Mentorship – the foundation for building better, stronger teams in the workplace

Businesses are built by people power. Even the best products cannot provide solutions for customers without the best teams to create and deliver them. But teams are more than just their individual contributors. How teams function at every level of a company’s organization is dependent upon their teams’ dynamics.

When trying to scale my own business, I wanted to create effective, long-term team-building strategies in order to create happier, more productive employees, and a more successful, profitable business. In seeking mentorship to propel my own growth, I discovered how it can provide an essential foundation for collaborative, innovative teams.

Of course, there are many benefits to implementing employee mentorship programs, which is why 100% of Fortune 50 companies have mentorship programs (Source ) and 71% of all organizations implement them (Source ).

But nearly every benefit can be linked back to mentorship’s potential to empower teams and team members to work better together.

The ROI of team building

Ultimately, I know decision-makers want to know how team building and mentorship can impact profitability and ROI.

One of my favorite success stories with team building is also with one of the world’s most profitable companies –?Mars, Inc – and the fourth largest in the United States.

Mars, Inc. studied 125 teams within its global operations, and used their learnings to test team-building programs with the Mars Petcare China division in 2012. The results were impressive with 33% growth division wide and 60% growth among one of its primary brands.

The division’s general manager claims that working together contributed “massively” to these milestones, and later the new framework for team building was implemented throughout the company (Source ).

Digging into the data

But how exactly does mentorship create more innovative, efficient, and collaborative teams in the workplace by contributing towards team building?

As a founder who is equally invested in innovation and fiscal responsibility, I wanted more data to help me craft the most impactful and cost-effective solutions for my company to reinforce our already strong-performing team. All the data pointed towards mentorship.

With such clear evidence that mentorship fosters more productive, collaborative, engaged diverse teams, my decision to implement mentoring programs at IntellectSpace, and ultimately, to develop Upnotch? was clear.

My business’s bottom line is important, though not at the expense of my employees’ overall satisfaction and wellbeing. And, if team members at all levels are dissatisfied, involuntary attrition will affect my bottom line in the end – 77% of companies report that mentoring programs are effective in increasing retention. (Source )

Satisfied team members create a positive, productive work environment. 91% of people who have a mentor are satisfied with their jobs, with 57% saying they are “very satisfied” (Source ). But, only 37% of professionals have mentors (Source ).

Happy, engaged team members also share more trust and connection among each other and across teams. In fact, 52%—of companies offer mentorship programs to cultivate connections between employees (Source ). When businesses and their people build trust, they can also ensure that all team members are aligned with the organization’s mission, vision, and values – or even help refine them.

Even on a more strategic and tactical level, however, mentorship sessions are important spaces for participants to gain different perspectives and generate new ideas – some of which could help you discover new solutions to deliver to existing customers, or new markets and new customers.?

Mentorship has absolutely fueled innovation at IntellectSpace, more so than before we started offering a structured mentorship program.?

Teams implementing mentorship programs can also help individuals clarify roles and responsibilities, and critically examine how their contributions help achieve company-wide KPIs. By exploring team dynamics through mentorship, employees can also discover opportunities for personal development, assess what knowledge gaps they need to fill, benefit from knowledge transfer, or even horizontal or lateral moves within the organization. Across all mentorship programs in organizations of all kinds, mentees get promoted 5x more than those without mentors (Source ).

Our team’s experience matched these trends – two mentees have already received a promotion after just under a year of participation in the program. Because regular interactions with leaders naturally help cultivate leadership skills, working with a mentor prepared the employees to take on bigger challenges and projects in an expanded role.

Mentorship also strengthens organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Of course, DEI should be integral to every company’s mission, vision, and values. As a woman founder, I’m particularly committed to creating teams that reflect the world around us, and establishing a workplace environment where each team member feels supported and empowered to make their best contributions.

When organizations foster a culture of mutual respect through mentorship, employees can tackle company-wide challenges which, at times, can be complex and sensitive to discuss, such as making the workplace more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Mentors may even learn from their mentees through reverse mentorship to better understand perspectives of those with different backgrounds and experiences, and to lead with more empathy.

Traditional team building vs. team building through mentorship

Of course, some benefits of team building through mentorship can be achieved through traditional team building activities. A typical method to build trust and communication skills within or among a team might include workshops or trainings that last anywhere from an hour to a week or more. Almost all of these options are costly and require in-person participants for highest ROI.

British companies alone spent over ￡200 million on team building in 2016 – a number that stood out to me especially since I was working in the United Kingdom myself just prior. To imagine that since, spending has likely only increased!

Spending is justifiable if the outcomes are significant. Goals achieved through more traditional team-building activities tend to be short-term, however, reducing the ROI of these costly programs. Mentorship programs offer a more sustainable, impactful approach to building teams and improving organizational operations and productivity.?

And, for companies with global teams like mine, some traditional team-building activities are off the table because assembling people from around the world to attend in-person events is logistically cumbersome, even if cost is not a question.

Mentorship leverages existing resources – human capital that is already part of your workforce – instead of requiring expensive programs that often involve outside coaches, consultants, or other experts. Your business, like mine, already has the experts and expertise it needs to optimize its teams through mentorship as a cost-free alternative to traditional team-building activities.

The solution to better, stronger teams

To create mentoring and team building solutions to meet our needs at IntellectSpace, we needed a single platform where team members can connect no matter where they are in the world. We also wanted the capacity to track goals to optimize each mentor-mentee relationship and the program as a whole.

That’s why I created Upnotch? – the easiest way for organizations of any size to cultivate people, build better teams, and increase profitability through mentorship and team-building.?

For some businesses, team building and mentorship could save lives. One study published in Critical Care Nursing Quarterly reported that team-building activities in medical facilities create healthier workplaces for both employees and patients. Team-building decreased staff errors, increased nurse satisfaction and retention rates, decreased staff turnover, and ultimately created an environment that is safer for patients (Source ).

While not every team is entrusted with the health of their customers and clients, every business improves the lives of their customers, and strong teams are essential to fulfilling your mission.

I’m excited to share Upnotch? with your business to help you improve your people culture and your productivity. For more, visit upnotch.com/teams .