Mentoring is a professional relationship between a senior or more experienced employee (the mentor) and a newer or less experienced one (the mentee). The mentor shares their knowledge and experience, offering guidance, advice, feedback, and encouragement. The mentee can go to their mentor with personal and professional goals, questions, and frustrations.
Mentorship supplements management rather than replacing it. Mentoring relationships are designed to create a safe space since the mentor typically has no authority to discipline the mentee or advance or deter their professional development. Mentors also have expertise and insights to share that the mentee’s manager may not possess.
If you’re considering setting up a mentorship program, begin by clarifying your goal. If your aim is to better integrate new employees into the organization, the tenure and experience of your mentors may not be critical. If your aim is to ensure that the skills and expertise of your senior employees get passed on to their possible successors, you’ll need to design a system that matches mentors with mentees who are in similar roles. If your goal is to provide employees with someone to go to for advice on advancing their career, it will be more important to recruit your senior leaders to serve as mentors.
This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.
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