Role of Mentoring in New Hire Onboarding

Mentorship is a relationship in which a more competent, experienced or knowledgeable person trains a new hire so that he develops the right skills and temperament to excel at the job. It is a training program involving a new hire and a mentor where the new hire shadows his or her mentor to learn new aspects related to the job and organization. The mentor may be older or younger than the person being mentored, but he or she must have a certain area of expertise. It is a learning and development partnership between someone with vast experience and someone who wants to learn.

Onboarding is an important step in the recruitment process. As new hires makes the shift from a candidate to employee, the decisions the organisation undertakes during the initial phase can set the foundation for a long association with the company. Research show that a strategic new hire onboarding process leads to higher job satisfaction, employee engagement and retention,  organisational commitment, decreased turnover, and better performance.

Most companies don’t take onboarding seriously. A common mistake that organisations make is to treat onboarding as single event in which the new hires fill out forms and sit in orientation classes. Instead, onboarding should be a year long process where new hires are actively involved in the organisation and its culture and processes. One of the best ways to do this is by scheduling a mentorship program where the company can map new hires with senior employees, ensuring they become focused, motivated and productive from the beginning.

Benefits of customized mentoring program for new hires are many, we list out a few

• • • • Knowledge Transfer

        
        A mentorship program ensures that the new hire has all the necessary access and information to understanding and contributing in his job. These include organizational charts, login details, key contact information, technical training for specific business systems. Companies offer training on the company, its vision and mission, its ethics and culture. Certain companies also provide insight into company specific nuances, technical or otherwise, acronyms and terminologies.

      • Role Clarity

        
        This relates to how well a new employee has understood and comprehended his role and the expectations of the organization. Role clarity and specific key performance indicators help set the related expectations, and boost self-efficacy. This directly impacts loyalty, engagement and retention. If roles and expectations are left ambiguous, performance and confidence would quickly slide. In fact, a study of employees in the United States and United Kingdom found that businesses lose an estimated $37 billion each year as a result of employees not understanding their jobs. Therefore, role clarity is a good indication of how well-adjusted a new employee is. Setting KPIs also aid in giving new hires an understanding of their role and contribution to the specific department and the organization as a whole. KPIs also help provide training and development opportunities for the employee to develop and broaden their skill set.

      • Understanding Organizational Culture

        
        This entails providing employees with a sense of the organizational norms, both formal and informal. Helping new employees understand the nuances of a company’s unique culture, and steering them to find their own place within the system is essential. The mission and the vision of the company, its values, its ethics, its unique style and language and even the office jokes, are all important for a new hire to quickly integrate into the organization. A new hire often carries previous baggage which is a set of attitudes, norms and experiences that is derived from previous workplace. This baggage can be detrimental and mentoring helps get rid of this so that the new hire can start afresh.

      • Career Development

        
        Setting up a career development mentoring program for employees enables an organization to help junior employees to learn the skills and behaviours from senior employees that the junior employees need to advance to higher-responsibility positions. This type of mentoring program can help to align organizational goals with employees’ personal career goals (of progressing within the organization). It gives employees the ability to advance professionally and learn more about their work. This collaboration also gives employees a feeling of engagement with the organization, which can lead to better retention rates and increased employee satisfaction.

      • Top Talent Mentoring

        
        The most talented employees in organizations tend to be difficult to retain, as they are usually seeking greater challenges and responsibilities, and they are likely to leave for a different organization if they do not feel that they are being given the opportunity to develop. Top talent, whether in an innovation or management role, have incredible potential to make great things happen for an organization. Creating a mentoring program for high-potential employees that gives them one-on-one guidance from senior leaders can help to build the engagement of these talented employees, give them the opportunity to develop, and increase their retention in the organization.

      • Ensuring Safety and Security

      • Mentoring program ensures that the new hire is aware of the safety procedures at the new workplace. Educate the new hire about safety and security plans in the office premises. Need to communicate a security plan in place during an emergency situation or incidents of theft, natural disasters, workplace aggression and terrorist acts.

• • • • Developing Social Connections

      • Mentoring helps the new hire in making the necessary social connections and understanding power structures and team hierarchies in the company. This relates to all the necessary interpersonal relationships and information networks that would be required for the job. 60% managers who fail to onboard successfully cite failure to establish effective working relationships as a primary reason. Employees also need to feel socially at ease and accepted by colleagues and team mates. Integrating into one’s team is directly related to commitment and productivity. High quality relationships with managers, leaders and other team members is vital.