MENTORING

  Meaning and Definition of Mentoring 

          Mentering can be defined as training given by the senior and experienced employees . It is a developmental process that continues for long duration and comprise of informal activities through which more experienced and senior employees share their skills and knowledge with the newer and less experienced employees and motivate them to undergo further training . 

According to Collin , " Mentoring is a one - to - one relationship between a more experienced person and an inexperienced person , until the latter reaches maturity " . 

According to Haines , " Mentoring as a symbiotic relationship between two adults who facilitate each other in achieving mutual career objectives in an organisation or professional discipline " . 

According to Reidy - Croft , " Mentoring refers to the information and advice provided by an older , experienced individual to a younger and less experienced individual to help in latter's growth and development " . 

Participants in Mentoring Following are the major participants involved in mentoring programme : 

1 ) Mentors : Employees with greater skills and knowledge and commitment to provide help and acceleration to the careers of their mentees or proteges are called mentors . Mentors are generally in the middle of their careers and at such a stage need to re - evaluate their achievements in life and are desirous of keeping away from stagnating and moving on to the next phase of life . They are capable of challenging and supporting the proteges in such a manner that their productivity and job contentment increases with time . This helps the mentors to elevate the performance benchmark and also achieve renewed perspective from the protege's point of view . 

2 ) Proteges : Proteges are employees who have just started their careers and need to develop individuality in the industry and also a role - model whom they can follow while they move in their careers . Mentors and proteges usually work in the same organisation . Proteges display sufficient interest in the mentor and take active part in his activities and in this way contribute to his mentor's success . In return , he is also benefited as he gets become proficient in his work . Though , he is new to the organisation , yet is able to give good results to the organisation and get rewarded as well .

 3 ) Organisation : The workplace where either the protege or both protege and mentor work is called the organisation . It is also an active participant in the mentoring activity by permitting employees to take u mentoring , by identifying mentoring as an essential tool of development , by extending needed support the participants , by creating an environment that promotes and helps the mentoring programme succeeding and also acts as an artificial person .

Process of Mentoring Various steps that are involved in mentoring are shown in the figure  

1 ) Need Assessment : In this phase , the human resource department coordinates with the line managers and analyses certain aspects of mentoring . The basic aspects can be done to the organisation need to incorporate mentoring and if yes then identifying employees who need it , the total number of proteges , the type of mentoring needed ( career or psycho - social ) , the number of senior workmen who are qualified , and are prepared to be mentors , do these experienced workmen require training or not . 

2 ) Programme Design : Post - need assessment , the human resource department coordinates with line managers , and even with the help of consultancies if needed , design a mentoring programme . The main aim of the designed programme is to complete the mentoring process in timely and organised way . Designing also answers crucial questions such as duration , content , timing , criteria of evaluation , methodology and cost of the programme . 

3 ) Training : After finalising the potential participants ( mentors , supervisors , and proteges ) and the programme design , it is required to train the participants on how to adopt mentoring approach . The training might start with the experts lecturing the participants on the meaning and importance of mentoring . It further includes role - plays , self - scoring instruments , case discussions and reading assignments . These programmes might last from half - day to three days . A class - room training approach is ideal in such a scenario . 

4 ) Pairing : After training , the human resource department alongwith the line manager decides who will mentor which protege or can allow the mentors and proteges to choose among themselves . If the mentors or proteges are unable to pair themselves , the human resource department helps them out . While pairing mentors and proteges , the human resource department needs to keep in mind certain important factors like matching of functional / behavioural expertise , proximity of the participants , gender and cultural issues , etc. 

5 ) Facilitation : This phase comprises of cooperation and help from the human resource department and reporting supervisors who are taking care of mentoring activities . 

6 ) Evaluation : There is a principle that states that a thing that cannot be evaluated cannot be improved . Same is the case with human resource department programmes . Evaluation measures the usefulness of the mentoring programme and does its cost - benefit analysis . It needs to be done keeping in mind the objectives set for the programme while designing it .