Mentoring as a method of training staff. Helping young professionals in new jobs

Mentoring at the enterprise is recognized as one of the best methods of efficiency and effectiveness, which are used to train new employees.

The peculiarity of the current situation in the business world can be called serious difficulties with the selection of professional staff. It's almost impossible to find a ready-made specialist who can immediately start working. Mentoring, as a method of training personnel, allows to practically educate the staff with specific knowledge and skills relevant to a particular company. Many large enterprises are moving to this method of forming a collective. This method is especially important in cases when the personnel of the enterprise are young people with minimal experience of work.

What Mentoring Is

Depending on the size of the organization, as well as on the specifics and complexity of economic activities (production, trade, services, consultations), the head can hire personnel with little or no experience. In the process of training, a highly qualified specialist (this is the mentor) provides the newcomer with the information necessary for the job. It is also his responsibility to monitor the learning process of this knowledge, the formation of the necessary skills and, in general, the desire to work. Upon completion of the training, the young specialist will pass the certification and may be allowed to perform labor functions.

The distinctive features of mentoring is that the entire process takes place directly at the workplace, affects real situations and illustrates the entire work process. That is, this training contains a minimum of theory, emphasizing the student's attention on the practical side of the activity.

Internal and external school in the company

Most often, the term "mentoring" is used in connection with the notion of a "learning company". This is the name of organizations and enterprises that respond with high speed and efficiency to emerging changes in their business area. They create new technologies, learn and master skills and knowledge, and very quickly integrate new developments into the production (trade, consulting or other) process. The purpose of this action is to transform the main activity to preserve and improve competitiveness.

An integral part of this process is the continuous improvement of the qualification and professionalism of the staff. For the effective and quality training of employees, two systems are used:

1. The external school provides for the organization of a kind of training center on the territory of the company or outside its walls. Here, the personnel of the enterprise who are trained "from scratch" or increase their level of qualification can attend trainings, seminars or lectures conducted by the company's own trainers or invited specialists.
2. The internal school is a more individual way of teaching. A young specialist uses the instructions, advice and recommendations of a more experienced worker at his workplace. The advantage of an internal school is the transfer of individual experience and observations.

Who is the mentor, and what should he be?

Mentoring, as a method of training staff, involves the preliminary training of the instructor himself. They can only be selected by the manager, specialist or manager who has been selected, enlisted in the group of mentors and meets a number of requirements:

• The current level of competence corresponds to the profile of the position he occupies.
• Mindfulness in the performance of their work, as well as in relation to other employees.
• The work experience in this organization is at least one year.
• Experience in the performance of their professional duties for at least three years.
• Having a personal desire to become a mentor.
• Good performance in the MVO.

When an enterprise needs to train new employees, the head selects a candidate and signs an order for mentoring. In accordance with this document, later all the steps are taken to secure the trainee for a particular instructor, to charge the latter with a reward and to enroll the new employee in the staff after his successful training.

How does enrollment in the group of mentors

Based on the fact that work with personnel is a rather complex process, and its results have a significant impact on the company's productivity, the selection and training of mentors are appropriate with maximum responsibility. Along with the abilities and desire of an employee who claims to be a mentor, the decision to join the group is taken by a human resources specialist in agreement with the immediate manager of the employee.

This happens when the head of the application, submitted by the employee himself in writing or in electronic form (this depends on how the corporate portal is organized) is conducted by the head of the application. In addition, the head can independently choose and recommend a certain employee, also the candidate for mentors has a chance to be enrolled in the group based on the results of the annual staff assessment.

Being in the group, the mentors undergo training courses aimed at systematization and harmonization of the mentoring process. They set out the content, style and correct procedure for submitting educational material.

For which mentors are excluded from the group

Being among the instructors, the employees must perform the duties assigned to them at the proper level, otherwise they will face an exception. The reasons for such a radical action on the part of leaders may be the following:

• The employee does not demonstrate personal progress, his competence does not develop.
• More than 20% of new employees of the company supervised by this tutor did not undergo the adaptation program.
• The specialist is not able to fulfill his direct job duties qualitatively.
• More than 30% of trainees complained about this employee within one year.

