What is Mentorship? Benefits and process of building Mentorship

Applying Mentorship to train and improve employee capacity is gradually becoming a popular trend chosen by many businesses. So what is Mentorship ? Mentorship is built according to what process? In the article below, 1C Vietnam will work with businesses to learn more about this important concept in more detail.

1. What is Mentorship?

Mentorship is a relationship in which an experienced person (mentor) provides advice, guidance, and support to help a less experienced person (mentee) learn and develop. Mentor does not have to be the mentee's superior, but it must be someone with enough capacity and qualifications so that the mentee can learn.

Currently, the Mentorship program is applied by many businesses to promote and improve employee quality, while creating a competitive advantage in the market.

2. Benefits when businesses apply the Mentorship program

When applying the Mentorship program, businesses can receive many benefits including:

• Enhance work performance: Mentorship activities help employees develop the necessary knowledge and skills to perform work more effectively. This can significantly contribute to improving the performance of the entire organization.
• Reduce turnover rate: Through Mentorship, employees will receive better support and development, from which they will be motivated to stay long-term with the business. In this way, businesses can minimize the costs of recruiting and training new employees.
• Enhance employee engagement: Mentorship activities undertaken can help build relationships with colleagues or superiors. This contributes to creating a positive and engaged working environment.
• Maintain and develop corporate culture: Mentorship also provides opportunities for senior employees to pass on the knowledge and experience of new employees. This helps businesses maintain and develop corporate culture.

3. Popular types of Mentorship

Currently, Mentorship is an activity that many businesses focus on promoting and developing, in many different forms. Below are 3 commonly applied types of Mentorship:

• 1-1 mentoring: This is the most popular type of Mentorship, in which the mentor and mentee will meet in person or online regularly to discuss and share. Mentors will provide mentees with advice, guidance, and support on career, academic, or life issues.
• Peer Mentorship: In this type of Mentorship, the mentee is connected with one or more people with similar experience, position or field of activity. Mentees can learn from each other, share experiences and support each other in their career development.
• Group Mentoring: This is a Mentorship program organized by an organization or business. Mentees will be connected to a group of mentors with different expertise and experience. Mentees will participate in study sessions, discuss with mentors, and have the opportunity to meet and interact with other mentors in the group.

4. Process of building a Mentorship program in an enterprise

After understanding what a Mentorship program is and its popular forms, businesses can build a mentoring program with the following 7 steps:

4.1. Step 1: Determine the goals of the program

The goals of the Mentorship program need to be specific, clear and measurable. The consultant has the role of guiding the implementation process and helping businesses evaluate the effectiveness of the program.

Mentorship program goals may include:

• Develop employee management skills
• Increase employee retention rate
• Maintain corporate culture

To ensure the goals of the Mentorship program are achieved, businesses need to adhere to the 5 principles of the SMART model:

• Specific (specific): The goal needs to be expressed clearly, not general.
• Measurable: Goals need to be measurable with specific indicators.
• Attainable: Goals need to be feasible and consistent with the capabilities of the business.
• Relevant (appropriate): Goals need to be consistent with the development orientation of the business.
• Time-bound: The goal needs to be set within a specific period of time.

4.2. Step 2: Develop a program plan

After determining the goals, the next important step is to develop a professional and systematic Mentorship program plan. Factors to ensure include:

• Goals and desired results: Clearly state the goals and results to be achieved, accompanied by specific data.
• Target participants: Clearly identify members as mentors and mentees.
• Form of implementation: Including types of Mentorship, ways of working between mentors and mentees, means of cooperation,...
• Main content: Career orientation, skill development, problem solving,...
• Implementation roadmap: Implementation time, important milestones.
• Estimated budget: Costs for organizing and implementing the program.

