How to celebrate National Mentoring Month
National Mentoring Month, celebrated every January, provides a unique opportunity to organizations to create awareness about the benefits of mentoring and its impact on the personal and professional growth of employees. You can celebrate National Mentoring Month in some of the ways listed below.
Celebrate National Mentoring Month
Recognize mentors
Most employees would have positive past experiences related to mentoring. Organizations should provide employees with a platform where they can share words of appreciation about their mentors on January 24 which is ‘Thank Your Mentor Day’. Teleskope’s Recognition module is a perfect solution to execute this activity as it enables instant recognition. When employees share anecdotes and moments about mentoring they inspire others to participate in mentoring programs and benefit from the experience.
Encourage employees to participate as mentors / mentees
January 9 is celebrated as ‘I Am A Mentor’ Day. Every employee has the potential to be a mentor whether it is within the organization or outside it. Organizations should create impactful communication campaigns to encourage employees to sign up as mentors or mentees in mentoring programs. Simplify the sign-up process and automate the mentor-mentee matching process with the help of advanced mentoring software like Teleskope Talent Peak. Increased participation in mentoring programs can reduce employee turnover and increase employee satisfaction at the workplace.
Introduce Flash Mentoring
There are various new types of mentoring programs apart from traditional mentoring practices. Flash mentoring is one such novel mentoring option designed for mentees to connect with mentors for a short time to discuss a specific topic. It is suitable for knowledge-sharing about organization-specific processes or domain-specific queries which can only be answered through experience. The short time commitment needed for flash mentoring is appealing to both time-strapped mentors as well as Gen Z mentees.
Encourage Reverse Mentoring
National Mentoring Month is also a great time to introduce reverse mentoring programs. Reverse mentoring programs differ from traditional mentoring programs in that they pair up younger, often less experienced employees as mentors to employees who are older and with more organizational experience. It is a great method to revisit and rework existing programs and processes with a fresh perspective. New technology solutions can also be introduced by the mentors to their mentees. Reverse mentoring also helps break the ice between senior leaders and next generation or newer employees.
Explore ERG Mentoring
Introduce mentoring in Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). ERG mentoring combines the benefits of ERGs and mentoring to provide nuanced matching. ERG mentoring can be designed for employees who are part of the same ERG or by ERG members for non-members. The additional element of similar experiences and challenges overcome by mentors/mentees can lead to a stronger bond and a more impactful mentoring experience for participants. ERG mentoring is facilitated by comprehensive employee program solutions like Teleskope which has an option to integrate the ERG platform with the mentoring platform to provide a unified and superior user experience for employees.
Successful mentoring stories remind us that not all questions can be answered by the internet while highlighting the importance of personal guidance and the power of conversation. Organizations should work towards keeping mentoring programs relevant and accessible by updating them regularly and investing in the right mentoring software.