becoming mentors include time commitment (75%), subject matter expertise (54%), and their relationship to the mentee (54%). Most other factors, such as the gender of the mentee (2%) and the age of the mentee (4%) tend not to matter:
- 53% of women mentees felt that they didn’t have adequate training to be mentors in a formal mentoring relationship. [DDI]
- Women are 10% more likely to accept a request to be a mentor if their organization has a formal mentoring program. [DDI]
- Trans people are less likely to have the support of a sponsor (21% versus 32% of cisgender people) [McKinsey].
Millennials and Gen Z
The workforce is changing shape quickly to accommodate five generations co-existing with unique experiences that differ drastically thanks to the rapid innovation of technology and changes in culture over their lifetimes. For Millennials in particular, the decade unfolding will be critical to their career development.
- Millennial and Gen Z workers who have a mentor are 21% to 23% more likely to report being satisfied with their current job, compared to those without a mentor. [CNBC/SurveyMonkey]
The Impact of Mentoring on Millennials
- 79% of millennials see mentoring as crucial to their career success [Source]
- Unfortunately, 63% of millennials say their leadership skills are not being fully developed [Source]
- Millennials will comprise more than 75% of the workforce by 2025 [Source]
- Millennials intending to stay with their organisation for more than 5 years are twice as likely to have a mentor than not (68% vs 32%) [Deloitte]
- A leading reasons for millennials wanting to quit are ‘Not enough opportunities to advance’ (35%) and ‘Lack of learning and development opportunities’ (28%). [Deloitte]
This is critical to note, as:
- Less than 50% of Millennials say they’ve had opportunities at work to learn and grow within the past year [Source]
- 91% of Millennials consider the potential for career progression as a top priority when choosing a new job [Source]
- 53% of Millennials have been disappointed by a lack of personal development training when starting a new job [Source]
- Regardless of other contributing demographics such as gender or geography, only 28% of Millennials feel that their current organisations are making ‘full use’ of the skills they currently have to offer [Source]
- Only 28% of Millennials would stay at their current job beyond 5 years [Source]
- 93% of millennials find skill development crucial to their career progression [Source]
The Impact of Mentoring for Gen Z
- Gen Z strongly believes in learning, as 76% see learning as critical to their career advancement. [Forbes]
- 83% of Gen Z want to learn skills to perform better in their current position [Source]
- 21% of Gen Z want their boss to have ‘mentoring ability’ [Source]
- 64% of Gen Z cited ‘opportunity for career growth’ as a top career priority [Source]
- 73% of Gen Z would like to be taught one-on-one [Source]
- 77% of Gen Z said that a company’s level of diversity affects their decision to work there [Source]
- 87% of Gen Z wants a job where they are able to learn a lot [Source]
- 82% of Gen Z individuals want supervisors to help them set goals. [Springtide Ressearch Institute].
- 83% of Gen Z wants their supervisors to care about their life [Source]
- 73% of Gen Z are motivated to do a better job when they feel their supervisor cares about them. [SHRM]
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