Mentoring as a method of staff training. Helping Young Professionals Get New Jobs

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Enterprise mentoring is recognized as one of the most effective and efficient methods used to train new employees.

A feature of the current situation in the business world can be called serious difficulties with the selection of professional staff. It is almost impossible to find a ready-made specialist who can immediately get to work. Mentoring, as a method of staff training, allows you to practically educate personnel with specific knowledge and skills that are relevant to a particular company. Many large enterprises are moving to this method of team building. This technique becomes especially important in cases where the personnel of the enterprise are young people with minimal work experience.

What is mentoring

Depending on the size of the organization, as well as on the specifics and complexity of economic activities (production, trade, services, consultations), the manager may hire staff with little or no experience. In the process of training, a highly qualified specialist (this ismentor) provides the newcomer with the information necessary for work.

It is also his responsibility to monitor the process of assimilation of this knowledge, the formation of the necessary skills and, in general, the desire to work. Upon completion of the training, the young specialist passes an attestation and can be allowed to perform labor functions.

Distinctive features of mentoring is that the whole process takes place directly at the workplace, touches on real-life situations and illustrates the entire work process. That is, such training contains a minimum of theory, focusing the student's attention on the practical side of the activity.

Internal and external school in the company

Most often the term "mentoring" is used in connection with the concept of "learning company". This is the name of organizations and enterprises that respond with high speed and efficiency to emerging changes in their business area. They create new technologies, study and acquire skills and knowledge, and integrate new developments into the production (trading, consulting or other) process extremely quickly. The purpose of these actions is to transform the core business to maintain and improve competitiveness.

An integral part of this process is the constant improvement of the qualifications and professionalism of the staff. For effective and high-quality training of employees, two systems are used:

1. The external school providesorganization of a kind of training center on the territory of the company or outside its walls. Here, the personnel of the enterprise, who are trained "from scratch" or improve their skills, can attend trainings, seminars or lectures conducted by the company's own trainers or invited experts.
2. The Inner School is a more individual way of learning. The young specialist uses the instructions, advice and recommendations of a more experienced worker in his workplace. The advantage of the internal school is the transfer of individual experience and observations.

Who is a mentor, and what should he be

Mentoring, as a method of staff training, involves the preliminary training of the instructor himself. They can only be selected by that leader, specialist or manager who has passed the selection, was enrolled in a group of mentors and meets a number of requirements:

• The current level of competence corresponds to the profile of the position he occupies.
• Careful when doing your job, as well as in relation to other workers.
• Work experience in this organization for at least one year.
• Experience in the performance of their professional duties for at least three years.
• Having a personal desire to become a mentor.
• Good performance in MVO.

When the enterprise needs to train new employees, the manager selects a candidate and signs an order on mentorship. According to this documentlater, all actions are performed to assign the trainee to a specific instructor, accrue the last remuneration and enroll a new employee in the state after his successful training.

How is enrollment in the group of mentors

Proceeding from the fact that work with personnel is a rather complex process, and its results have a significant impact on the productivity of the company, the selection and training of mentors is approached with the utmost responsibility. Along with the abilities and desire of the employee applying for the role of a mentor, the decision to include in the group is made by the HR specialist in agreement with the immediate supervisor of the employee.

This happens when the boss studies the application submitted by the employee himself in written or electronic form (it depends on how the corporate portal is organized). In addition, the manager can independently select and recommend a certain employee, and the candidate for mentors has a chance to be enrolled in the group based on the results of the annual staff assessment.

Being in a group, mentors take training courses aimed at systematizing and harmonizing the mentoring process. They are presented with the content, style and correct order of presentation of educational material.

Why mentors are excluded from the group

Being among the instructors, employees must perform their duties at the proper level, otherwise they will be excluded. The reasons for such a radical action on the part of leaders may be the following factors:

• The employee does not show personal progress, his competence does not develop.
• More than 20% of the new employees of the company, who were supervised by this mentor, did not pass the onboarding program.
• The specialist is not able to perform his direct job duties with high quality.
• More than 30% of interns complained about this employee within one year.

Engagement of the mentor

Mentoring, as a method of staff training, imposes certain responsibilities on the instructor and trainee, but they are also given the opportunity to exercise a number of rights.

