Running head: DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 1. Developing a Mentoring Program. William E. Garlick III. Siena Heights University

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1 Running head: DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 1 Developing a Mentoring Program William E. Garlick III Siena Heights University

2 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 2 Developing a Mentoring Program Turnover of employees in an organization is not a new phenomenon. Individuals leave for various reasons and new employees hired to replace them. One or two generations ago, it was not unheard of to stay with your employer for an entire career, whereas the generation coming into the workforce now do not necessarily have the same expectations. This holds true of most organizations including Lansing Community College. Two of the implications of this fact are the loss of institutional knowledge when employees exit the organization, and that new employees have much to learn when entering the workplace. There are many ways in which to address these issues, they all vary in success and costs. Mentoring is one of these options and will be the focus of the duration of this paper. It is this author s opinion that a mentoring program is beneficial to both the organization and employees, and it will help to address these issues that arise because of turnover. Problem Definition All Organizations Employees acquire knowledge about various different subjects while employed at an organization. As the amount of time in the organization increases so too does the knowledge of not only information specifically related to job tasks but also that of organizational history as well as cultural knowledge. While this knowledge is an asset to the employee, it is very much personally acquired knowledge that is not likely to be written down in any manual or training program. When that employee leaves, oftentimes that organizational knowledge is lost and so too are the benefits gained from that information. The Baby Boomer generation is currently the largest group nearing retirement (Gibaldi, 2013) and comprises roughly 29 percent of the workforce (Fry, 2015). We can expect this

3 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 3 population to continue to leave the workforce taking the organizational knowledge with them. It should be pointed out that while the Boomers are retiring, they are not the sole source of organizational knowledge leaving the workplace. Many employees exit the organization for a variety of reasons. On the other spectrum of the of employment from exiting the organization are employees onboarding into the company. As was mentioned earlier, much of this organizational knowledge is not written down nor trained on and these new employees must go through the process of acquiring it. Furthermore, younger employees are navigating the professional workforce for the first time and need to develop many of aspects of the business culture. This could be anything from emotional intelligence, to how to conduct themselves in various situations. They may get feedback from their supervisor or peers but often they are learning from the interactions as they happen. Lansing Community College Lansing Community College is no different from the description above in that they have individuals both joining and leaving the organization. In the recent years, there have been several organizational exits with noticeable impact to the operation of the college. Some due to retirement, some due to injury leading to long term disability, and others with voluntary exits to seek other employment. In each of these categories, the impact was felt specifically from organizational knowledge being lost. There have also been new employees hired into the institution who are still navigating the culture in addition to learning the tasks and responsibilities of the role. While there is some professional development available to new hires, much of that learning is informal in nature.

4 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 4 Proposal to address the problem Lansing Community College should develop and implement a formal mentoring program designed to pair employees together to aid in career growth and retention of institutional knowledge. Training and guidance should be provided as well as provide guidelines for how the mentorship should be conducted. How mentoring addresses the problem What is a mentoring? The term mentor has its roots in Greek mythology describing a relationship between a younger and older adult with the older helping the younger develop professionally and as an adult (Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz, & Lima, 2004). There are three distinct mentoring periods over a lifetime specifically (a) youth, (b) academic, and (c) workplace mentoring (Eby, et al., 2012). For the purposes of this paper only workplace mentoring, focused on the personal and professional development of a protégé in his or her career, will be discussed. Mentoring in the workplace either occurs informally where relationships develop naturally over time or it occurs formally as part of an organizational program (Eby, et al., 2012). Benefits Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz, and Lima (2004) performed a meta-analysis of 43 individual studies and were able to identify several benefits for individuals who participated in a mentoring program over individuals not mentored as it relates to career outcomes. The research indicated that protégés experienced both greater compensation and an increase in the number of promotions. Allen et al. (2004) also discovered the research indicated protégés were more satisfied with their career, had a greater positive outlook on their career, and had increased likelihood to be committed to their career than those where not being mentored.

