The Recycler Issue 316

RETAIL COLUMN
Using a Mentorship Programme
in your workplace
Peer mentorships are just a continuation of a long-standing practice of masters teaching
journeymen and journeymen teaching apprentices. But as a manager or team leader,
consider the benefits of creating a more formal peer mentorship program.
Implementing peer mentor relationships
gives employees a safe place to
learn and helps reduce errors. On the
job, that means more profit for your
operation and more time for you to
focus on other priorities. Employees
are more likely to ask questions and
express their fears or concerns to a
peer than a manager. If you can keep
the engagements positive (more on
that later), it is fertile ground for
problem-solving and new innovation
in your workplace.
Mentors learn important leadership
skills. For high-potential performers,
mentorship can be a proving ground
before taking a management role.
Some say there is no better way to
learn a process than to teach it to
someone else. By taking a good
performer and giving them the
additional responsibility of teaching
fellow employees, you reinforce their
knowledge. As they solve problems for
their peers, they gain insight into
additional facets of the work. For
example, your best employee puts
away orders faster than anyone. Give
them the role of teaching order
processing and they will recognise
that they combine several steps to be
more efficient. Once they teach
others, that more efficient process will
become standard in your store.
By interconnecting across various
departments, a mentorship program
can improve company communication
and morale.
How to begin a mentorship
program
First, define what you want out of the
mentorship program. Is it meant to
train less experienced employees
or improve cross-departmental
communication? Is it meant to
challenge the mentors to be better
leaders or the mentees to become
more professional? As with all
initiatives, it is important that you
define a single goal and not mix
messages as the mentorship program
begins.
It is important that your mentorship
program be seen as recognition of
good work. Not everyone will be in the
mentorship programme. Select strong
performers who are focused on
improving company productivity and
morale. There are high potential
people at every level. A mentorship
programme can challenge them to
demonstrate their readiness for the
next step in their career. Partner
people who have different skill sets
or approaches then explain what
each of them do well that they
Flora Delaney
can teach one another. Make sure that
top management supports the
mentorship programme and actively
participates. It will not guarantee
success, but without top management
advocates, a mentorship programme
will surely fail.
When pairing up partners, look for
some natural alignment in their
interests or styles. Young moms,
sports fans and video gamers can have
something to bond with outside of
work to make building a relationship
easier. They need to genuinely
connect with their mentors/mentees
to make progress on professional
goals. Ignoring that advice
means that your pairs can have
friction and dissolve. Is it important
to have successes early in the
programme so make sure you have set
up each person to succeed in the
programme.
50 THE RECYCLER • ISSUE 316 • MARCH 2019