home Calculators What does mentoring provide? Material on mentoring at the enterprise

What does mentoring provide? Material on mentoring at the enterprise

In this article we will talk about the essence of mentoring. We will explain how to choose mentors and implement the system in an organization so that it is not a formality.

From the article you will learn:

Download samples and materials to help implement the system

What is the essence of mentoring?

Mentoring system - effective modern method adaptation and training of employees both when hiring and when transferring to a new position. Mentoring reduces the level of stress when hiring, speeds up the development of job responsibilities, and makes the process of getting to know the team and corporate values smoother.

If you are thinking about mentoring, it means your company is quite developed. Mentoring is a complex system that takes time to implement, but has undeniable advantages: successful implementation will significantly increase the efficiency of the organization's employees.

Mentoring is no longer an innovative approach; it has already established itself as a proven and effective method adaptation and training of personnel. Even in the ancient world, masters hired assistants so that they could gain experience and master their craft through practice. Today, many companies, especially manufacturing ones, use mentoring for new employees. The purpose of introducing mentoring is to quickly train newcomers in production processes, team rules, corporate culture.

Mentoring is an organized system, each element of which works in conjunction with others for a common goal. Achievement of the goal is monitored on a regular basis. For this purpose, the following indicators are distinguished:

When it comes to organizational mentoring, people most often talk about customization and training.

A newcomer, to whom an experienced employee paid attention, worked with him, explained him and introduced him to other colleagues, feels gratitude to the company and an inner desire to repay the same. This helps reduce the number of layoffs and improve the atmosphere in the workplace.

Which companies require a mentoring system?

Positive effect of the mentoring system in the organization

Mentoring has a positive effect on the speed of adaptation, quality of training, loyalty and satisfaction of staff. But there are other important results of introducing a mentoring system. This is an atmosphere of continuity in the company, when mentors themselves show by their example what corporate values are important for the company, what functions employees perform, how they communicate with each other, what products they launch on the market.

The mentor is encouraged financially and non-materially. For example, a talented mentor may participate in a competition to replace leadership positions(in the personnel reserve).

An effective mentoring system will also help:

reduce costs and time to achieve high labor productivity;
quickly reach a level that meets corporate standards;
increase the level of professionalism of all personnel;
reduce staff turnover;
reduce risk of employee burnout;
increase the efficiency of training - development and adaptation of personnel;
increase employee loyalty;
to achieve the penetration of the values of corporate culture into the personality of each employee;
increase the HR brand and popularity of the company in the labor market.

Mentoring as a way to reduce staff turnover

High staff turnover is costly for the company. It is especially high during probationary period. The trainee quits because he does not feel attention to himself and is left alone with ignorance of the requirements and stress. Errors that are not corrected during the probationary period can become entrenched in the employee’s work algorithm for a long time. Over a short period of 3–6 months, a newcomer can burn out emotionally and feel unnecessary. A mentor helps to cope with these conditions, gives a feeling of significance and importance, and fills the newcomer’s work with purpose and meaning.

The employee with whom the mentor works easily joins the team. Already during the probationary period, he gets to know all his colleagues, knows who and when to turn to if he needs help or advice. A friendly team strengthens the newcomer’s confidence that it is worth staying and working further in this company.

Mentoring as a factor influencing performance

The losses that a company incurs when training a newbie do not pay off soon. Mentoring also helps with training, thereby minimizing the organization's losses. The new employee is ready to perform his duties efficiently labor functions, understands the requirements for the position, knows his responsibilities and quality criteria for work already in the first months. A friendly atmosphere of mutual assistance causes an increase in motivation, and labor productivity increases.

Old employees also try to do good work to set an example for the newcomer. At the same time, a spirit of positive competition reigns in the team.

When the system will work and bring a positive effect

The mentoring provision is based on some principles that not everyone will agree with. If leaders do not accept the principles of mentoring, the system will not work effectively. Determine in advance that your company is ready for this. Mentoring works if:

no exaggerated goals are set for mentoring;
the manager understands what basic skills need to be taught to a newcomer;
the company has the opportunity to implement a long-term method of training and adaptation;
the organization has the funds to invest in a mentoring system;
mentors have the time and opportunity to work with a newcomer;
it is possible to control the quality and quantity of knowledge transferred to the employee;
the mentor works with one or more newcomers, but no more than 5.

Key points on which a mentoring system is developed

In our company, employees who become mentors have the opportunity to undergo training in management skills. In addition, these specialists receive bonuses for mentoring. All this is spelled out in our internal document regulating the mentoring system. There is also an internal information base, where the mentor’s goals and plans are entered, and then what he does and how he does it is recorded. Based on this, we determine the size of the mentor's bonus. But let me emphasize that not only material motivation is important. Employees should know that participation in the mentoring system is a new step in career ladder. The mentor can receive a promotion, for example, become a leading manager if previously he was just a manager, or enter the personnel reserve, applying for the position of deputy or head of department.

Requirements for a mentor

Not every employee is suitable for the role of mentor. First, select from among the employees those who formally meet the requirements for a mentor. Such people have the following characteristics:

they love answering questions;
willingly share their experience;
want to be needed;
willingly teach others.

What qualities should a mentor have?

Then move on to a deeper analysis. Calculate employees - ideal candidates for the role of mentor based on the following characteristics:

an experienced and competent professional who has knowledge, skills and abilities;
constantly develop and learn;
extensive work experience in the company, at least one year of experience in the position;
executive, disciplined employees who perform their work efficiently and on time for a long period of time;
want to be mentors;
enjoy authority among colleagues and are leaders whom people turn to for advice;
teachers who are inclined to teach and explain, patient and level-headed;
sociable, open, sociable, emotional and prone to empathy;
Organized, able to structure their time and information, think through a training plan.