5 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 5 Contrary to Allen et al., Lee (2011) found individuals in a county health agency that perceived being mentored who were not satisfied with the opportunities for promotion. Lee states that this contradiction with the literature might be due to the timing of the study during an economic downturn (2011, p. 486) as there was a freeze on promotions during the study. This should indicate that although there is a correlation as indicated by research, there are likely to be many other factors for the benefits of mentoring on career outcomes. In a different meta-analysis performed by Eby et al. (2012), the research indicated similarly an increase in compensation but the effect was smaller. One interesting piece of information from that study is the correlation of greater perceived career success with a higher mentoring relationship quality. The important takeaway from this is that merely being in a mentoring relationship does not automatically bestow the benefits the research indicates. The relationship quality plays some role in the career outcomes however due to the lack of primary research the relationship between career benefits and relationship quality has not been examined further. In addition to the benefits to the protégé, the mentor also experiences some benefits from the mentoring relationship. For example O Neill states mentors can benefit from rejuvenation, increased promotion rates, an increased power base, and access to work-related information (2005, p. 439). Kahle-Piasecki (2011) describes further that the increased reputation and recognition in an organization is strengthen by the protégés network and through the information that is shared by the protégé acting as an informant supplying critical information that will somehow aid the mentor. The organization benefits from the mentoring relationship through enhanced organizational learning, competitive and strategic advantages as well as better employee

6 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 6 motivation, performance, and retention (O'Neill, 2005). Kahle-Piasecki (2011) states that organizations can calculate the ROI of mentoring programs through attracting and retaining talent, and saving on training and development. Mentoring is an additional method to train up new leaders in the organization. Lastly, Miller (2015) cites research that indicates mentoring is a supportive activity in an organization that encourages diversity in the workforce. In one example, she describes that in careers stereotypically dominated by males, a male mentor working with a female protégé signals to others that she is someone to be reckoned with (Miller, 2015, p. 221). Miller also cites research by Bristol and Tisdell indicating that mentoring can also be extremely beneficial for minority employees trying to move into the executive suite (Miller, 2015, p. 221). Developing the Mentoring Program Lansing Community College (LCC) is currently lacking a formal mentoring program. While mentoring does occasionally happen, it is organic and informal. LCC needs to develop a formal mentoring program, supported by the organization, while still allowing and encouraging the informal mentoring to continue. LCC would likely benefit from hiring the services of a consulting firm to guide the process of developing a mentorship program bringing in industry best practices and knowledge that may not currently exist in the employ of the college. For the purposes of this paper, several guidelines and key requirements of a mentoring program will be outlined. Organizational Goals The first step should be to define what the desired goals of the mentoring program should be. As laid out earlier in this paper, the mentoring program should try to address institutional

7 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 7 knowledge being lost through employees exiting the organization, and to provide career development for newly hired employees. However, the goals of the mentoring program could be more than that. Kessler (2010) writes that Morgan Stanley s goal for their mentorship program was to retian women employees in sales. The point is the organization needs to establish what the mentoring program needs to accomplish. It is important that the program match the needs and culture of the College. Pairing There are a few ways that mentoring programs could be configured, such as group mentoring, peer mentoring with a facilitator, or the most commonly done, one-to-one mentoring (Kessler, 2010). I am recommending that LCC focus primarily on the one-to-one mentoring relationship; however, the other arrangements have their strategic place as well. The greatest mentoring program with an appropriate support structure in place will do no good if the individuals paired together are not a great fit for each other. How best to pair individuals is up to debate. Some organizations have questionnaires, some conduct interviews, and in others the protégé is provided multiple options and selects a mentor (Kahle-Piasecki, 2011). However this selection process is done, they key is to pair individuals who will get along well and develop a quality relationship. Duration Quality mentoring relationships will take time to develop therefore it is recommended that the mentoring program be set up to engage mentors and protégés for six months up to two years depending on the goals of the individuals. One year is probably the ideal timeframe for most mentoring relationships to get the full value out of the resources expended.

