Make Mentoring Thrive for Mentors and Mentees Refreshed 11 April 2022, Published 7 February 2020 - ID G00717301 - 5 min read FOUNDATIONAL This research is reviewed periodically for accuracy. By Analyst(s): Learning and Development Research Team Initiatives: Learning and Development Organizations are committed to mentoring but employees aren’t content with existing options, and HR leaders continue to struggle with recruiting mentors, orchestrating matches and facilitating meaningful connections. Read this article to learn how leading organizations deliver successful mentoring. “I really want to help, but I just don’t have the time to commit to mentoring.” A senior leader quickly typed out this email and sent it off to HR. A mentoring match request landed in her inbox that morning asking her to meet one hour, once per month, to mentor an emerging leader. Prospective mentors need more: Could she meet the employee on terms decided together? Why this employee? What was in it for her? You’ve probably puzzled over similar exchanges as you troubleshooted or developed formal and informal mentoring at your organization, and the needs mentees share are similarly tough to meet. You are not alone: While organizations are overwhelmingly committed to mentoring, employees aren’t relying on it to meet their development needs; 76% of employees don’t participate in any formal or informal mentoring. 1 HR leaders can improve mentoring’s positive impact, however, by fostering true-to-life connections that help mentees meet specific goals. A recent Gartner study finds HR leaders looking to drive the development impact of mentoring should provide flexible structures, help mentees clearly define goals, increase mentee ownership of mentoring and drive shared value of development between mentee and mentor. Gartner, Inc. | G00717301 This research note is restricted to the personal use of stephanie.marek@bio-techne.com. Page 1 of 4 Tailor Mentoring Structures to Employee Needs The needs of mentees, mentors and the organization are diverse. To fit the complexity of our workforces, mentoring is more impactful when its structure flexes to the needs of employees. By creating flexible mentoring opportunities, HR leaders lower participation thresholds and support employee comfort with mentoring as a developmental solution. There are a number of factors that HR can consider to increase flexibility, including mentee development needs, time commitment to address the need, number of mentors in the arrangement, criteria for matching mentors with mentees, type of information conveyed (e.g., institutional knowledge) and purpose of the interaction (e.g., upskilling). By providing options beyond traditional one-to-one mentoring — like reverse mentoring, flash mentoring, group mentoring with multiple mentees, mentoring councils with multiple mentors or support for informal mentoring — HR directs employees to better answers and increases employees’ opportunities to develop multiple connections across the organization. Help Mentees Define Successful Goals Just as can happen in any relationship, mentees and mentors are guilty of making assumptions about intended meaning. Mentoring goals that are too vague and high-level — such as ‘career advancement’ — are hard to correctly interpret and fulfill. As such, mentees must be able to clearly articulate specific, actionable goals for their mentoring arrangement. HR can support goal setting during informal and formal mentoring by providing guidance on creating SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound). Once SMART goals are in place, they can be used to gauge mentoring quality (e.g., goals can then be analyzed using metrics for accountability or efficiency) and to create a defined endpoint to the mentoring relationship by knowing when objectives have been met. By helping mentees define their goals, organizations can simultaneously motivate specific mentoring improvement, as well as identify opportunities for programmatic changes. Gartner, Inc. | G00717301 This research note is restricted to the personal use of stephanie.marek@bio-techne.com. Page 2 of 4 Increase Mentee Ownership To successfully accomplish mentees’ SMART goals, however, mentoring interactions need to be more than transactional; careful attention must also be given to supporting personal connections in these relationships. HR can find building authentic mentoring connections difficult, but leading organizations have found that mentoring relationships provide more value is unlocked when mentees are given opportunities to take greater control over mentoring, and the selection of a right-fit mentor in particular. During formal mentoring program mentees HR can jump-start mentee ownership and drive personal connection by involving mentees in the matching process. One approach to mentee involvement in matching might include asking mentees to prospect or interview potential mentors before selecting or ranking matches. By doing so mentees are able to assess whether mentors would be a good fit for them based on some of the more ambiguous — but equally important — criteria that are hard to capture in a matching form, such as communication style. Share Mentoring Value Between Mentee and Mentor If you only adjust your organization’s approach using the three strategies above, the prospective mentor spotlighted at the beginning of this article may still struggle to decide whether to accept a new mentee. However, when mentoring options encourage two-way exchange mentors and mentees are more likely to overcome mentor recruitment challenges and to support development impact. Because typical mentoring interactions are mentee-directed, value for mentors can be an afterthought. Some leading organizations have focused on providing reciprocal mentoring, where attention has also been given to mentors’ goals and development needs, helping to ensure both mentee and mentor have derived significant value from the mentoring partnership. Other leading organizations have connected mentors with fellow mentors through “mentoring communities” that encourage mentors to share successful approaches and tips for structuring mentoring interactions for development. HR leaders successfully unlocking mentoring for developmental success emulate the flexibility and authenticity of everyday exchanges and provide resources to mentors and mentees so they are accountable to clear development goals. By understanding how some leading organizations have overcome the challenges of mentoring, like enabling mentor-mentee chemistry and mentor recruitment, HR can boost mentoring effectiveness for development. Recommended by the Authors “Unlocking Mentoring for Development Impact” Gartner, Inc. | G00717301 This research note is restricted to the personal use of stephanie.marek@bio-techne.com. Page 3 of 4 HR leaders are struggling to maximize the key outcome of effective mentoring: accelerated development. Find out what leading organizations are doing to reboot mentoring and drive talent growth. “Mentor Guide: Building Productive Mentoring Relationships” Mentors should utilize the step-by-step guidance in this resource to build a foundation for a successful mentor-mentee relationship and make sure every mentoring interaction is productive. “Ignition Guide to Creating a Mentoring Program” This guide includes documents that will help you develop objectives, metrics and a business case for a mentoring program, plan and build a mentoring program that best fits your organization and ensure the continued success of a mentoring program. Endnotes 1 Our researchers found that 81% of organizations either use or plan to use mentoring in their organizations, yet only 24% of employees participate in any mentoring, formal or informal (2019 Gartner Q3 GLMS). © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates. 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Gartner, Inc. | G00717301 This research note is restricted to the personal use of stephanie.marek@bio-techne.com. Page 4 of 4