What qualities should an effective mentor have?

Only after careful selection can a specialist be approved and included in mentoring order.

Download mentor documents

Even more useful materials for download in the section Samples and documents for journal materials

Rules of conduct for a mentor

Each mentor must adhere to the following rules:

communicate with the newcomer confidentially and openly;

train the trainee personally, allocate personal time for him;

show the newcomer the right values: learning, development, improvement, growth;

teach a beginner how to get answers to his questions, learn effectively from the experience of others and his own;

praise for success.

Motives of the mentor and the newcomer

The success of a mentoring system in an organization depends on the right combination internal motives two sides of the process - the trainee and the mentor.

The mentor asserts himself, and the mentee strives to raise his authority.
The mentor exhibits domineering behavior, and the trainee wants support and mutual assistance.
The mentor worries, guides, looks after, and the trainee receives the approval of the manager.

How to train mentors

Prepare mentors according to the plan specified in the organization's mentoring regulations.

	Task
	Provide mentors with sufficient pedagogical knowledge
	Build mentors' teaching skills
	Set up mentors so that they have a positive attitude towards their task, status
	Introduce mentors to the training plan for newcomers, set mentoring goals
	Develop a training plan and share it with mentors
	Train mentors in teaching methods
	Identify mistakes made by mentors and teach them the correct algorithm of work.
	Inform mentors about the results that the newcomer should achieve after training
	Teach mentors to overcome difficulties and problems when teaching newcomers, dealing with objections, and so on.
	Determine how many people will be trained by one mentor, form groups
	Highlight knowledge and skills that beginners cannot get from a mentor. Send such employees to other departments, to other companies.
	Prepare training materials
	Select rooms, stationery, props
	Plan your class schedule
	Develop reporting and control methods
	Introduce a system of mentoring and quality control of training.

Problems of implementing a mentoring system

Problem 1: mentoring was invented by HR

Employees do not understand the purpose of mentoring and treat the system as an HR department idea. This causes resistance; employees are not involved in the process and sabotage it. Involve employees in the development and implementation of mentoring regulations at the manufacturing enterprise, accept ideas from them, hold team meetings so that employees consider mentoring as their own initiative.

Problem 2: Mentors Don't Want to Teach Newbies

If mentors do not understand the value of their work, do not want to train anyone, and do not take responsibility for the success of the newcomer, the mentoring system will not work. Be sure to work with the motivation of mentors, select those who are internally interested in being a teacher for the trainee. It happens that managers force their subordinates to be mentors. In this case, the work will also not be successful.

Problem 3: Mentors do not want to be trained in mentoring, pedagogical and professional techniques

Mentors should be motivated to personal and professional growth. Set aside time for training so employees don't linger after work.

Problem 4: mentors do not want to take the test after training

Encourage employees to have a positive attitude towards certification and training. The success of the system depends on the quality of mastery of pedagogical and professional techniques.

Problem 5: Mentors take a formal approach to the task

If employees are not involved in training newcomers, give them minimal information and do not devote enough time, the effect will be the opposite. Monitor and evaluate the performance of mentors. Get both intermediate and final results.

Download questionnaires that will help you keep your mentors’ work under control

Please pay attention to these problems. If at least one of them is present, the results of mentoring will be the opposite. New employees and old employees will be demotivated, work processes will be less efficient, and knowledge will not be transferred to interns to the required extent. If the trainee and mentor do not work well together, promptly replace the mentor with another.

Instead of the usual departments, we have resource groups. The head of this group - an experienced resource manager - is responsible for the professional training of new employees, for their adaptation, supervises their further professional activities, and promotes career growth. The resource manager compiles a “young fighter course” for young specialists, develops control tasks, monitors how they are performed, works on errors. If the resource group has grown too large, the resource manager can choose an assistant - select a special person in his group - a team leader, who also takes on the functions of a mentor.

How to implement mentoring in an organization

To avoid problems during implementation, enlist the support of the company's top managers. In addition, HR should proactively create a supportive information environment regarding mentoring. The system needs to be described from the best side and the benefits of its implementation explained.

Department heads must also know and understand the benefits of implementing the system in the organization. They convey information to subordinates and popularize mentoring within the team.

Incentivizing mentors

Both tangible and intangible incentive systems can be developed for mentors. This could be a bonus based on the trainees’ training results, compensation for overtime and labor intensity. It is also important to encourage employees to value their role as mentors. Intangible methods are perfect for this. For example, rating the best mentors.

Offer mentors a social package:

additional paid vacation days;
discounts on education, free professional seminars, courses and trainings;
inclusion in personnel reserve ;
free corporate parking space;
vouchers to a sanatorium, vouchers for children;
personalized awards: watches, accessories;
tickets to entertainment activities and etc.

All allowances must be formalized. Employees must know clear criteria for completing their tasks, the amounts they will receive for extra work. If the system non-material motivation is designed well, and the staff is initially loyal to the company, financial incentives may be minimal or non-existent.

How to appoint a mentor, register and pay for his work

Signs that an organization needs a mentoring system

The company has distributed system departments in which the performance of a variety of functions is concentrated.

Employees often leave the company during the probationary period or in the first three years of work in the company.

It is difficult to transfer knowledge in the company; after an employee leaves, no one knows what he did; it is not transferred, since the tasks of each employee are not formalized.

The company's product is complex and intellectually rich, the company has know-how, and requires on-site training for newcomers.

The company coexists in the market with strong competitors, you need to constantly develop.

There are other reasons why some form of mentoring may need to be introduced into an organization.

