Call Center Industry News and Tips
Mentoring – A Little Help Goes a Long Way
By Linda Finkle
Mentoring programs offer companies an efficient and economical way to manage and develop human assets. A mentor can transform an average employee into an exceptional leader. A mentor can guide an up-and-coming leader through the maze of leadership skill acquisition.
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Mentoring – Five Reasons Your Organization Needs It!
By Ann Rolfe
How much does it cost you to hire the talent you need? How much does it cost when talent walks out the door? How much does it hurt when employees take your investment in their development elsewhere?
Retention of today's career-oriented employees, the loss of vital knowledge and experience when workers leave and the demand to continually build organisational capability, drive the need for mentoring.
Mentoring – A Little Help Goes a Long Way by Linda Finkle
Mentoring programs offer companies an efficient and economical way to manage and develop human assets. A mentor can transform an average employee into an exceptional leader. A mentor can guide an up-and-coming leader through the maze of leadership skill acquisition. A mentor can even improve the production levels of low-performers. A mentor cannot, however, make an individual want to excel. Nor can a mentor simultaneously boost employee production and groom powerful leaders. Companies must, therefore, learn how to employ mentoring programs that make the most of limited resources. This requires that companies set parameters around the 'who' and 'what' of mentoring.
Mentors can give high potential employees an extra push or inefficient employees some needed discipline. Both groups are worthwhile subjects, but companies will find it difficult to simultaneously implement two distinct mentoring programs. Before employing mentors, therefore, companies must determine the subject of a mentoring program.
As a company, you may prioritize leadership development over workforce productivity. If so, you will favor a mentoring program that produces top-line managers over one that yields efficient workers. On the flip side, a company that struggles to maintain a solid workforce may prefer to attain a stable employee roster before grooming employees for management.
Does your Call Center have an employee mentoring program in place?
Employee mentoring programs have been touted as being a major factor in employee retention and increased profitability and productivity within a company. These programs allow long standing employees to have a chance to prove their worth and share their expertise with less experienced employees. Personal relationships are developed and the overall morale of the company will increase.
Begin by determining what kind of mentoring is most needed within your workplace. In some cases, employee peer mentoring programs are the most effective programs, while in others, an employee-management mentoring program is a better choice. This determination can be made by deciding exactly what issues need to be addressed and who will be the best to provide guidance. Approach employees who excel in the problem areas and pair them with those who are weaker.