8 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 8 Workbook LCC should also develop a workbook to guide mentors and protégés through the process over the course of a year. The workbook should include pre-defined activities that would benefit all individuals in the program such as facilitating the first couple of meetings for getting to know each other and setting expectations of both sides of the relationship. The workbook should also include activities for setting SMART goals and tracking of those goals. See the appendix for an example of both a goal defining worksheet as well as a progress tracking worksheet (Mentoring Worksheet, n.d.). Training and Support It is advisable to the College to develop a course of training sessions for both mentors and protégés to increase the likelihood of a successful mentoring relationship. This training should include topics such as the benefits of mentoring as laid out earlier in this paper, what makes a mentoring relationship successful, and practical tips and advice for mentors and protégés. In addition to the initial training offerings, the College should check in with the mentors periodically to assess if any additional support might be necessary. One check-in per month would be the ideal frequency, assuming mentors and protégés meet once or twice a month. This gives the opportunity for mentors to meet with their protégés and identify any issues that may arise, and does not allow too much time to pass for those issues to go unaddressed for too long. This check-in could be as simple as a short asking how the relationship is working or web form made available through a mentoring portal. After mentors and protégés are engaged for several months an assessment should be done with both the mentor and the protégé to make sure the individuals involved are a good match for each other and that the relationship has the capacity to strive. Rhodes stated bad mentoring

9 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 9 relationships are worse than no relationship at all (as cited by Kahle-Piasecki, 2011, p. 49). It would be better for individuals in a bad relationship to end the program together and get matched up with someone else. Conclusion Organizations face many different challenges in regards to employment. Financially they are always trying to maximize the return on investment or in some cases, the value on investment of their money spent on professional development. The nature of the workforce is shifting as one generation of workers leaves and another one steps in to their roles. The number of jobs at community colleges continues to decline (HigherEdJobs, 2016) which further complicates the turnover process as workloads presumably increase for those still employed. Mentoring has the potential to provide a very high value to an organization through many of the benefits as a result, a few which were touched on in this paper, and has minimal downside. At LCC, an effective mentoring program can address the problems with employee churn and even reduce the frequency at which it occurs. Given all the information presented in this paper, LCC needs to consider all that a mentoring program can do for the College, and take actions to make that available for the employees.

10 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 10 References Allen, T. D., Eby, L. T., Poteet, M. L., Lentz, E., & Lima, L. (2004). Career benefits associated with mentoring for protoges: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(1), doi: / Eby, L., Allen, T., Hoffman, B., Baranik, L., Sauer, J., Baldwin, S.,... Evans, S. (2012). An interdisciplinary meta-analysis of the potential antecedents, correlates, and consequences of protoge perceptions of mentoring. American Psychological Association, 139(2), Fry, R. (2015, May 11). Millennials surpass Gen Xers as the largest generation in U.S. labor force. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: Gibaldi, C. P. (2013). The changing trends of retirement: Baby boomers leading the charge. Review of Business, 34(1), HigherEdJobs. (2016). Higher education employment report. State College: HigherEdJobs. Kahle-Piasecki, L. (2011). Making a mentoring relationship work: What is required for organizational success. Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 12(1), Kessler, S. (2010, April 6). How to start a mentoring program. Retrieved from Inc: Lee, C. D. (2011). The correlation of mentoring and job satisfaction: A pilot study of mental health professionals. Community Mental Health Journal, 47, Mentoring Worksheet. (n.d.). Retrieved 2016, from Davenport University:

11 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 11 Miller, K. (2015). Organizational communication: Approaches and processes. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. O'Neill, R. M. (2005). An examination of organizational predictors of mentoring functions. Journal of Managerial Issues, 17(4),

12 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 12 Protégé Goals Worksheet Appendix Mentor: Protégé: Date of Meeting: Goal 1: Description To be completed by: Steps I plan to take to reach this goal Goal 2: Description To be completed by: Steps I plan to take to reach this goal Goal 3: Description To be completed by: Steps I plan to take to reach this goal

13 DEVELOPING A MENTORING PROGRAM 13 Protégé Goals Check-in Worksheet Mentor: Protégé: Date of Meeting: Goal: Goal met Making Progress No Progress Accomplishments: Obstacles: New goal or strategy to overcome obstacles (if needed): Goal: Goal met Making Progress No Progress Accomplishments: Obstacles: New goal or strategy to overcome obstacles (if needed): Goal: Goal met Making Progress No Progress Accomplishments: Obstacles: New goal or strategy to overcome obstacles (if needed):