How investing in employee mentoring, onboarding, and upskilling pays out?

High turnover rates are costing companies billions in reduced productivity and increased hiring and training costs. According to a recent US study, the cost of replacing an employee is equal to?33 percent of their annual salary.

A great onboarding experience and the provision of employee mentoring are known to boost retention rates. While upskilling is still picking up speed, the opportunities for learning and development at work have great effects on retention as well as on other metrics like efficiency and productivity. When applied together as part of a comprehensive employee experience strategy, the above approaches can be extremely effective in keeping and developing the best talent while at the same time increasing productivity and profitability.

Employee onboarding: why you want it done right?

The term onboarding describes all the steps needed to turn a new employee into a fully functioning member of the team. It involves setting up their work station, familiarizing them with the promises, introducing them to colleagues and managers and providing all the tools and knowledge needed so they could perform as best as possible. The transition period can last anywhere from 90 days to a year.?

How important is employee onboarding? Well, according to a recent study,?more than a quarter of new hires?are ready to quit a new job within the first 90 days if they are not satisfied. Considering how time-consuming it is to screen job applicants and find the best fit for a vacancy, losing a person within such a short time frame seems like a waste, right? Well-structured and executed employee onboarding can increase retention and bring in a host of additional benefits:

• Set the tone right: A warm welcome and easy, stress-free onboarding shows new employees that they are appreciated and valued. This can have lasting effects on their enthusiasm, engagement and loyalty.?
• Increase productivity: a smoother quicker transition means a new team member starts pulling their full weight sooner.
• Successful alignment: the first few weeks that a new person is on the job is a crucial time to communicate the company’s mission, vision and values.

Read more about?onboarding?and its significance in our blog.

Why employee mentoring matters more than ever?

Quiet quitting?may be a trend this year, but disengaged workers doing just the bare minimum have always been around. There are many reasons why employees get disconnected from work and the company, and such situations are usually handled on a case-by-case basis.

When dealing with low morale and lack of engagement, mentoring alone may not be able to reverse long-established negative trends. However, it is a great tool for prevention. By fostering connections, encouraging skills exchange, and showing people the possible paths their careers could develop, mentoring programs help employees feel enthusiastic and supported.?

Employee mentoring programs come in many formats. In the traditional format of mentoring, less experienced employees are paired with senior managers. Some companies may also choose to provide peer learning opportunities with a focus on removing barriers to growth for underrepresented groups, or even to offer reverse mentoring with junior employees helping more experienced colleagues to acquire particular skills.

Besides having a?great impact on morale and job satisfaction, a well-executed mentoring program can also boost productivity, profitability and a number of other corporate metrics. In addition, AI-enabled platforms like Mentessa allow HR managers to scale mentoring to 100 percent of the workforce, offering an effective and desired employee benefit quickly and at minimal cost.

Boost Employee Capabilities by Investing in Upskilling?

The term ‘upskilling’ was?first mentioned in a dictionary?in the 1980s. Employee upskilling is a process in which staff expand their knowledge and skills (both soft and technical). Surely, people have always had to develop and learn new things, but factors such as the Covid pandemic, digital transformation and other rapid changes in the workplace mean employee upskilling is?one of the most urgent challenges?for private and public organizations.

As?this?Forbes?article suggests, upskilling focuses on training staff “about new technologies or improved systems to help them advance in their current position”. Sometimes the goal of upskilling can be achieved with resources available in-house, through peer learning or mentoring. Companies may also decide to bring in outside expertise.

Why should a company invest in upskilling? Well, studies suggest that employees are very keen on it. According to a?global survey by PwC, a total of 40 percent of workers improved their digital skills during the pandemic, while 77 percent “are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain”. We will mention just four other reasons:

• Highly skilled workforce:?Dedication to employee upskilling results in a more capable and adaptable workforce.
• Staying relevant: A more skilled workforce means a more competitive company. This is particularly the case when digital skills are concerned.
• Increasing retention and engagement: People value employers who invest in them and are very loyal when provided not just with a job but a promising career path. A company that is dedicated to upskilling will have a more capable, more motivated and engaged workforce and lower turnover rates. This factor is becoming even more relevant following?The Great Resignation?and beyond and is particularly relevant to knowledge workers.?
• Promoting from within: As mentioned above, providing employees with exciting career paths is extremely important for morale, engagement and retention nowadays. Another benefit for the employer is an increased pool of candidates for managerial roles.

Use Mentessa for employee mentoring, onboarding and upskilling?

Mentessa is an innovative learning platform designed to connect employees so they can learn from each other and remove barriers to growth, facilitating new ways of working and learning. Its dedicated mentoring, onboarding and upskilling features can help HR and L&D managers cater to the personalized needs of each team member quickly and effectively.

• Mentessa for mentoring:?When done manually mentoring programs are extremely time-consuming. This is why they are typically offered to a very small number of employees within the organization (on average 1 per mille!). This means that in a company with 12,000 employees only 60 will be given the chance to benefit from mentoring. Mentessa helps automate the tedious setup, administration, and maintenance of mentoring programs and scales them so that more employees have access to this effective tool for learning and development. From application to final feedback, Mentessa delivers ready-to-go programs at a click.?

A traditional mentoring program based on seniority will only work for some employees. No problem, Mentessa can help create different program formats, depending on the actual needs of employees and the results that the company wishes to achieve. Our customizable matching algorithms support flexible program goals such as reverse mentoring or diversity programs. With the burden of manual matching removed, HR managers can focus on what matters most: building a community and marketing the program internally.??

• Mentessa for onboarding:?The first few weeks in a company are crucial for aligning employees around the culture and purpose of an organization. In addition, a great first impression has a huge impact on motivation and productivity.?

The Mentessa onboarding program ensures new hires are welcomed warmly by a real person and guided throughout their journey. Mentessa purposely connects employees with peers, based on their departments, skills, and goals. The automated introductions help new hires overcome the psychological barrier of “having to ask”. Mentessa also ensures equal opportunities for networking and development independently of personal background factors like gender and age. Thanks to built-in notifications, for example, calendar invites and appointment reminders, meetings take place more often than they would have without the support, increasing the overall effectiveness of the onboarding. At the same time, Mentessa ensures a high level of efficiency and saves time and resources for both HR managers and mentors. It is also extremely helpful for new hires who can access the entire pool of coworkers in case they are searching for help. With Mentessa’s peer approach, their skills become available to the company from day one.?

• Mentessa for upskilling: As mentioned already, companies can reduce training costs by relying on peer learning. Surely, there are cases when offering formal training is inevitable, but the informal exchange is hugely effective for many future skills, from tech to soft skills.?

Mentessa helps accelerate upskilling through automated matching with the right peer so that people can share and learn new skills. In addition, it helps measure the skill set of the workforce – something which companies are typically not aware of but which is necessary to start the upskilling process in the first place. Mentessa can help map out employees’ competencies and identify gaps in the workfoce’s current skill set in addition to identifying hidden talent. In fact, in terms of identifying employees’ skills and knowledge gaps it is way?better than any human). Finally, it closes the knowledge and skills gaps by matching employees in a way that best serves upskilling goals, helping transform hierarchical “divide and conquer” cultures into communities of sharing dedicated to learning, diversity, and interdisciplinary collaboration.