In addition to the realization of their aspirations and abilities, the specialist who is assigned to the student is paid a monetary reward. However, in order to receive this money, the mentor must perform all his functions well and wait until the staff training process is completed and certification is passed. It is common practice to pay compensation two months after the HR specialist has assessed the knowledge of a new employee and approved his enrollment.

Such measures are quite justified, because the goals of mentoring are to transfer experience and educate an employee useful for the enterprise. The company is not interested in losing money due to the incompetence of mentors, negligence, laziness or negligence of students.

The importance of proper goal setting

One of the most important tasks that a highly qualified specialist performs as a mentor is the formation of an image of the result in the mind and imagination of the trainee.

From whathow accessible and understandable the goal will be conveyed depends on the reality of its achievement for the student. In addition, the right wording can inspire an adaptable employee to take on more challenging tasks.

The relevance and adequacy of the goals set can be assessed by comparing them with the following criteria:

• Specific.
• Measurable.
• Reachable.
• Significance.
• Tied to a specific date.

Specific goals

For any leader or mentor, work with personnel, first of all, is based on the principle of specificity in the formulation of tasks, responsibilities and required results.

At the same time, along with concreteness, the goal is set from a positive position. For example, it would be wrong to ask for a title page layout without red and black.

In contrast to this, the task of making several layout options according to a template that is familiar to the employee will be more correct.

Mentoring, as a method of staff training, should be based on positive statements without the “not” particle. It has been proven that it is not perceived by the subconscious, so there is a serious risk of getting exactly the result that you so wanted to avoid (layout in red and black).

Instead of talking about what not to do, a good mentor gives the trainee the right and clear course.

What does the concept of "measurable goal" mean

Characteristic correctthe goal becomes the possibility of its quantitative or qualitative measurement. To do this, use a variety of parameters and measures: pieces, sheets, percentages, rubles, meters.

An example of an incorrectly formulated task is a well-known anecdote, the s alt of which is in the final phrase of an army ensign: "Dig from here until dawn."

Adequate goal would be making ten cold calls a day or negotiating with three people.

Achievement of the goal: does it really matter

Building student confidence in their own abilities and competence is one of the functions that a mentor performs. Mentoring should not be a way for experienced employees to assert themselves at the expense of newcomers.

That is why, when giving a trainee a task, a good manager compares its complexity with the student's capabilities. There is no hope for luck or a miracle here

The peculiarity of setting an adequate goal is that it should motivate the trainee for further activities, which means it should be more difficult than he is used to. At the same time, excessive complexity scares insecure learners.

The best description of goals that fall in the "golden mean" between complex and simple would be the phrase "difficult but doable." Over time, the level of difficulty of the goals for the trainee will increase, because he receives new knowledge and must be able to apply it.

Setting a due date for a task

Vague wording when setting goals is one of the main factors provoking the failure of the task orhis poor performance.

New work must first of all have a deadline, as well as a time for delivery or reconciliation of intermediate results.

Extremely unprofessional to give a rough estimate of due date, such as "by the end of the month" or "next week". The task of completing the layout by September 15th sounds much clearer and more specific.

The importance of the goal

A new job becomes a challenge for an intern, and not a burdensome duty, only when it is interesting to him. Knowing that he needs to motivate the student, a qualified mentor will formulate the goal in such a way that it becomes important for the performer himself.

A mentor has only non-material motivation at his disposal, monetary rewards or pen alties from interns are not available to him. Therefore, the art of a good manager is to firmly and permanently interest the student in the labor process.

An example of bad goal setting: "I need you to make this layout." The student does not understand why he should do this task, he internally resists.

A request to make this layout has a radically opposite effect and, in case of a good result, the whole team will know about the merits of the trainee.

Feedback as a mentoring tool

In the learning process, the role of the instructor is not only to mechanically convey the necessary information to the trainee, but also to control its correct and complete assimilation.

Using reversecommunication, the manager can analyze the level of perception of the student, his mistakes, shortcomings and delusions. Correction of the performance of the labor function is carried out by discussing and delicately suggesting the right direction, that is, through constructive criticism.

Any comment should be structured like this:

1. The mentor describes the situation that is the subject of discussion (task, project, team behavior, compliance with corporate ethics).
2. Then expresses his attitude towards her and her consequences.
3. The manager voices his wishes regarding the future results of the student's actions in the same (similar) circumstances. It can also offer a simpler behavior to achieve the most efficient workflow.

In any case, the behavior of a mentor towards adaptive employees should be based on tact, patience and diplomacy.