What Results Does Mentoring Deliver?

What Results Does Mentoring Deliver?

(#s in parentheses reference sources of the research listed at the page bottom)

INDEX:

What Does Fortune Magazine Say?
Other Results From Research
Why Companies Provide Employee Mentoring Programs
A Quick Comment on These Results From Barry Sweeny

What Does Fortune Magazine Say? (1)

Hewitt Associates did an extensive reasearch project for Fortune magazine titled the "100 Best Companies to Work for in America".

Would YOU like YOUR organization to be ranked at that level?
What do these organizations know and do that YOURS does not?

The data collected was not just the typical "self-reports" which may or may not reflect true change. The data focused on the actual practices of people in these companies. The results of their research was published in Fortune in January 2000.

Here is a summary of the findings:

76% of the top Fortune 25 companies offer mentoring programs.
- Only 55% of less successful companies offer mentoring
- Mentoring is their KEY STRATEGY for effectively developing the people needed for oganizational success.
71% of Fortune 500 companies use mentoring to be sure that people are held accountable for their commitment to learning.(1)
- This accountability works because :
  - It occurs within a supportive relationship
  - It is focused on learning and growth
  - It is focused on areas targeted by the learners themselves
These 100 "Best Companies" have three common characteristics. They:
- Do much more to ensure that employees are engaged in and committed to the business (retention)
- Create a supportive and inclusive organizational culture (mentoring & celebration of diversity)
- Consciously and explicitly build their employee's quality of life through programs and opportunities.

Results From Other Research

77% of all organizations surveyed in one project state that mentoring is an effective tool to increase the retention of valued employees. (3)
Better than 60% of surveyed college graduates give mentoring as a criteria for choosing an employer. (4)
62% of employees which were mentored said they will stay with their current employer. (5)
75% of executives state that mentoring played a key role in their career success. (6)
Mentoring was one of 3 factors for Fortune 500 CEO career success (10)
Persons who had a mentor had greater job satisfaction and found earlier financial success than those who did not have a mentor. (7)(8)
The presence or absence of mentoring was more critical in explaining job satisfaction than was income or gender. (9)

Why Organizations Provide Employee Mentoring Programs

A 1999 survey of 378 companies which offer mentoring programs (11) asked WHY they are valued mentor programs. These are the reasons these organizations gave. Consider if these results might be valued in YOUR organization as well.

73% provide mentoring for retention of valued employees.
71% provide mentoring to improve managers leadership skills.
66% provide mentoring develop the new leaders they need for the future.
62% provide mentoring to enhance the career development of employees.
49% provide mentoring for succession planning by placing high potential people on a faster career track.
48% provide mentoring to promote increased diversity and support the success of all employees .
30% provide mentoring to increase employees' technical knowledge.

A Comment on These Results From Barry Sweeny

Research dway back as 1987 (12) revealed that one of the primary contributions made by coaching and mentoring is providing follow up support for IMPLEMENTATION of training and for problem solving during implementation. This important research demonstrates that if such follow up support is NOT provided after training, the resulting implementation of that training will be dismal. Look at these sad numbers!

The percent of learners who will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of :

Learning a theory = 5%
Learning a theory & seeing a demonstration = 10%
Theory, demonstration & practice in the training = 20%
Theory, demonstration, practice & feed back = 25%
Theory, demonstration, practice, feed back & in-situation coaching = 90%

It is amazing to this author that over 20 years later, the investment made in employee training is STILL largely wasted by most organizations. That this is the case is clearly demonstrated by the data given in the previous section.

How many companies listed above give "implementation of training" as their reason for mentoring? NONE! This strongly indicates that there is still greater potential to be gained from mentoring programs than even the very best companies have discovered!

Helping organizations access that very potential is my specialty. Contact me to establish a "High Impact" mentoring program in your organization that will capture MORE than these kinds of benefits.

- Barry Sweeny

SOURCES: