The 5 Reasons Your Company Needs a Mentorship Program

Now that you’ve hired the perfect candidates, it’s time to think about how to keep your new employees happy. Mentorship programs are a mutually beneficial way to maximize the time and resources you spend selecting new talent for your team, and they provide numerous opportunities to increase the value of your employees throughout their tenure at your company. memoryBlue implemented a mentorship program in the beginning of 2011 and so far more than 75 inside sales professionals have participated in it. Our mentors and protégés alike feel that the program plays a significant role in their training experience.

While it’s true that creating a robust mentorship program can require significant time and resources to plan and implement—the results will impact your bottom line and have lasting positive effects for both your business and your employees. Consider these benefits when determining whether or not your company should commit to a mentorship program.

1. It increases retention of your best and brightest
Younger employees and millennials report that opportunity for career guidance is one of the most important factors they consider when evaluating a new company or position, and often cite a lack of mentorship and quality time with management as top reasons they choose to leave an organization to pursue other opportunities. In fact, a study on millennials conducted by Robert Half International (RHI) and Yahoo! found that mentoring ranks higher than relocation assistance, vacation time, and perks such as on-site fitness centers when it comes to benefits. It’s no wonder – not only can mentorship programs provide support and guidance during difficult times that arise for new employees, they can also encourage younger employees to stick around to achieve the same long-term career success as their senior counterparts.

2. It builds your reservoir of talent
The promise of a structured mentoring program with supportive mentors will attract capable and motivated candidates to your organization. It is a signal to potential employees that you are invested in their personal and professional success and will go the extra mile to nurture their careers for the long-term. But it’s not just about the long-term effects; effective mentorship programs can yield positive results almost immediately. Mentoring programs will enable your new employees to adapt to their roles more quickly, making your onboarding process more efficient and more effective. Your company executives can then focus more energy on recruiting to build your talent pipeline, rather than getting mired down in the details of training each new hire.

3. It speeds employee growth
Speaking of onboarding, traditional training programs may illustrate a theory, but mentoring partnerships help employees translate that theory into action. With a capable role model to emulate, new hires can put the lessons learned during their onboarding programs into practice quickly and effectively. These chances to “learn by example” can provide continuous opportunities for growth throughout a new hire’s career as they follow in their mentor’s footsteps.  As the relationship between mentor and protégé develops and as new hires become more familiar with your business, the mentor relationship becomes more efficient.

4. It shortens the learning cycle
At its core, a mentorship is an opportunity to learn from another’s mistakes and successes—and an opportunity to avoid those mistakes and repeat those successes. Those who have mentors learn preferred procedures and can better implement best practices. The goal is to share lessons so that learning milestones are achieved more quickly and with fewer avoidable errors.  It’s a “learning by example” moment at work again.

5. It engenders loyalty
Mentors have no ulterior motive – no product or service to sell. If a protégé succeeds, it means success for the mentor as well. Because of this, a mentoring program builds dedication and loyalty among recent hires. Not to mention appreciation for the company’s commitment to professional development.

A mentoring program is more than just a friendly welcome for a new employee. The benefits of a structured program can affect all facets of your business from your bottom line to your retention rate. When properly planned and implemented, mentoring and coaching new employees is the best way to ensure the future success of your business.

For more tips on inside sales careers or to find out whether you might be a fit for memoryBlue, check out more of our blog or contact us.