Some years ago, an international study by Robert Walters found that only a third of employees had participated in a mentoring scheme. This is astonishing when you understand how mentoring improves employee engagement, and more engaged people are just one of the benefits.

Employers are missing a trick here. The sense of career development, practical training, and support that employees get from a mentoring program is one of the keys to improving employee engagement and talent retention. Indeed, 83% of workers claim that they would benefit from mentoring.

To get your mentoring program up and running and then scale it, here are some essential tips:

1. Match the right mentors with the right protégés

It would be best to choose motivated and willing individuals as mentors – an apathetic mentor will not get the best out of their protégé. For this reason, you should never force staff into becoming mentors. Only use those who willingly volunteer. Encourage people to put themselves forward by actively promoting personal benefits, like solid management, leadership and organisation skills, and the idea of “giving back”.

Another factor to consider is chemistry—you obviously want your mentors to get along well with their protégés. This can be pretty straightforward in a small business, where the management generally knows all of the staff. However, larger organisations may consider using mentoring matching software, which allows HR managers to build up a much more rounded picture of participants and, thus, more sophisticated matching.

2. Make mentoring sessions a ‘safe space’

Employees may be hesitant about divulging too much information to mentors, as many fear that their criticisms of the organisation will be used against them. This is not the right mentality to get the most out of the programme.

Therefore, mentoring sessions need to be strictly confidential. Ensure mentors are not in the same working group or department as their protégé. If you want to go the extra mile, you could even draft in impartial mentors from outside the organisation.

3. Set goals

Younger employees generally crave direction and goals to work towards. Therefore, mentors should communicate with the protégé’s line manager to identify key areas for improvement. If this is not possible, the mentor could suggest focus areas based on common issues people face at similar points in their careers.

Make sure the goals are specific, actionable, and tangible. A good way to do this is to use the SMART method.

4. Be consistent and committed

While setting mentoring aside during busy periods may be tempting, this is counterproductive. Employers must allocate enough time and priority. For example, mandatory weekly mentoring sessions should be set.

Employers could also help by producing resources such as introductory guides, career development exercise templates, and weekly goal assessment diaries.

Ultimately, mentoring programmes are well worth following. They help motivate and commit employees to the company, which quickly translates into the quality of their work.

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Hugh is the CEO of Thymometrics, a supplier of employee engagement surveys. He has over 34 years’ experience in IT in various roles, with a patent relating to Virtual Worlds, and he holds an MA in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.