Beat the Great Resignation With Mentoring

The great resignation is a hot topic in the world of work right now. It’s a key time to think about how to retain talent, boost productivity, develop your employees and ensure job satisfaction.

Employee wellbeing must also be a priority as businesses adapt to a post-lockdown world. For many organisations, this looks very different. Some are offering both financial and non-financial incentives, such as training, skills development or mentoring, offering more flexibility with work schedules and working locations.

Let’s take a look at the topical issues mentoring can help address.

Find out more about embedding mentoring in your HR initiatives with Guider

Combatting the Great Resignation 

People are leaving their jobs at an incredibly high rate in what has become known as the Great Resignation, which began this past spring. With open roles hitting record highs, according to a recent study done in the UK, one in four people plan on leaving their current job in the next three to six months. A recent survey found that 77% of people aged 25-34, are looking to change roles within the next year (source).

Gen Z follow with 74% of 18-24 year olds looking to be in new roles within 12 months, half of which have already taken steps such as contacting recruiters or upskilling for a career change (source).

This is obviously troublesome for employers, not only because it’s going to cost them financially, but because it makes it more difficult to hire new employees. People are becoming less willing to stay at jobs that do not meet their needs. So it becomes the employers responsibility to make sure that not only are they meeting their employees’ needs, but that they’re doing everything they can to keep and attract talent as well.

How to attract and retain employees:

• Engagement and communication with employees
• An increase in opportunities for employees
• Assistance with employee career development

94% of employees admitted they would have stayed at a company longer if it had invested in their career. If you are an employer and are not actively investing in your employees, then you may be at risk of losing them.

Mentoring provides employees with all of the listed advantages above and more. Mentoring has been proven to increase employee retention rates by making people more satisfied with their jobs. If you want your company to avoid the effects of the Great Resignation, it’s a great time to adopt a mentoring program.

Read More: National Mentoring Month is a great time to start

Mentoring the Gen Z Workforce 

As the new generation of people begin to enter the workforce, they bring with them a new set of desires and aspirations.

For instance, 83% of Gen Z employees want their employers to care about their life, and another 87% want a job where they are able to learn a lot. Gen Z is more outspoken and direct about their health and wellbeing than previous generations of employees have been.

Many businesses have already begun to see the increase and impact that these changes are having on their workforce. Gen Z is going to play a big role over the next few years in shifting business trends and it’s important for businesses to adapt to them. The more organisations that adapt to these changes, the more people will want to work for and support them in the future.

Employers can support the youngest generation entering the workforce at the moment through reverse mentoring. Reverse mentoring is when a junior employee will mentor a more senior employee, and it has a number of benefits including the development of skills and leadership. Showing your Gen Z employees that they are valued will go a long way––not only for your staff members but your organisation too.

One of the best ways that companies can support Gen Z is through mentoring. Mentoring can provide this new generation of employees with the support, guidance, and care that they are seeking from employers.

Tackling Hybrid Working

Most businesses are trying to adjust to the ‘new normal,’ opting for hybrid working models which require attending the office 2-3 days a week and working from home for the remaining work days. Most businesses are expected to fully adapt to a ‘post-Covid’ world in 2022 and in order to successfully adapt, businesses need to ensure that teams are supported working in the office and at home.

This comes with some challenges as many companies struggle to keep teams connected, especially for cross functional collaboration, due to limiting the number of people in the office at once so as to reduce the risk of infections of Covid-19. There is concern that employees not in the office would be passed over for promotions as they’re not able to network as often with senior management.

Mentoring supports hybrid working by providing employees access to career development, regardless of where they are working. Mentoring can be done virtually as well as in person, using Guider, which ensures that parents can have access to mentoring even if they have caregiving responsibilities.

In terms of improving female representation in senior leadership, 38% of female employees (in companies that have at least 30% women on their board) who have exposure to senior mentors believe they will make it to the board themselves, compared with 21% of women from companies under 30% target. (Source).

Mentoring programmes also boosted minority representation at the management level from 9% to 24% (Source). This can help with diversity and inclusion and in addressing the gap between employees who opt to work remotely due to family caregiving responsibilities.

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Talent Retention & Attraction

Currently, most UK businesses are struggling to retain and attract talent now more than ever before (77%) and in an effort to fill roles, many businesses are offering more than just financial incentives.

Non-financial incentives, such as training, skills development or mentoring (44%), more flexible work schedules (42%), and more flexible working locations (33%) are more common now.

As 25% of current employees are planning or considering leaving their existing roles for another, it’s become clear that employers need to work harder to retain staff. The average cost of staff turnover per employee is £30,614 (ROI of mentoring ebook), offering training and development opportunities, is far more cost effective.

Mentors and mentees are typically  more satisfied and fulfilled at work than other employees, and so mentoring has a proven positive effect on employee engagement and retention. Mentoring programmes have been shown to boost promotion and retention rates for minorities and women from 15% to 38% as compared to non-mentored employees (Source).

Mentoring as the Solution

Mentoring programmes are a cost effective way to develop teams, increase productivity, improve job satisfaction, and reduce staff turnover.

Mentoring has also been proven to raise retention rates and improve minority representation in leadership roles. As mentoring can help improve diversity and inclusion, it is a solution that fits multiple purposes. Providing mentoring can help attract more talent, as 79% of millennials see mentoring as crucial to their career success (Source).

Mentoring is an effective and low-cost way for senior employees to pass on knowledge of their industry and organisation to staff. Incorporating mentoring as part of a D&I strategy can be very effective in reaching goals. If you would like to learn how to start an effective mentoring program, you can read this really good article we wrote.

Mentoring has been proven to increase employee retention rates by making people more satisfied with their jobs. If you want your company to avoid the effects of the Great Resignation, adopt a mentoring program.

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