Job profile as one of the success factors of the mentoring system

Summarizing all that has been said, it becomes clear that for the success of the mentoring system, both internal (motivational) components and an understanding of goals (specific knowledge, skills and abilities) are important. To choose the right mentoring plan for a new employee, you need to create a job profile. Clearly describe the functions of each employee, what he needs to know and be able to do in order to do his job effectively. Also identify areas of immediate development and possible career growth. This is the basis for your onboarding training plan.

Currently, when describing the mentoring system, they rely on one of the definitions. Yes, David Meister believes that mentoring is an investment in the long-term development of the organization, its “health”.

According to Gareth Lewis, mentoring is a system of relationships and a series of processes where one person offers help, guidance, advice and support to another.

In general, mentoring can be defined as the process of transferring knowledge and skills from a more experienced person to a less experienced one.

We are mentoring We will understand assistance to young specialists in adaptation and / or assistance to experienced company employees in changing their job responsibilities in the event of appointment to a new position as a result of career growth or rotation . Let’s call these categories of company personnel “ wards ”.

Elements of a mentoring system

The entire mentoring system in the company can be roughly divided into three components: mentors to the external and internal conditions of the business environment, them and subsequent support.

All of these processes can occur simultaneously and/or overlap each other. Even if the mentees have mastered a certain set of operations, when moving to another position or mastering a new area of work, the entire process is repeated from the beginning, developing in a spiral. In general, the entire mentoring system is a tool for including employees in the company’s business processes.

Contents of mentoring system elements

System elements	Definition	Goals and objectives
Adaptation	The process of including new employees in the company’s external and internal business processes. Changing employee behavior in accordance with environmental requirements	Facilitate the entry of young specialists, new employees, and reservists into positions. Used to immerse them in corporate culture and business processes
Education	The process of mastering knowledge and skills	Use it to unlock the potential of existing employees and their further personal and professional development, for example, when moving to a new position or being included in the personnel reserve. Employees must acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to work in accordance with established corporate standards
Escort	The process of improving quantitative and/or quality characteristics skills or knowledge in a specific area. The use of already acquired knowledge and skills in a specific situation or for a specific purpose. Consulting and supervision	Bridging the gap between learning and achieving results. To become an important system element of the company, giving it a new quality of a self-learning organization in which employees constantly improve their skills

A study conducted by Grant Thornton shows how relevant the issue of introducing a mentoring system is in Russian companies.in 2016. It showed that Russian entrepreneurs began to think more often about finding qualified employees and personnel development. 35% of respondents said they plan to invest money in development, and 23% are thinking of introducing a system for identifying talent in the early stages of their careers.

As experts note, in last years on Russian enterprises attitude towards employees has changed. This is explained by the fact that in small and medium business a lot came former managers large companies, including international ones, which have transferred there a culture of conducting big business. Management concepts borrowed by small and medium-sized businesses from large ones will only contribute to the growth of small businesses.

Company executives and owners agree that recreating and developing a mentoring culture within an individual enterprise does not require huge investments. And given the shortage of qualified specialists that medium-sized businesses have been facing for many years, this is also good way personnel training and development.

Case studies

All of the above is confirmed by our many years of experience in business consulting. At many Russian enterprises, mentoring has already become an integral part of corporate culture. Constantly working with companies from different sectors of the economy, we are convinced that there are enough examples of development and implementation effective systems mentoring. Here are some of them:

Example No. 1.

In a regional restaurant holding with a staff of 750 people, up to 70% of the staff are line employees, namely: waiters, cooks, bartenders. These are young people, mostly students who have never worked anywhere, who came to learn a profession and work in the company for two to three years at most. There are only a few people with real practical experience. Therefore, one of the main tasks set by the holding’s management is to optimally short time prepare employees in such a way that they can solve the tasks necessary for the company.

After an adaptation period, two paths are open to young specialists. The first is to remain, for example, waiters, to be good sellers and receive decent remuneration for your work. And the second is to develop further and become mentors. It is the mentors who are included in the personnel reserve, provided that they have successfully trained a certain number of trainee waiters, completed the appropriate corporate training program and have high levels of personal effectiveness.

Then the development of mentors occurs in a spiral: they are included in the personnel reserve for managerial positions, then transferred to the “novice manager” level, where they have mentors of another, more high level etc. Thus, they can reach the position of manager of a cafe or restaurant.

Example No. 2.

There is also a view on the mentoring system in interregional development company with a staff of 130 people. This company is truly socially oriented and one of the main values it promotes is caring for its employees. A practice that has proven itself is that from the very first days they strive to surround newcomers with attention, support, a warm atmosphere and give them effective tools so that they can quickly join the team and get comfortable with business processes.

The personnel management system is built in such a way that middle managers are interested in further development employees and are responsible for their subsequent personal, professional and career growth. They are the ones who form and train the company’s personnel reserve, including for their positions.

According to the HR service, up to 80% of top positions are occupied by employees who grew up within the company. In the “Project Managers” category, 100% of managers began their careers in engineering positions.

Thus, the company operates on the principle of a self-learning organization, which allows it to effectively respond to changes in the business environment by creating innovative technologies construction and acquisition of new knowledge and skills.

Example No. 3.

At a large production enterprise of the military-industrial complex employs more than 8,000 people. After the hard times of the 90s of the last century, they recreated the Soviet mentoring system almost piece by piece, taking the best from it and adapting it to the laws of the market.

