Selling Decision Makers the Benefits of & the Need For a Mentoring Program

The following was written to a person who had requested advice for the content of a presentation on his mentoring program to his organization's key decision makers. His purpose was to explain the value of and need for a mentoring program, especially for new employees and their retention and development.

He had expressed his own ideas about what to say, which included the usual ideas about the needs of more junior employees for support and guidance, the stress and discouragement that many of them feel during their first few years in their profession, and their need for support in becoming better employees and advancing as managers.

Here are some additional suggestions I made to him. May they give YOU some ideas about building support to sustain your program.

Dear ____________ ,

Good luck with your presentation next week.

I agree that the key decision makers should know and understand the plight of junior employees. Most key decision makers will have no way of understanding what a challenge it is that new employees and junior mangers face and the effects of that struggle on the productivity of a whole career. Here are some of the conclusions we have reached from research and our own experience that will help them see the dreadful impact of having no support program and the potential for good that a quality mentoring program can have.

In case you have not thought to do so, I recommend giving these decision makers some additional items beyond what your email stated. These items are offered in consideration of the make up and background of many decision makers, considering that most have never been mentored effectively themselves, and what they feel to be their responsibilities. They often perceive themselves as the guardians of the budget and know that they are expected to keep the budget "within reason". This means that they must be shown and must understand the financial and non financial reasons for a mentoring program, NOT just the rationale for junior employees.

Here are my ideas. Barry Sweeny

1. Two Estimates of Costs:

Do not present your program proposal without also giving the key decision makers a candid and clear picture of the potential costs for the program. Describe what you believe to be a quality program and what providing such a program will require in terms of time and costs. That means you must do some considerable work to develop credible figures that you will have to live with for a long time (three years?). I suggest that you offer them two estimates of costs.

A. Cost of the program given the number of new employees you project will be involved in the program when it starts.

B. Cost of the program for another number of employees, say twice as many. Place this cost in a chart that allows comparison to the first cost (A above). This is very important because it will illustrate for the key decision makers that costs do not double when services double. For example, the costs for the whole group portions of any orientation meetings (or trainings or other meetings) remain the same whether 10 or 50 attend. Of course this is not the case for food and materials, etc. and there may be increased trainer stipends to cover an increase in the number of any break out session leaders needed. There is, however, some economy of scale and decision makers should understand this or they may place unreasonable limits on the program.

2. Estimates of Return on Investment (ROI):

There are a number of ways to illustrate that there are many hidden costs already in the CURRENT budget which are the current costs of NOT providing support to new employees. You want them to realize that if a mentoring program costs more (it does) but it can save the organization money which has an existing and hidden cost, the program will be perceived as more "cost effective" and "worth it". Here are some things to consider that can help you demonstrate this effect:

A. Employee Retention -

What number of new employees are not retained in the system currently?
What number of veteran employees leave or, at least, lose their enthusiasm for their work and could benefit from a new challenge and focus on a conversation about excellence in their work and increased results?

The power of mentoring programs to improve the ability of a organization to attract the best new employees and to dramatically increase new employee retention is very well documented. Increased attraction is critical because:

It increases the quality of the pool of applicants
It increases the number of applicants from which the organization can select when hiring
It creates the high expectation that if you are selected for a position in this organization that you are an exceptional employee. That establishes the norm for expecting exceptional performance and work.
It establishes the norm (even before hiring) that this organization expects and supports collaborative action to improve employee performance and results.

B. What is the cost to the organization when a new employee leaves or is not rehired?

What is your organization's costs for new employee recruitment, especially for recruiting the kind of diverse staff a great organization wants?
What is your organization's costs for new employee orientation and training during the first year or two?
What is your organization's costs in productivity during the year or two that a new employee is learning their job?
What is your organization's costs in productivity when a new employee leaves with what they have learned from trial and error, and a different new employee is hired without that hard won experience and starts over at the beginning again.
What is your organization's costs for the loss of continuity when new employees leave or are not rehired because they are not as successful as required?
What is your organization's costs for manager time spent orienting, evaluating, coaching, developing, and supporting new employees who are not retained?

C. What is the cost, even when employees stay in the organization, but when struggling novice employees must focus more on their own needs, than those of the customers, and their own day-to-day survival because they have little support, assistance, and guidance toward more effective practice. The fact is, struggling, unsupported employees adopt coping strategies that often are less effective practices, and those practices will tend to persist throughout a career. This tragic effect is well documented and the cost in productivity is immeasurable

D. What is the cost to the organization of veteran employees who need renewal and new ways to contribute to the needs of their colleagues and the goals of the organization, but who perceive no appropriate avenue for that?

3. Claims of Other Benefits:

A. If mentoring is defined to do so, and mentors are prepared so they can do so, they can increase the collaboration and professionalism of employees and positively impact the climate and working environment. What is the value of such a work environment?

B. Mentoring and coaching model for other employees the importance of being life-long learners. What is the value gained when the other employees see that everyone must keep learning?

C. Mentoring establishes the norm and expectation in the minds of new employees that career-long professional growth is an expected part of their work.What is the value gained when employees work every day a getting better at that work and more productive as team members?

D. Mentoring increases the opportunities for positive leadership by employees. What is the value gained when key decision makers can demonstrate support for employee empowerment in positive directions that contribute to organization agendas.

E. Mentoring is a perfect means of incorporating new staff into the culture and traditions of the organization. What is the value of ensuring that new staff are brought into, adopt, and contribute to the initiatives of the organization (strategic plan, improvement and quality goals, etc.)

Many of these "costs" are almost impossible to measure or to describe, but I do recommend that you try to do as much as you can to market the mentoring program in terms of "Return on Investment" with all levels of specific and general benefits included. Try to provide a list of valued benefits and results that are reasonable to expect from a mentoring program.

4. Check the wording of the purposes or goals for the mentoring program to be sure they are aligned with the benefits concepts you are presenting AND the major organizational strategic initiatives. In other words, ensure that it is clear in the program goals:

What the desired results of the program are
What the program can contribute to the organization
What costs the program can save the organization
What quality of programming is needed to capture the expected benefits
What is likely to happen without the described induction program
What, regarding each of those purposes, you expect to accomplish in the first three years of the mentoring program.

(The next section explains why this last item is so critical to getting approval for your program.)

5. Finally, propose a program evaluation process over at least three years which will be perceived as rigorous and which is designed to demonstrate the extent to which the program's goals can be accomplished in those three years.

You goal is for YOU to be perceived as:

Convinced of the efficacy of the mentoring program and the ability of a quality program to deliver on valued goals.
Willing to be held accountable for demonstrating the effectiveness of your mentor program
Expectant that business people who must run efficient and effective organizations will understand the value of a proactive, cost-effective program that targets improvements in THEIR OWN GOALS.

Of course, agreeing to be held publicly accountable for being a good steward of precious organization resources and accomplishing valued purposes is a frightening commitment. That is why the last item in #4 above is so crucial. Be realistic.

Also, insist on a budget that gives your program and your mentors the training, support, and recognition they deserve for the challenging task expected of them.

DO NOT commit to accomplishing valuable things for employees and their customers without the resources and tools that will be needed to do the work well. You will not gain that level of support later if you demonstrate in the earlier years that your program can do a good job without adequate training, support, resources, and time.

In general, my best advice here is "Be careful if you want mentoring in the worst way, that you don't compromise too much and get it that way."