Building a better mentoring program

Whether it’s a former teacher, a more senior colleague or an admired peer, mentor-mentee relationships can have a huge effect on employee satisfaction and retention. Look at the evidence at just one workplace, Sun Microsystems, which conducted an internal study of the value of mentoring. Among their findings, published in a paper by the Wharton School of Business: “Mentors were promoted six times more often than those not in the program; mentees were promoted five times more often than those not in the program; and retention rates were much higher for mentees (72 percent) and mentors (69 percent) than for employees who did not participate in the mentoring program (49 percent).”

Making the time and personal commitment for mentoring doesn’t come without effort. Below, two FSDs, one from a large operation and another from a small one, share experience and advice from their own internal mentoring programs.

Mentoring in a large operation

Matthew Smythe
Director of Operations for Aramark at The University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Va.

Number of staffers being mentored: Between 20 and 30

Program structure: Since UVA has a contract-managed dining program, it supports both a structured accelerated leadership program through Aramark and a less formal process based on individual development plans, Smythe says. The Aramark program places recent college graduates with a high-performing dining manager for on-the-ground training.

How he’d like to build on his program: Smythe is working to develop relationships throughout campus to expand mentoring to include professors and people from all parts of the university. “I think there’s tremendous potential, especially being at a university such as UVA; the resources that we have are incredible,” he says.

His advice for operators looking to start or grow a program: Start small and individual. “You take one or two people, and you build momentum and kind of let momentum take it away,” he says. Mentoring works best, he says, when staffers and managers are both mentors and mentees—that way, they can see both sides of the picture. He also advises giving mentor-mentee pairs control over the structure of their relationship; what works for one group won’t necessarily be successful for another.

What he would do if someone asked for mentorship and he didn’t feel comfortable doing so: Honesty is the best policy here, Smythe says. “Everybody has a lot on their plate, and if both people can’t invest the time and effort, there’s no point in starting it. If it’s just something that continues to fall down the to-do list, there’s no benefit for anybody.”

Mentoring in a small operation

Carol Weekly
Director of Child Nutrition, Queen Creek Unified School District
Queen Creek, Ariz.

Number of staffers being mentored: 5

Program structure: Since there are only eight schools in the Queen Creek district, it isn’t large enough yet to support a designated mentorship program. When an employee is interested in pursuing a promotion, whether that be from a worker position into a cashier or a managerial role, he or she works with the on-site manager to learn the details of that person’s job, Weekly says. “In our schools, our managers are working managers; they work alongside the staff instead of in the offices,” she says. “[Mentoring] doesn’t necessarily take time away from their day.”

How she’d like to build on her program: Weekly says she’d like to be able to add the formal title of mentor or mentee at her operation. “I think that title is really important for the mentee, that they’re working toward something, that they have that end goal,” she says. “As we grow, I’d hope to really be able to do that.”

Her advice for operators looking to start or grow a program: “Borrow from your neighbors,” Weekly says. Because she has operator friends in nearby districts that do have formal mentoring in place, she’s able to glean tips from their experience. “When I get to a point where we’re able to set [the formal program] up, I would reach out to my friends so I’m not reinventing the wheel, and then I’ll just tack on extra touches that are unique to my district,” she says.

What she would do if someone asked for mentorship and she didn’t feel comfortable doing so: Weekly says she has someone on her staff that fits this profile: The worker is a good employee, but doesn’t have the people skills to make it as a manager. “I honestly would be honest,” she says. “I would let them know that I didn’t feel they were ready.” In this case, she would encourage the employee to work on those trouble spots before moving on to the next step.