Today, work with personnel is carried out in three directions:

- Accelerated adaptation of newcomers to the production process. This work is built according to individual development plans and under the guidance of specially assigned mentors. Mentors participate in assessing the success of their mentees in completing the probationary period. They express their opinion, which is decisive, on the advisability of further work for new employees at the enterprise;
- Conducting regular advanced training in the form of trainings and internships for existing employees. This allows the company to effectively develop a new generation of engineering and technical specialists;
- Systematic formation and development of the personnel reserve. It includes the most motivated and loyal employees of the enterprise who have the necessary set of competencies to occupy management positions in the future. As a rule, the period of stay of specialists in the personnel reserve is no more than 2–3 years.

To prevent staffing gaps, the enterprise successfully implements the following practice. At least 2 years before reaching retirement age, each manager is obliged to select a specialist capable of taking his position and begin to immerse him in the specifics of his activity. If the manager cannot decide on a successor, the HR service offers candidates from the personnel reserve. She also carries out all subsequent coordination and control over the mentoring process.

Also at this enterprise there is a system for replacing old specialists with new ones, in which the former employee becomes an expert or advisor. At the same time, his salary is fully retained, and his place is taken by new employee, prepared by the old one for additional compensation. This system allows the older generation to painlessly give way to their younger colleagues.

From the above examples it is clear that they are different in their specificity and scale Russian companies take a systematic approach to mentoring. This allows them to develop in employees the ability to independently and efficiently perform the functions assigned to them. And also quickly adapt to working conditions and the corporate culture of the enterprise.

In any business that is in one way or another tied to people, is expanding and is experiencing a change in personnel, there comes a time when the manager asks himself the question - how to train new employees and introduce them to the already formed team?

It’s great if the manager asks this question before the newcomers arrive and prepares a springboard for them. But it happens that an employee receives a set of instructions at the start, which he has to understand on his own. The result is employee distrust in the new company and decreased motivation to work. To prevent this from happening, there is a professional solution - a mentoring system.

At PRIME, the mentoring system has been in place since the formation of the company in 2004 and the opening of the first cafe in Moscow. Initially, the implementation of the system caused some difficulties: due to the lack of experienced personnel who could train others, cafe managers acted as mentors for newcomers.

Special trainings were conducted for them on all current topics in the hospitality industry. One mentor could have up to 3-4 trainees, each of whom needed attention.

During the work, situations also arose that the cafe employees encountered for the first time: can we allow guests with animals into the cafe, do we allow everyone or only guests to use the restroom, should coffee to go in winter and summer be the same temperature, and much more. All issues were brought up for discussion by management - and so new rules appeared.

Today in the cafe there is one trainee for every mentor. The cashier undergoes training for at least two weeks, and the manager for a month. With the development and expansion of the network, we realized that the mentoring system has become an integral part of PRIME: our employees receive 70% of their knowledge in the workplace and only 30% through classroom training.

The mentoring system at PRIME is a well-established but flexible mechanism, since each new employee brings something new to the company.

Principles of the mentoring system

Openness

The mentor himself is the initiator of communication with the new employee; he is interested in him accepting and using the acquired knowledge. Each mentor has his own secrets on how to please a guest, make him smile, and lift his spirits; for example, jokes about the weather and traffic jams are especially relevant in Moscow.

An excellent experience working with guests was the 2018 FIFA World Cup, when several PRIME cafes found themselves in the heart of the celebration, and employees were able to not only get practice communicating with foreign guests, but also become convinced of the key role of service in the cafe.

Responsibility

Work with a new employee occurs in both directions: the mentor not only transmits information, but also receives feedback, sometimes even negative. All difficulties that a newcomer faces in the workplace must be accepted by the mentor. This is the first person in a new place to whom the intern will turn for help or advice.

If a newcomer goes to senior management with his problems, it means that the mentor has failed somewhere.

For example, we have a practice of providing dormitories to non-resident employees. If any everyday issues arise, a new employee can contact a mentor, and he will forward the request to specialists in this area. Such semi-anonymous requests help to quickly solve everyday problems and prevent conflicts.

Development orientation

The mentor undertakes to be constructive and positive in assessing the trainee's performance, his performance of tasks and to be firm in the event of violation of his professional duties.

The first point is especially difficult for mentors, since subjective opinions and automatically developed emotional reactions often prevent the mentor from giving constructive feedback. This completely destroys the beginner’s confidence in his strengths and abilities. With a competent and positive mentor, even a beginner can become a cafe manager in a year; we have had a lot of such cases.

What qualities should a mentor have?

A future mentor must have qualities that will help him not only teach a beginner, but also grow himself. The most important qualities for the mentor:

patience,
communication skills
accepting other people's opinions and experiences.

A new employee already has his own background with which he comes to a new place of work. It is important not to try to convince the employee, but to try to use his experience and new ideas to improve the work of the entire team.

It was thanks to new ambitious employees that, at the beginning of the creation of PRIME, a system of six steps was developed, in which an employee managed to punch and prepare an order in 90 seconds. And our Coffee Orange iced drink also came about thanks to a new employee who mixed espresso and orange juice at home and suggested repeating the process in the cafe.

What is special about teaching adults?

It seems that it is easier to teach an adult something new than a child. It already has a theoretical basis, as well as a practical one based on experience. But this is not always the case: if it is enough for a child to receive knowledge itself as motivation for learning, then an adult needs a final and meaningful goal, an opportunity to apply knowledge in practice and a result.

For example, if we are teaching a new employee to navigate the assortment, then it is important for him to first see the goal - to know the assortment in order to be able to help the guest with the choice and quickly fill out the order. Guests will return to such an employee, even if they are in a hurry, because he understands his product. The result: increased sales, bonuses, etc.

Methods for training new employees for mentors

Most of the methods we all unconsciously put into practice. They are based on childhood experience, which we get while playing or studying at school.

