Increasing Employee Connected-ness at Work Through Mentorship

It's no secret that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations have had to adapt to how their workforce has functioned and for some that hasn’t been easy.

According to a 2021 Microsoft Work Trend Index, which polled 30,000 people from a variety of companies in 31 countries and used trillions of data points around labour and productivity from Microsoft’s 365 software and LinkedIn network, 41% of those surveyed said they’re mulling over leaving their jobs, 54% said they are overworked, and 39% said they’re exhausted.

In addition to overhauling products and services, this study found that leaders have also been pursuing change across many dimensions of their business, with 34% believing talent is most important to rebuilding or enhancing revenue streams. While this number seems lower than what I would have thought, new research around designing the #employeeexperience, and HR trends around recruitment and retention show that many organizations are living through the effects of the #greatresignation and great reflection.

According to this Forbes article, employees are now 

“armed with the knowledge that if they were unhappy, their boss was a jerk or pay was insufficient, they [employees] could easily jump ship for a better opportunity. Management had to acquiesce to their demands or risk losing them to a competitor”.

A realization that was not pertinent or a priority to a number of employers in the previously flourishing and competitive job market.  (Of course there are those employers who were thinking ahead and/or already understood that their employees have a choice and were taking strides to support employees in feeling wanted and valued all along.)

While the terms “great resignation” and “great reflection” may be new, the underlying themes are not. There has been much research from an organizational psychology perspective over the years that proves the connection with job satisfaction and productivity. The Harvard Business Review published an analysis of various studies that showed an average increase in productivity by 31% and 37% higher sales when employees are happy or satisfied.

Similarly, another study done by University of Warwick found that happiness leads to a 12% increase in productivity and- more importantly, in contrast, unhappy workers are 10% less productive than content employees. As human beings, we want to feel valued and to add value; those things were important before, but something like a pandemic forces all of those things to the forefront for more employees and then consequently the organizations that employ them. While employees contemplate questions like the below, what can organizations do to support and navigate the outcomes of this kind of reflection?

• "Do I feel engaged at work?"
• "Am I doing meaningful work?"
• "Am I happy?"
• "Am I being treated fairly?"
• "Is this how I want to spend my life?"
• "Am I fulfilled?"
• "Am I making the living I want to?"

There are a number of ways to help employees re-connect themselves to their career, role, and/or organization, and move past languishing or the fatigue that comes from living through a 2+year pandemic, including using mentorship. Workplace mentorship can be a cost-effective way for existing employees to provide guidance, knowledge-sharing, and confidence-boosting to less-experienced employees (in a particular area). According to this in-depth case study, retention rates were significantly higher for mentees (72%) and for mentors (69%) than for employees who did not participate (49%). 

However, mentorship programs are not made equal, nor does a cookie-cutter approach work.  The good news is that there is much inspiration to be gained by looking at how other organizations (including your competitors!) use mentoring:

• Mentorship to Support Career Development

According to an article by Forbes mentoring is a fantastic vehicle for career development that can “help boost internal mobility”. Effectively using mentoring as a career growth tool can also help provide a supportive sense of community and connection at work thereby decreasing the risk of burnout in the workplace. In companies such as Insight, Angela Hughes, EMEA HR and People Leadership Director, say their mentoring programs have positively affected company culture and individual employees. So much so that Insight won Best Workplace in 2021 for Europe by Great Place to Work and Best Workplace for Wellbeing UK in 2022 by Great Place to Work. 

The success of their mentorship program at Insight is taking the time and investing in software “for matching mentors to mentees – looking at the best fit in terms of learning styles, matching and contrasting behaviours and ability to support in areas of specialisms. We also ensure these mentor agreements are formalized in writing right at the beginning, outlining expectations, needs and commitments”. According to Tiffany, the idea is to be very intentional about cultivating and building in time for these relationships which ultimately lead to employee growth.

• Mentorship in a Hybrid or Remote-first Environment

“In a time of incredible change, professional disruption, and overwhelming loneliness, mentorship can anchor us. But how do we mentor in a remote, distributed workforce? Coming together online doesn’t need to be the watered-down version of being together in-person; some things are actually better because of — not in spite of — being remote. Remote mentoring can promote equity and build relationships free from the biases we face in person, when we know another’s height, physical ability, or pregnancy status, to name a few examples. Without the limiting factor of geographic proximity, you can expand your pool to make great mentor/mentee matches that prioritize shared interests and values over logistics.”

Check out more from this HBR article here. 

• Mentorship For Diversity Equity & Inclusion

Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations found that mentoring programs boosted minority representation in management by 9% to 24% (compared to -2% to 18% with other diversity initiatives) and that mentoring programs improved promotion and retention rates for minorities and women—15% to 38% as compared to non-mentored employees.

As you can see, mentorship is a powerful tool in the workplace to bolster career development, support employee engagement and create an inclusive workplace. As employees become increasingly more selective about working for an organization that aligns with their values, all of these factors are critical components that support employee retention and career satisfaction- from within. When employees are “intrinsically motivated”  great things can happen (if that motivation aligns with their role/ company/ etc.). As an employer, sure you can probably get away with paying somebody a little bit more to do a job that they don’t really want to do (extrinsic motivation) - but only for a period of time- and I’d argue this is a less effective strategy at this stage in the “talent wars”. There’s also research to support that intrinsic motivation supports better quality of performance whereas extrinsic supports quantity. 

Employers: Wouldn’t you rather an employee who is connected to what your organization does, the role/function you hire them for, and intrinsically motivated to do a good job and manage their job satisfaction themselves?

Now more than ever employees are looking for empathetic management and companies they give a ‘you know what’ about. Being merely ‘satisfied’ in a job is no longer enough to retain talent- let alone A+ talent. Investing in employees’ professional development, career growth, and overall personal fulfillment connected to career is imperative at this point. If you choose to explore how you can contribute to those things through mentorship intentionally, you’ll see happier, highly engaged, and more productive employees. However not all mentorship programs are made equal so beware - intention and meaningful design is key! 

If you are exploring or ready to integrate mentorship as part of your retention strategy to combat the great resignation, let’s chat. Happy to share what we’ve seen work/not and support you in launching an effective, impactful (yet scalable) mentorship program. 

Citations:

1.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/07/19/the-great-resignation-is-turning-into-the-great-uncertainty/?sh=58ec905e6db1

2.  https://www.inc.com/samuel-edwards/examining-the-relationship-between-workplace-satisfaction-and-productivity.html#:~:text=The%20Harvard%20Business%20Review%20recently,employees%20are%20happy%20or%20satisfied.