The District Chronicles

Issue date: 11/22/09 Section: Business

Small and large businesses can benefit from mentoring programs.

(NNPA) Business mentoring is the collaboration of transferring the experience, skill and knowledge from a proven specialist to a less-experienced learner.  For the purpose of business, mentoring supports the development of a worker's skills, career, and personal growth. 

Often it is structured informally although most Fortune 500 and even small home-based companies offer some form of mentoring programs. Mentoring also enables the rapid transfer of legacy business advantages or cultural aspects cementing professional collaboration that foster greater productivity results. 

Successful mentoring compliments human resources by improving management through personal career growth development that retains valuable employees. It offers greater access to established internal and external networks, broader personal and professional skills. The novice worker gains advice, and dynamic perspectives from the mentor's years of experience.  This often informal arrangement is cost effective and yields bottom line financial results. Many types of mentoring exist. They include:

1. Informal or natural mentoring, which occurs when a senior decides to take the less-experienced worker under their wing for career and personal development. This method is cost effective particularly for small businesses. 

2. Situational mentoring occurs for a specific circumstance or project goal. These arrangements tend to be shorter-term focused on immediate solutions, but can lead to more permanent career counseling measures. 

3. Positional mentoring is a formal provision involving a supervisor mentoring a novice worker. Most managers use this technique in team-building efforts to enhance productivity. However, other team members may criticize or perceive favoritism if one learner advances more rapidly than others. 

4. Formal mentoring programs are often used in large companies such as Intel, DuPont, Microsoft, Federal Express, AT&T, among others.  This formal program is designed to promote and measure the career development of the learner for greater bottom line productivity results.  

Mentors also benefit from these professional relationships strengthening their interpersonal skills, increasing awareness and insight into the business operations. Overall, the business benefits through better recruitment, orientation, and retention improving staff communications with faster learning across the board. 

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