Mini-lecture, that is, an oral presentation of the rules, instructions and other company materials.
Demonstration, when the mentor shows by example how to perform a task.
Role-playing game in which the mentor acts as potential client or the customer and helps to “play out” difficult situations.
Case analysis from real practice companies.
Simulation of a situation in which an employee needs to make an independent decision or take an important action for the first time.
The survey allows you to determine which topics were better or worse learned by the new employee, as well as identify “pain points.”
Observing the actions of a new employee when the mentor assigns a responsible task to the trainee and monitors the implementation from the outside. The trainee perceives this as motivation for development.
Involving guests in the mentoring process. This is PRIME know-how when we put up a special sign if a newbie is working at the cafe cash register. If desired, the guests themselves play the role of mentors, encourage, advise, and even give advice if the new employee is confused. This makes it easier and calmer for the intern to integrate into work; he worries less, feeling that the guests treat him with understanding.
Motivation is very important for any adult, so the mentor’s task is to determine what motivates the new employee and, together with his manager, build a development plan. We will tell you how to do this in the next article.

How to get the maximum

A short summary: a mentoring system can be effective for any company if it is structured correctly. For this:

For the role of mentors, choose only employees who are truly ready to work with newcomers, share experience, correct mistakes and inspire development in the profession;
correctly distribute the load on mentors, then they will be able to give trainees high-quality and useful feedback;
talk through and discuss situations that employees encountered for the first time. Such situations can become excellent examples for further work of mentors with trainees;
Conduct training sessions for your employees, but remember: most they gain knowledge at work;
do not rush to reject creative ideas from new employees - this way you risk missing out on an interesting and useful offer;
motivate a new employee - create and outline an achievable goal for his work and development in your company. This could be the prospect of a promotion, year-end bonuses, or something else;
use different methods training - case analysis, situation modeling. Involve the end customer/guest in the training process, and don't be shy about talking about what the trainee is communicating with.

Cover photo: company archive

The average age of workers in such professions as electric and gas welders, mechanics, and milling operators is much higher than that of lawyers or marketers. Experts note: the supply of blue-collar workers in the labor market is falling, but demand is constantly growing... In addition, training young people in blue-collar professions causes the most problems - both in industrial enterprises and in the education system.

Listen - and you will forget, look -
and you remember, do it - and you will understand.
Confucius

Increasing demand for workers (especially in mechanical engineering, metallurgy - in general, in the “real sector”) may soon lead to the fact that in the near future they may become the highest paid in the country. But where to look for these people? Now? In our small city of Berdyansk, their shortage has long become a serious problem: industrial enterprises there are many in the city, and the city mechanical engineering college is not able to satisfy the growing need for personnel...

What should managers do in a situation where the ability to recruit “ready” workers for blue-collar jobs has decreased? There is only one real way out - to look for alternative ways:

self-training (on-the-job);
sending employees for training at vocational schools/technical schools;
professional retraining in a corporate training center.

We decided to train people ourselves, directly at their workplaces. At the same time, such training became effective largely due to the involvement mentors: the introduction of a newcomer to a specialty and training directly on the job was carried out by another, more experienced employee with the same specialty.

The main “advantage” of the mentoring system is that an experienced master can convey to the student knowledge about the specifics of work at a particular workplace, with which he is well familiar. This form of education was very common during the times Soviet Union, since it made it possible to quickly train the required number of workers in a certain specialty. It was important for us that our “old people” themselves once went through the mentoring system.

It would seem that what could be easier for an HR specialist than to introduce a mentoring system: we write the appropriate Regulations, coordinate it with management, inform the team, and then all that remains is to control the process. Unfortunately, in reality, on the way to implementing the project, various “ underwater rocks", and there were many more problems than expected.

At our enterprise, the main difficulty turned out to be selection of people, who could become mentors (although at first no one thought that this could be a problem at all). Why? Experienced workers had enough qualifications and skill, but a mentor must also have many other qualities (for a list of criteria for selecting mentors, see table 1)…

Table 1. Criteria for selecting a mentor

No.	Group	Criterion	Note
	Work results	Execution of planned tasks high performance labor compliance with product quality requirements absence of defects and complaints from management	The mentor himself must demonstrate consistently high performance results. This is especially important for areas where there is a high probability of defects, and its elimination is expensive.
	Qualification	Extensive work experience rank in specialty (not lower than fifth) diploma/certificate of education age - at least 30 years	Without work experience and the necessary qualifications, it is impossible to teach someone how to work correctly.
	Work organization	Ability to organize your own workplace, keep it in proper order discipline, accuracy	The student must learn to keep the workplace clean and come to work on time. If the mentor himself does not know how to adhere to these rules, the student will never be able to understand their importance
	Personal qualities and position in the team	Respect from team members decency, conscientiousness ability to build relationships with strangers	An employee must build normal working relationships with colleagues not only in his own department, but also in other departments, and help others in solving current issues
	Motivation	Desire to help others with professional development need to gain new experience desire to move up the career ladder interest in receiving additional remuneration	A person must be focused on his professional and personal development, as well as the development of others, is interested in teaching others, be able to transfer accumulated knowledge and experience, as well as provide moral support to the student
	Organizational and pedagogical abilities	The ability to set the student to the desired result ability to teach, speak and listen	The clearer the mentor is able to express his thoughts (and in simple and accessible words), the better for the student. In addition, the mentor must be able to defend his beliefs in conflict situations
	Work experience in the company, product knowledge	Work experience in the company - at least three years knowledge technical documentation, product ranges	The mentor must know the company’s products, the specifics of all processes, the principles of interaction between departments, etc.

