Are you aware of what is holding your business back from getting to the next level?
Do you know you and your team’s blind spots?
Have you the skillset and know-how in your team to take on areas of opportunity?
How can you move your weaknesses into strengths?
Over the last few Months, it has become very evident that businesses need hands-on help whether that is overhauling the systems of the whole company or supporting employees and new managers in areas that are holding them back from achieving the organisation’s goals. At County Wexford Chamber Skillnet, we have been reacting to these requests and needs and linking businesses to the right mentor. However, we now want to proactively drive mentoring as a key approach in business growth and employee development and this has resulted in the development of the PE.P. Mentorship programme.
Prepare Engage Progress
Enterprise-led Mentorship Programme
The P.E.P. Mentorship Programme is focused on working with companies to accelerate the personal and professional development of their management and employees so as to identify their blind spots, grab onto opportunities and move positively to the next level. This is achieved by providing mentees with guidance, advice and feedback from mentors with more experience than themselves. We are very lucky in County Wexford Chamber Skillnet to have access to a high quality pool of experts in key areas such as leadership, people management, team development, business planning and strategy development, customer experience management, resilience and wellbeing, digital marketing, sales skills and many more.
We have found from speaking to members while developing P.E.P. that the main reasons for company’s to implement a mentorship programme are as follows:
- Develop emerging leaders: helping high performing employees develop their leadership abilities.
- Improve employee performance: increasing engagement among employees and developing high a potential workforce.
- Promote diversity: mentorship programs encourage and empower employees from minority groups who may not currently be reaching the next level of career development.
- Career development: assisting employees in meeting their career goals by honing new capabilities and skills.
- Remote work: allow people to build their career and network in a remote work environment.
- Improving culture: building productive relationships among co-workers can lead to a healthier workplace culture.
- Employee retention: employees who perceive that the company cares about developing their career path and their future are more likely to stay with the company longer. Research done by Deloitte identified that younger employees who are given a mentoring opportunity are more likely to stay with that employer for longer.
- Reputation building: organisations who show a commitment to their employees’ development will gain a reputation as a desirable place to work.
- Planning for leadership succession: preparing for the next stage in the company’s life cycle.
- Improve a skills gap: turn employees weaknesses into strengths through mentoring and upskilling.
Why get involved in the P.E.P. Mentorship Programme?
For an organisation that starts a mentoring program, it’s a cost-effective and efficient way to boost employee engagement, strengthen company culture, and increase retention of high potential employees. In short, companies that implement formal mentoring programs help employees become more effective in their roles and strengthens their connections with others in the workplace. This in turn positively impacts the overall performance, productivity and image of the company and brings the company close to achieving their strategic goal.
The Three Stages:
Prepare – Prepare for change, development and further growth. This stage is all about identifying:
- Where you are right now in achieving your goals
- What are you doing
- Why are you doing certain activities
- How well are you doing them
This is the stage where it is crucial to get ‘Buy in’ from all involved in the mentorship process, including senior management.
Engage – This is the stage where the Mentor:
- Identifies what needs to be implemented and why
- Develops a plan in how to achieve the outlined goal and the steps involved
- Equips the mentees with the ‘tools’ and knowledge to move forward
- Provides advice, support and recommendations to mentees
Progress – The final stage is where the mentee is now equipped with the tools and knowledge to progress their role within the organisation. This is the stage to:
- Adapt
- Implement
- Continuously review
The success of the Progress stage involves commitment and drive from both management and the mentees.
How can you get started?
The first step is to contact the Network Manager, Therese O Connor who will send you out the P.E.P. Mentorship needs analysis form and answer any questions you may have.
Email: therese@countywexfordchamber.ie