Mentoring programmes focus on growth and development. Often the high-level purpose is about developing a pipeline of qualified successors and talents for critical positions in the organisation. This could be for leadership, project leadership or specialist positions all depending on which jobs are critical and which candidates are hard to find for the specific organisation.
At the same time, mentoring is about retention. Developing the pipeline won’t help if it is leaking! And the pipeline is leaking in many organisations!
Mentoring has a documented effect on development and retention – for both mentors and mentees. However, if the organisation is not focused on keeping the participants in the organisation after the closing of the mentoring programme, you may have a problem. When the participants, and especially the mentees, have participated in the mentoring programme, they have developed their talents, identified talents they did not know they had, and their career ambitions will probably also have increased, so if nobody listens and appreciates their new ambitions, there is a great risk that they will leave the organisation.
We have evaluated and assessed many mentoring programmes, and we have identified a specific challenge around the mentee’s direct manager. This direct manager is the most important person for the mentee’s next career step in the organisation. This manager can support, coach, and actively help the mentee move in the career and gently push the mentee towards next step when needed. If the direct manager is not attentive to the mentee’s development through the mentoring programme, and if the direct manager does not listen to the mentee’s career wishes, it is very likely that the mentee will leave the job, and often this will be for a new job outside of the organisation – or at a time that is not ideal for the leader and the department.
What Gets Measured Gets Done!
Some organisations have implemented advancement goals and mobility goals for their leaders, and these goals can help ensure that mentoring programmes fulfil their long-term purpose.
Advancement goals – here leaders are measured on their performance in relation to whether their employees advance in their career, i.e. how they develop and move upwards hierarchically in their (leadership) career.
Mobility goals – here leaders are measured on their performance in relation to employees’ career mobility across organisational and geographical boundaries.
With advancement goals leaders will focus on talking with their employees about their career ambitions, they will share knowledge about what is required to move upward in their career, they will support and provide relevant competence development, they will generously share their network and introduce to relevant stakeholders etc. This can also include that the leader actively opens a door and recommends the employee to the leader who is hiring. Thus, the leader steps into the role as talent developer and the roles of Networker, Door Opener and Sponsor – roles that are also part of the mentor role.
Mobility goals focus on increasing career mobility across functions, segments, and geography. Thus, the leader can help making cross-functional career opportunities more visible and support the employee in finding relevant and interesting new career opportunities. The leader can encourage the employee in participating in projects and tasks that will give the employee a greater network across the organisation. The Leader can introduce the employee to relevant people in other parts of the organisation. The Leader can recommend the employee to specific job openings etc. Again, the leader becomes a talent developer and takes on the roles as Networker, Door Opener and Sponsor.
The benefits of advancement and mobility goals
When the leader engages with and focuses on the advancement goals, the leader may achieve a “talent factory” effect. When leaders develop their talent development skills, invest in developing their employees and helping them move on in their careers, this will become visible within the organisation, and will attract other ambitious talents to these organisational units. This means that the leader who successfully creates a talent factory will be able to attract the best job candidates, as they see that they will have the best opportunities for development and advancement in this leader’s department. Thus, there are many benefits for the leader in achieving advancement goals – which at the same time strengthens the talent development and increases the number of qualified candidates for open positions for the organisation.
Mobility goals help to create more candidates for open positions across the whole organisation. Additionally, mobility goals encourage out-of-the-box thinking both for the individual, who may identify new and different career paths, and for the recruitment process, where recruiters can become aware of different talents from other parts of the organisation. These different talents can contribute with new perspectives, challenge old ways of thinking, and inspire innovation. This means that mobility goals also can contribute to focusing more on diversity in the recruiting process.
Both advancement and mobility goals can contribute to retention. When employees find that there is more focus on supporting them in their careers and providing them with new challenges both through development activities and new jobs, it will naturally have an impact on retention.
CONSIDER, how can advancement and mobility goals provide positive impact for your organisation and how can they positively influence your mentoring programmes?