The mentor must be able to:

introduce the new employee to the enterprise (territory, organizational structure, accepted rules of conduct, corporate culture, colleagues, etc.);
familiarize yourself with the product range and requirements for manufactured products;
show the workplace, conduct a full briefing of the new employee on the use of machines and mechanisms;
to tell about job responsibilities and the requirements for the performer at this workplace;
teach a beginner how to work so that he can produce products of the required level of quality.

We found the following way out of the situation: we decided to select mentors for new employees, taking into account exactly what knowledge/skills they need. this moment lacks. For example, a newcomer has some experience in the profession, but he is not at all familiar with the products of our plant - in this case, the main criterion when selecting a mentor is 1) knowledge of the product (clause 7 table 1) and 2) length of service at the enterprise.

But choosing the right people does not guarantee that all of them will immediately join the new task, because training, control, and motivation of young people is an additional burden! You can get the expected effect from mentoring only if each master is interested in passing on his knowledge and skills to the next generation. As the “history of the issue” shows, attaching a young worker to a mentor “on a voluntary basis” is a deliberately losing option. What motivators will work?

Our practice confirms: currently the best means of motivation is material interest; without this, it is not possible to obtain the necessary effect from the mentoring system. Non-material incentives ( new position, gratitude, portrait on the Board of Honor, etc.) are also important, but secondarily; The emphasis should still be on material incentives.

Search and selection methods of material motivation mentors in our company took place in stages: new approaches were introduced, then assessed in terms of effectiveness, then revised and refined... This cycle was repeated several times before we arrived at the currently accepted system. Here's what we tried until we found the best option:

I. Our enterprise uses a piecework-bonus form of remuneration: workers do not have salaries, wages are calculated for the volume of products actually manufactured at established prices. It was decided: to pay the mentor extra for the period of mentoring - in the amount of 10% of his monthly salary. In this case, during the training period, the student receives a minimum salary plus payment for the products he produces according to approved prices. The rationale was this:

the mentor, with the help of the student, will be able to make more products than he previously did alone (for each unit of production he will receive an additional wages, and in addition - an additional payment for mentoring in the amount of 10% of the salary);
the student receives a certain minimum, and also has a real opportunity to earn more.

We believed that since the mentor’s salary would actually increase significantly, this would be a good incentive for successful preparation new workers. But it turned out that in practice this approach ineffective:

the mentor was constantly distracted from work to help the student or control his actions, so he did not have time to fulfill his quota and lost money;
the student produced a large volume of work only thanks to the help of an experienced master: in the products he produced, a significant share of the added value was actually created by the mentor, although the student received money for it.

results : the mentor is demotivated; A trained young worker, having parted with the status of an apprentice, was not immediately able to independently fulfill the established production standards. For some newcomers, this came as a surprise, because they no longer had a specific rate, and their earnings were formed only by piecework rates. They came to the conclusion that they were “losing money” and quit without starting to work seriously. At the first stage of independent work, they actually earned less, but soon the salaries of former students increased significantly, they just had to get to that point...

The system clearly required revision.

II. Taking into account the failures of the first option, changes were made to the mentor motivation system. Now:

students were paid wages equal to the minimum wage;
the mentor received payment for all products made together with the student, plus (as before) a 10% additional payment.

The motivation of the mentors was improved - they saw the benefit in the rapid training of students, since the number of parts made with them in a pair (and, accordingly, the amount of wages) depended on this.

But also this system turned out to be “skewed”, now towards the interests of the mentor. Initially, it was agreed that the duration of training should be six to nine months, depending on the specialty, but could be extended “for objective reasons.” For example, if a) due to the features production process during a specific period of time, the master could not devote enough time to his ward; b) there was no order for the product; c) there was no work of a certain complexity, etc.

results : the mentors sought to extend the training period in order to receive increased wages (“for themselves and for that guy”). Of course, this option turned out to be unacceptable for the company, so the system was revised again.

III. Now we have decided to stimulate accelerated training for beginners: the amount of additional payment for mentoring was made inversely dependent on the period of training (that is, the longer a beginner is an apprentice, the less remuneration the master receives). At the same time, payment for different periods of training was approached differently:

1) six to nine months inclusive: the work of the mentor with the student was paid to the maximum (payment for all products made together with the student plus 10% of the mentor’s monthly salary);

2) 10–12 months: mentoring fees decreased (only 5% of the mentor’s monthly salary);

3) more than a year: mentoring was not paid.

results : By proposing these changes, we were afraid that mentors would “throw away” not fully prepared students after the first stage. But our worries turned out to be unfounded - the system finally worked normally.

After some time, the first results were summed up. Despite all the improvements, the mentoring motivation system still had a significant drawback: the quality of training of young workers largely depended on the size of the master’s remuneration. We decided that this was burdensome for the enterprise, so we tried to make wider use of various methods of non-material motivation:

Firstly, organized a competition among students, the winner of which received the title “Best Prepared Student.” The mentor whose mentee won the competition received a) a certificate of honor, and b) a week of additional vacation. But, as it turns out, for most experienced workers whom we would like to see as mentors, additional leave did not become a serious motive for working with young people - older people have less need for additional free time (these needs are more likely to be high among young people, especially young husbands and fathers).

Secondly, tried to “stir up” the enthusiasm of experienced workers: they explained that the work of a mentor is recognition of high professionalism, a sign of high status in the company. But all our recognized masters with experience already knew that blue-collar professions are in demand, management values them, and they have the highest rank.

In the end, we promised to pay an additional one-time bonus for training the best student. This briefly changed people's attitudes towards mentoring in better side- however, it was no longer possible to call such a method non-material motivation. As a result, the program of non-financial motivation for mentors was completely curtailed because saving on education turned out to be unprofitable.

