Your employees are one of your company’s most valuable assets. Thus, it makes perfect sense to invest in their career growth to better maximise your return of investment. One way to achieve this is by sponsoring business mentoring activities which will allow you to build their skills and tap into their potential.
The great thing about these activities is that they’re cost-effective and easy to set up. If you want to establish a solid company culture and develop expertise within your workforce, then you should definitely mentor up your employees.
In this article, we’ll be discussing how to set up business mentoring activities so that you can benefit from a more competitive staff.
Formal activities
Formal mentoring activities are those that involve meetings, training classes, apprenticeship, and the like. An experienced employee organises the activity and teaches new members about certain topics like company culture, professionalism, task execution, and more. The activities follow a structured program to help reinforce the importance of scheduling and time management.
For example, you can create a mentoring program based on improving communication skills or leadership development. Formal mentoring activities also include lectures, workshops, and discussions to allow the exchanging of ideas and enhance one’s critical thinking skills.
Unstructured activities
Unstructured activities take a more casual approach to employee mentoring. Some examples include on-the-job training and observation. In this case, the mentees learn by watching a skilled staff member instead of participating in training classes. As the less experienced staff members develop their skills, you can then delegate the tasks to improve their confidence.
If an opportunity in a meeting or presentation arises, you can invite a mentee to participate. Informal mentoring activities typically don’t follow a structured program and are best suited for mentoring individual staff members instead of the entire workforce.
Unstructured business mentoring activities develop memory retention skills, improve confidence and productivity, and encourage career development. Keep in mind that mentoring is not a direct replacement over formal training or accreditation when a new staff member arrives.
One-to-many activities
If many of your employees lack sufficient critical professional skills, then establishing a one-to-many activity may just be what you need. Such activity allows a skilled staff member to guide multiple employees in performing specific tasks. For example, you can create an activity that allows your staff to improve their listening and communication skills.
An expert leads the entire group and emphasises the importance of having good listening skills. In addition, a senior leader can tell stories and hold discussions to promote learning and development. The group can then be divided into two pairs for role-playing duties. This promotes best modeling practices and prepares your employees for customer interaction.
Peer-to-peer activities
Employees with similar positions can share ideas in peer-to-peer mentoring activities. One example is to host a networking event that’s similar to speed dating. These events are perfect for expanding one’s network and connecting with others to learn valuable tips, tricks, and techniques.
Say 20 people participate in the event. You can split them up by 10 pairs and give them 5 minutes to exchange topics or ideas such as upselling and customer relations. Ring a bell afterwards and shuffle the pairs so they end up with new partners. Do this for 50 minutes and your staff will have a wealthy exchange of insights that will most definitely broaden their horizons.
