How to leverage mentorship for knowledge retention

In our recent survey of Gen Z (which you’ll be able to ready very soon!), 64.5% of respondents said that they want mentoring. The youngest generation in the workforce hugely values continuous learning and development. They know that it’s going to be vital to their success in the ever-changing world of work.

Gen Zers also want bespoke solutions that can be tailored to their individual needs. Offering mentoring ensures businesses can attract and retain their younger employees by showing their values are aligned and they want to see new recruits succeed.

It’s not just Gen Zers who see the benefits of mentoring: millennial employees are twice as likely to stay at their current employer if they have a mentor.

So how can you leverage mentorship for knowledge retention within your business? Let’s take a look:

Create a knowledge-sharing culture

We often don’t know how much knowledge we actually have. Or what parts of our knowledge are useful to other people.

A culture of knowledge sharing ensures employees feel comfortable passing on their skills and experiences with colleagues. This can work both ways, with younger employees able to share their digital knowledge too.

A knowledge-sharing culture opens the door to a more formal mentoring program, which can help with succession planning and prevent knowledge erosion when older employees or senior employees leave or retire.

Make sure employees know about your mentoring program

It can be hard to communicate with people about there being a mentoring program in your business if they don’t have access to tools like company emails, Microsoft Teams, etc. Just because an employee doesn’t need these tools, though, it doesn’t mean they couldn’t benefit from mentoring.

Using an app ensures that every employee can benefit from mentoring without the additional setup requirements. It lowers the barrier to entry as well as making the setup process smoother.

As well as educating them about the program, be sure to also explain the benefits of being a part of it. This is just as important for mentors as for mentees, since mentors can sometimes feel they lack the time to invest in supporting their colleagues. It can be an invaluable tool to improve their leadership skills, though.

Videos, newsletters, and company meetings are just some ways you can plug the programme. You could even incorporate success stories into them to make the programme more memorable, as we’re more likely to remember stories. Stories also mean employees will see the results and be more likely to want to experience those wins for themselves.

Use a tool that works for everyone

Warehouse workers, shop workers, or other employees on the ground may not have – or even need – a work email address. However, this can limit the tools they have access to.

Sanctus Mentoring ensures that employees can still access mentoring even if they don’t have a work email. All they need is our app. It’s simple to set up with minimal admin requirements and maintenance. So it’s easier for you and your team.

Ensure your mentorship program is scalable

The problem with most mentorship programs is that they’re not scalable, which means there’s a limit to how much they can benefit your business.

This might be because:

• It’s manually managed and the admin in charge doesn’t have any more time
• The tool you use charges per seat
• You don’t use a tool so it’s harder for mentors and mentees to connect
• You have no formal mentorship program, so no way to know if anyone is even being mentored

The best mentorship program is easy to use and can scale with your business. That way you don’t hit a brick wall because you’ve grown too fast; internal knowledge can grow exponentially. Without extra time required to maintain or scale the program.

Sanctus Mentoring charges the same regardless of how many mentors or mentees you have taking part. Making it the perfect tool to help you scale your mentoring programme.

Bridge the gap

Mentoring can be a powerful tool to bridge the gap between demographics, yet 71% of executives mentor employees of the same gender or race. Over three quarters of CEOs are white, and the majority are white men, which means this can limit the growth opportunities of your diverse employees. This is likely why most people of colour either never reach management level or get stuck in middle management.

Bridge mentoring connects diverse employees and creates more opportunities. This can boost your talent retention, strengthen succession pipelines, enhance your company culture, and support marginalised communities. So you and your team can experience the benefits of a truly diverse culture like improved problem solving and creativity, and higher profit margins.

Pair it with coaching

Alongside mentoring, coaching is a powerful tool for knowledge growth within your organisation. It can help fill knowledge gaps and make people more confident mentors, improve communication skills, and help everyone get the most from your mentoring program.

Sanctus Coaching can help you connect employees to external, experienced, qualified coaches with hundreds of hours of coaching behind them. This can improve employees’ problem-solving abilities, boost their management skills and support them to juggle their varied responsibilities.

Our unique on-demand coaching model means that employees can book the amount of sessions they feel they need, whether that’s one session to work through a problem or monthly sessions to supercharge their professional development.

Or you can enrol them in one of our programs such as leadership development, where they can assess and track their progress throughout the program.

Conclusion 

Knowledge retention is a key part of business success. Coaching and mentoring can help you keep your internal knowledge by sharing it across departments, helping employees network, and improving employee retention rates.

If you’d like to find out more about our bespoke, scalable coaching and mentoring packages, get in touch today.