But motivation is not everything. While introducing a mentoring system in production, we also encountered other problems:

1. How to record the transition of a student to the category of “real” (full-fledged, independent) workers?

To establish the end of the apprenticeship period, we have developed qualification assessment procedure received by young workers.

This is how this process is organized at our factory. When the mentor is convinced that his student is ready for independent work, he informs the immediate supervisor about the end of the training period. Then a special commission is assembled consisting of the workshop manager, the chief engineer, the site foreman (to whom the student is assigned), a labor standards engineer, an economist, a technologist and an HR specialist. Members of the commission, in accordance with the established procedure, check the knowledge and skills of the young worker, and then confirm (or do not confirm) his qualifications.

To demonstrate the acquired skills, the student completes an examination practical work, which is assessed by members of the commission. Then they test theoretical knowledge. If the results of the work are positively assessed by all members of the commission, the worker leaves the group of students and begins work in the “normal mode”.

Simultaneously with checking the readiness of a young worker to act independently, the work of the mentor is also assessed: how well did he cope with his task? Is it possible in the future to entrust him with training young workers?

2. How to ensure completion of the student training cycle?

What is the essence of the question? We had a case when, after the third month of training, a student complained to the site foreman (as his immediate superior) that the mentor required him to do 80% of the work independently and, in general, “forgot” his ward. But the commission did not find anything “wrong” in the mentor’s actions. How did the conflict end? The mentor himself demanded that the student be transferred to another master, after which the commission found a new mentor for the student.

In our experience, the question of whether a mentor can refuse to train a young employee in the middle of the training period is best decided in advance, stipulating this in the Regulations on Mentoring. Our decision: of course, the mentor has the right to refuse his obligations, but only if the student does not comply with his obligations.

3. Who should oversee the mentoring project?

It depends on the characteristics of the enterprise. In our company, methodological training of mentors is carried out by the HR service, which maintains a database of students and mentors ( table 2), and also prepares everything Required documents(protocols on the assignment of a profession and/or work rank, orders for inclusion in the mentor database, Regulations on mentoring) and measures to improve the training system. At necessary HR service employees together with the mentor they develop Plan of the education etc. Candidates for mentors are nominated by the heads of departments, and after consideration they are approved by the director (this decision is entered as a separate line in the order for hiring a new employee).

Table 2. Mentor database (fragment)

No.

FULL NAME.

Position, profession

Discharge

Date of Birth

Work experience in specialty

employment date

Number of trained

Statu with

FULL NAME. student

Period of study

start date

planned completion date

actual end date

Ivanov Sergey Viktorovich

Electric welder

Free

Yurko Andrey Anatolievich

Toolmaker

Sidorov Yuri Viktorovich

Vasiliev Petr Olegovich

Free

Petrenko Yuri Vladimirovich

Free

Andreev Vasily Vasilievich

Free

Yatsenko Yakov Andreevich

Electric welder

Durov Oleg Olegovich

Dmitrov Evgeniy Vladimirovich

Milling operator

Ivasyuk Ivan Sergeevich

Rublev Petr Vasilievich

Sharpener

Free

Which conclusions What have we done for ourselves by introducing mentoring at the plant?

Article provided to our portal
editorial staff of the magazine "HR Manager"

Education, Development, Trainings

Keywords:

1 -1

Mentoring has been one of the key methods of personnel development for many companies around the world, regardless of their size and type of activity, for many years.

According to the dictionary of economics and finance, mentoring can be defined as the individual or collective patronage of experienced workers over individual novice workers, or their groups, or a form of education (patronage), professional training and adaptation of young employees in an organization, involving the transfer of the mentor’s experience and instilling a work culture and corporate values to the learner.

In the definition of the dictionary of personnel management, mentoring is defined as a method of educating and training employees directly in the workplace, having both individual and collective forms.

In a broader sense, mentoring is a method of personnel development based on relationships in which a more experienced and knowledgeable employee helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable employee in the work. The concept of mentoring is broader than simple informational assistance in work, since it also includes development relationships, constant dialogue, and work with tasks that the student could not solve on his own.

Mentoring is informal process exchange of knowledge, social experience and psychological support received by the trainee in work, career and professional development. Mentoring involves informal communication, usually between two people, over an extended period, between an employee who has a large amount of relevant knowledge, wisdom or experience and an employee who has less of it.

The personality of the mentor plays key role in a successful or vice versa, destructive effect this method personnel development. A mentor must not only have the appropriate skills, knowledge or experience, but also be able to convey them correctly and in a timely manner to the employee being trained.

It follows that not every person is capable of playing the role of a mentor. In addition to excellent professional skills, mentors must have a range of personal qualities, of which, first of all, one should note a sense of responsibility, dedication, responsiveness, patience, a sense of tact, mastery of communication techniques and high self-organization.

An important thing for a mentor is the ability to captivate and interest his mentee. This significantly increases employee motivation and the effectiveness of the learning process. Even after the internship period ends successfully and the student begins independent work, the mentor must monitor him and be ready to help in difficult situations.

In modern terminology, it is customary to distinguish between mentoring, in which the mentor has a higher official status than the trainee and, in fact, is his leader, and mentoring, in which the trained employee is helped by a colleague of equal official status.

In the second case, interpersonal relationships, as a rule, are much less formal in nature, and closer and more trusting connections are established between training participants. The disadvantage of this type of mentoring is increased difficulty selecting an appropriate specialist who can take on the role of mentor. For this format of training, it is customary to use the term budding, and the mentor himself is usually called “buddy” (from the English buddy - buddy, buddy).

