6 steps to starting an employee mentorship program

As a QSR, many of your team members are probably starting their careers.

Learning how to work in a professional environment can take career development training, but employees learn valuable skills like customer service , active listening, compliance, cooking skills and more. What if there was a way to accelerate learning and professional development so you could fill your long-term business needs? Creating a mentorship program can future-proof your restaurant and help you hire internally . 

Many companies avoid mentoring because it takes a lot of work, but around 70% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs in place . Companies who tap into mentoring accelerate their growth and build positive company culture, and this article will help you understand this topic at a high level and create a program of your own.

What is mentoring? Why is a mentorship program necessary?

Mentoring is a helpful experience that lets younger employees learn from senior staff members. 

Having good mentors at work provides a lot of benefits for employees. The National Institutes Of Health claims that mentors:

• Increase employee productivity

• Create a well-rounded workforce

• Encourage cross-organizational knowledge sharing

• And much more

Companies that can tap into the benefits of mentoring create many opportunities for their staff members.

Mentors can develop naturally as your staff gets to know each other. Organic mentorship isn’t scalable if your organization wants more people to reap the benefits of mentorship at work.

Mentorship programs democratize the process of getting a mentor. As we discussed, having a mentor or sponsor can significantly impact workplace outcomes and enhance your employees career goals. According to Insider , “Black women are less likely than their coworkers to have a sponsor.” Underrepresented groups may find it challenging to find a mentor naturally. Programs that match employees to mentors take the guessing game out of finding someone to support and advocate for you at work.

How to build a mentorship program for your organization

If you are concerned about turning a mentorship program from a vision into a reality, let’s discuss how to build a mentorship program for your team with step by step guide:

1. Define the goals you have for your mentorship program

Before you begin creating an employee mentorship program, let’s start by defining the program's goals. What do you want staff members to accomplish? What are your long-term goals as a business ?

Perhaps you want to create more mid-level managers at your company, so you could create a program focused on accelerating leadership skills. On the other hand, maybe you have a lot of high school students working with your organization, and you want to provide essential job skills for leadership development, so you create a work skills mentorship program.

Ask yourself the following questions as you define your goals:

• How long do I want the program to last?

• • We suggest that mentorship programs last at least three months so that employees can forge a great bond.

• How many hours should mentees/mentors devote per week?

• • Ultimately this program should be pretty easy to implement. Setting aside 1-2 hours plus some back and forth via email or text message should be expected.

• What is the ultimate transformation I want employees to achieve based on the schedule I set?

• • Based on your long-term business goals, set the shift you want to see in employees after their mentorship program ends.

Once you understand what you hope to get from an employee mentoring program, you can create the curriculum you want mentors to cover.

2. Create your mentorship program curriculum

Mentoring inside an employer-built program isn’t easy. Most programs are rigid, tied to a timeline, etc. The organic workplace advising that leaders do is less structured, and it’s harder to create consistent results with organic mentoring.

When you turn an organic relationship into a corporate one, it’s best to have a curriculum defined so that everyone can make the most of their time.

As you build a curriculum, consider the following:

• What do you want your employees to learn?

• Are there any conversations or activities that will help your team achieve the desired outcome?

• How much room will you give for the mentor relationship to build? What strategies can you recommend to speed up that process?

• Is there a prize or an award for people who make it to the end of the mentorship program? For example, you could give away a stipend or put great mentees in a management accelerator program.

Ultimately, a lot of weight will be placed on employees to make sure that everyone gets the most out of their advising experience.

3. Pick the right program participants

Once you know what the program will look like, it’s time to find great program participants.

It’s important to note that great employees don’t always make great mentors. Teaching and helping isn’t a skill that everyone can master right away due to different learning styles. You have to make sure that every advisor or senior employee you enlist has the skills to help teach new hires or junior employees.

On the flip side, some of your employees won’t make great students. You have to pick staff members who are dedicated and excited to improve their work ethic and excel in the program. Which team members would have a great transformation? Are there any employees who have great potential and just need a little extra attention? Pick team members wisely so you have a better retention rate.

Lastly, you have to watch and ensure that you put the correct pairs together for better employee development and positive outcomes. Some personalities might clash, so you have to ensure that you connect with the right employees when onboarding for the program. 

4. Ensure that mentorship program curriculum is followed

After the matching process or enrollment has been completed and the curriculum has been shared, it’s time to make sure that relationships are being forged using the parameters you set. As your employee mentorship program progresses, check in to ensure that:

1. Employees learn the skills they need to

2. Mentors understand the curriculum and teach it effectively

As a program manager, your goal is to support both parties going through the program you created. Mentors may need help steering the ship and leading employees. Mentees may need help to best utilize their time with an advisor.

5. Get feedback along the way

As your program kicks off, you will likely want to gather feedback or mentoring experience to make sure that the program feels valuable to both mentors and mentees. We suggest providing a survey for feedback after the 1-2 week mark, halfway through, and at the end of the program to measure success and employee satisfaction rate.

Once you have this valuable feedback, go through it, organize the major themes and templates of the feedback, and report on your findings. Addressing any major questions or concerns early on can help your team make the most of the program and also help you make a successful mentoring program.

If employees want to provide feedback about potential mentors or anything else between your surveys, create an easy way to provide feedback anonymously. If they don’t need anonymity, you could also have employees reach out to you personally. These initiatives and getting feedback quickly will enable you to address program issues before they become serious problems and build a positive mentor-mentee relationship.

6. Make adjustments for the next mentorship program cohort

After you run your first program, you need to make adjustments to make the mentoring sessions more efficient and helpful for your team according to the KPIS or metrics you discovered from the feedback. Consider doing a few group meetings with mentors and mentees. Ask questions like:

• How would you rate the program on a scale of 1-10? Why?

• Is there any resource that would have made your experience easier or better?

• What was the biggest challenge you faced during the mentoring program?

• What was your biggest takeaway from this mentor training?

• Do you think that going through this program enhanced your career?
  
  

Celebrate: You’ve made an excellent mentorship program

It’s time to celebrate. You did the work, and you have created a successful mentorship program experience that your employees will admire for a long time.

The work you’ve spent building an advising experience for your team members will have a lasting impact, boost employee engagement, and drive employee tenure. With the right mentoring process, employees can make drastic changes in their work lives.

You have helped match mentors and employees who might not otherwise have an advisor to call on. This program will breathe new life into team members who have potential but lack the network to advance.

Take some time, and start the effective mentoring program again with more knowledge and renewed passion. New employees need access to the mentorship program you have created.