Benefits of Mentoring

The benefits of an effective and productive mentoring relationship can:

• Help new employees learn the culture and inner workings faster.

• Help newly promoted staff understand and fulfill their new responsibilities faster.

• Increase communication and strengthen employee bonds.

• Ensure that accumulated knowledge and experience is shared and passed on, reducing the impact when employees leave.

• Promote underrepresented employees

• Develop future leaders

• Project a strong and positive employer brand

However, mentoring relationships can be a disaster when:

• Mentor and Mentee are not a good match.

• Unrealistic expectations on the part of either parties.

• Trust and rapport never established.

• Lack of skills, time, or commitment on one of the parties.

• Protégé’s supervisor sabotages the relationship.

• Resentment on the part of other employees.

Mentoring can be a very successful method of tacit knowledge transfer. However, the success of a mentoring relationship is highly dependent on the ability of the Mentor and Mentee to connect and build report, which requires a level of trust and respect as well as very good interpersonal skills.