4.3. Step 3: Present the plan to leadership

Once you have a complete plan, the next challenge is to convince management to provide resources to support successful program implementation. To do this, when presenting plans to leaders, managers need to:

• Clearly state the specific goals of the program.
• Highlight the program's benefits to the entire company.
• Introducing how the program can help leaders achieve their goals.
• Explain how to implement and promote the program.

4.4. Step 4: Communicate the Mentorship program

For a Mentorship program to be successful, the most important factor is the participation of mentors and mentees. However, if members do not realize the value of the program, they will feel it is a waste of time and effort to participate. Therefore, promoting the program effectively is essential.

Here are some ways to promote the Mentorship program internally within your business:

• Organize sharing sessions and seminars to introduce the program and its benefits.
• Post articles and promotional videos on the company's internal communication channels.
• Encourage managers to inform and encourage employees to participate in the program.
• Create attractive, engaging communication messages to create excitement for employees.

Some notes when promoting the Mentorship program:

• Communication messages must be carefully invested, clear and easy to understand.
• You should focus on the specific benefits the program brings to employees, such as helping to develop their careers, learn new things, improve skills, etc.
• Use vivid illustrations and videos to attract employees' attention.

4.5. Step 5: Connect Mentor - Mentee

Pairing mentor and mentee groups is an important step in the mentoring program. However, pairing a senior mentor with a mentee does not necessarily mean success. An effective mentor and mentee relationship requires compatibility between both parties.

Here are some pairing criteria to consider:

• Similar personalities make it easy to connect and understand each other.
• Have compatible communication methods to be able to exchange information effectively.
• Share important values so we can share and support each other.
• Similar life experiences so we can share and learn from each other.
• Have similar goals and development orientations so we can work together to achieve them.
• Possesses compatible working styles to collaborate effectively.

In addition, pairing mentor and mentee groups needs to be done carefully and thoughtfully. Mentors and mentees should discuss their desires and needs so they can find a suitable person. The right group of mentors and mentees will help the relationship between the two sides develop sustainably and effectively.

4.6. Step 6: Orient the activities in the program

Successful pairing is the first step, but for the mentoring program to be successful, managers need to be carefully prepared in terms of orientation and working methods. Both mentors and mentees need to be given specific instructions to help them clearly understand their roles and responsibilities.

Specific directions may include:

• Discuss each party's goals and expectations
• Share experiences and knowledge
• Provide feedback and support
• Share challenges and solutions

Careful preparation will help the mentoring program run effectively and participants can learn and develop themselves.

4.7. Step 7: Measure the effectiveness of the program

Measuring effectiveness is the final step in the Mentorship program implementation process. Measuring and tracking effectiveness helps businesses determine the level of success of the program, thereby making necessary adjustments to improve efficiency.

Below are some criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of the Mentorship program:

• Participation rate: This criterion indicates how many people actually participated. High participation rates indicate that the program is attracting employee interest.
• Retention rate: Accurately evaluating this criterion helps businesses understand how many participants continue to stick with the program after one cycle. A high retention rate means the Mentorship is delivering value to participants.
• Satisfaction rate: This is a factor that shows how participants feel about Mentorship. High satisfaction rates mean the program is meeting participants' needs.
• Impact: Businesses that measure this criterion will know what changes the program has brought to participants. If the impact is positive, it means Mentorship is helping participants develop and succeed.
• Cost-effectiveness: This indicates whether the Mentorship achieves its goals at a reasonable cost. Reasonable costs demonstrate that the program is bringing high value to the business.
• Scalability: This is a criterion that indicates whether the Mentorship program can be easily replicated and scaled up if needed.

Thus, the content of the above article has answered in detail the question of what Mentorship is as well as the benefits and process of building this relationship. This is a beneficial partnership between someone with experience and knowledge and someone who is looking for guidance and support. To promote effective training and management of the Mentorship system, businesses can consider using 1C:Company Management software - a great solution for operating and connecting human resources. If you want to update more useful information about corporate governance, don't forget to follow other useful articles on 1C Vietnam's website.