An important aspect of mentoring as a method of personnel development is that it does not require interruption from the work process. That is, throughout the entire training period, the employee remains at the workplace and continues to perform his professional tasks. Moreover, the learning process itself is built on solving typical work problems, which automatically solves the problem of discrepancy between theoretical training and practical activities.

In practice, a distinction is made between formal and informal mentoring. Informal working relationships are those that arise between partners independently. Formal mentoring involves a structured process for an organization to support mentoring, targeting target groups of employees.

Typically, formal mentoring is used as part of the development program for key employees, newly hired young professionals, high-potential employees, and employees being groomed for leadership positions.

In middle and large companies mentoring is used to improve staff development and retention systems. Mentoring programs can serve a variety of purposes, including onboarding new employees, developing existing employees, retaining employees, and increasing job satisfaction.

During the adaptation process, mentoring allows new employees to work with more experienced colleagues (mentors), receiving the advice, help and tips they need in their work. According to statistics, new employees who receive mentors remain with the company twice as often as those who did not have mentors.

Reducing staff turnover when using mentoring programs is also relevant for existing employees, since the trained employee receives, on the one hand, professional support in work, and, on the other, constant interpersonal communications with more experienced employees, becoming more immersed in the corporate culture and internal life companies.

Mentoring relationships, by their nature, promote career growth and provide certain benefits to all aspects of the training:

A mentor develops management skills, increases his status in the company, gains a reputation as a professional and the trust of colleagues, and takes part in the formation of a professional team (which is especially important, since the effectiveness of the entire team depends on the performance of each of its members).
The employee receives timely assistance at the adaptation stage, allowing him to quickly and easily get used to the organization, and receives support in solving complex work problems and in professional and career development.
The company stabilizes its workforce by reducing staff turnover and forms a team of highly qualified and loyal employees.
The HR service, in the case of a developed mentoring system in the company, receives a powerful supporting resource, since mentors become involved in almost all major HR processes.

Attractiveness and obvious benefit This method for all parties involved in the learning process is one of the reasons why mentoring has not lost its relevance for a long time, despite the emergence of new developments in the field of personnel training methods.

Mentoring allows you to develop an employee not only professionally, but also personally, which ultimately also affects work results.

Since there are many different mentoring techniques, this type of staff development requires thoughtful and strategic selection.

In 1995, a study was conducted of the mentoring techniques most often used in Western business, which made it possible to identify among them the five most popular elements inherent in most techniques, including:

“Support”: implies the commitment of the mentor to assist the student, which includes taking part in the development and professional activities of the employee throughout the entire period of training.
“Seeding”: implies the formation in the trained employee of those knowledge or skills that are not yet relevant, but in the future will be of value when it comes to it, when the situation demands it. Seeding allows you to gradually prepare the trained employee for the upcoming work tasks, even in cases where the employees themselves are not yet ready for such changes.
“Catalysis”: in this case, the mentor decides to immerse the student in an environment of change, provoking a broadening of horizons, changing the perception and order of values of the trained employee. The technique is based on the understanding that when changes reach a critical level, learning can make a quantum leap.
“Demonstration”: The mentor, by personal example, demonstrates certain skills, methods of performing certain actions, ways of solving assigned tasks, thereby making specific work situations clear.
“Harvest”: The mentor focuses on getting feedback from the trainee about what was learned during the training and what conclusions were drawn from it. The key questions here become “What has been learned?” and “How useful is this at work?”

Both these and other mentoring techniques can be used by mentors in the necessary combination, in accordance with the situations and personality of the employees being trained. In such situations, it is recommended to look for “teachable moments” in order to “expand or realize the potential capabilities of the employees being trained.” It is necessary to take into account that personal trust in the mentor is as important in training as his professional skills.

In modern Russian practice The main teaching technique in mentoring is the “Tell-Show-Do” model. This technique is formal, since the mentor formulates the training goal in advance and creates a list of knowledge, skills and abilities that the employee must have at the end of the mentoring period.

At the first stage (tell), the mentor explains the task to the employee being trained, having previously divided it into steps. Large tasks are divided into several parts and carried out in separate sessions. The mentor asks the employee questions to make sure he has understood the information. The employee retells the content of the task in his own words.

At the second stage (show), the mentor shows how to perform the task, giving comments along the process about how and which element he performs. At the end, the mentor checks whether everything that was done was clear to the employee being trained, and, if necessary, re-explains it.

At the third stage (do), the employee completes the tasks independently. The mentor may ask the employee to take one or another step again if he is not satisfied with the quality of the work. Upon completion, the mentor gives feedback to the employee and discusses with him the criteria by which the results obtained in the training will be assessed.

Thus, the advantages of the mentoring method can be formulated as follows:

On-the-job training of employees;
A personal approach that takes into account the personal characteristics of the trained employee to the greatest extent;
Simplification and acceleration of the onboarding process for new employees;
Accelerated dissemination of corporate culture and corporate values among trained employees, increasing job satisfaction;
Reduced staff turnover;
Increasing the motivation of trained employees;
Improving interpersonal and professional interaction among employees.

The disadvantages of the method include:

Decrease in the work efficiency of an employee who has accepted the role of a mentor;
Unstructured presentation of information;
Lack of pedagogical learning algorithms.

In conclusion, it is worth noting once again that the mentoring method now, as it has been for many years, is one of the most popular methods of training and development of personnel, both in Russia and abroad. Even in cases where a company cannot afford to prepare a full-fledged mentoring program, potential mentors can form them on their own, informally. With proper management support, this type of mentoring can also provide a high educational effect at minimal cost.