“During the great resignation, companies who didn’t have mentor-mentee relationships… their employment plummeted by 33% The ones that had it went up 3%,” Rick Cobb, founder of the workplace consulting firm 2-Discern, told Rob Hart on the WBBM Noon Business Hour this week.
As businesses look to tackle the challenges of modern work – numerous remote calls, concerns about how to integrate artificial intelligence and economic pressures to name a few – fostering these in-person connections mentor-mentee connections can put them at a great advantage, Cobb explained.
Here’s how they work: a more experienced member of the staff helps show a newer member the ropes. Cobb said these relationships can work both ways, with newer staffers bringing fresh knowledge about new technology.
“You have a chance to be with someone who apparently is interested in you and helping you become a better version of an employee or whatever it is you’re doing,” Cobb explained.
“What’s really interesting with mentor-mentee relationships now… is that we know somebody who’s coming right out of school is just got a black belt in digital… unlike anybody my age, so why not have that be a two-way connection?” said Cobb. He added that “there’s nothing about mentor-mentee relationship that has a downside.”
According to Cobb, establishing these relationships can also save companies money and help them retain employees. Successful workplace mentorship programs should aim to make everyone at a company more successful, make sure everyone is doing the best job they can and that everyone feels like they fit in.
“I cannot think of any one particular thing that costs nothing for a business and pays off so well as a mentor-mentee relationship, said Cobb. “The statistics on what it does for companies are mind blowing.”