The interest of the mentor

Mentoring, as a method of training staff, imposes certain duties on the instructor and trainee, but they are also given the opportunity to use a number of rights.

In addition to realizing their aspirations and abilities, the specialist, who is assigned to the student, is paid a monetary reward. However, in order to receive this money, the mentor must perform all his functions well and wait until the process of training the staff is over and the certification will be passed. It is common practice to pay a fee two months after the HR specialist has assessed the knowledge of the new employee and approved his enrollment in the staff.

Such measures are fully justified, because the goals of mentoring are to transfer experience and bring up a useful employee for the company. The company is not interested in losing money because of incompetence of mentors, negligence, laziness or negligence of students.

The Meaning of Proper Goal Setting

One of the most important tasks that a highly qualified specialist plays in the role of a mentor is the formation of an image of the result in the mind and imagination of the trainee.

The reality of its achievement for the student depends on how accessible and understandable the goal will be conveyed. In addition, the correct wording can inspire an adaptable employee to perform more complex tasks.

The relevance and adequacy of the goals can be assessed by correlating them with the following criteria:

• Concreteness.
• Measurability.
• Reachability.
• Relevance.
• Binding to a specific date.

Specific objectives

For any manager or mentor, work with the staff is primarily based on the principle of concreteness when formulating tasks, responsibilities and required results.

At the same time, along with concreteness, the goal is posed with a positive attitude. For example, it would be wrong to make a layout of the title page without using red and black colors.

In contrast, the task of making several variants of the template according to the template, which is familiar to the employee, will be more correct.

Mentoring, as a method of training staff, should be based on positive statements without the particle "not." It is proved that it is not perceived by the subconscious, so there is a serious risk of getting exactly the result that we so much wanted to avoid (the layout in red and black).

Instead of talking about how not to do, a good mentor gives the trainee a correct and precise course.

What does "measurable goal" mean?

Characterization of the correctly set goal becomes the possibility of its quantitative or qualitative measurement. To do this, use a variety of parameters and measures: pieces, sheets, percentages, rubles, meters.

An example of an incorrectly formulated task is a famous anecdote, the salt of which in the final phrase of the army ensign: "Dig from here to dawn."

An adequate goal can be called daily making ten cold calls or holding negotiations with three people.

Reachability of the goal: is it so important

Forming the student's confidence in their own abilities and competence is one of the functions that the mentor performs. Mentoring should not be for experienced employees a way of self-assertion at the expense of beginners.

That is why, when giving a trainee an assignment, a good manager compares its complexity with the abilities of the student. There is no place for hope for luck or a miracle

The peculiarity of setting an adequate goal is that it should motivate the trainee for further activity, and therefore, be more difficult than he is used to. However, excessive complexity frightens the insecure trainees.

The best characteristic of goals that fall into the "golden mean" between complex and simple, will be the phrase "difficult, but doable." Over time, the level of complexity of the goals for the trainee will increase, because he gets new knowledge and must be able to apply them.

Setting the deadline for the assignment

Uncertain wording in the setting of goals is one of the main factors provoking the failure of the task or its unsatisfactory performance.

The new work must first have a deadline, as well as the time of delivery or reconciliation of the intermediate results.

It is extremely unprofessional to put an approximate definition of the deadline, for example, "by the end of the month" or "next week". It is much clearer and more specific that the task of executing the layout by September 15 is sounded.

Relevance of purpose

The new work becomes for the trainee a challenge, and not a painful duty only when she is interested in him. Knowing that he needs to motivate the student, the qualified specialist-instructor will formulate the goal in such a way that it becomes important for the performer himself.

At the disposal of the mentor is only non-material motivation, he is not available monetary incentives or penalties from trainees. Therefore, the art of a good manager is to persistently and permanently interest the student in the work process.

An example of incorrect goal setting: "I need you to make this layout." The student does not understand why he should do this task, he internally resists.

A cardinally opposite effect is the request to make this layout and, in case of a good result, the whole team will know about the merits of the trainee.

Feedback as a tool for mentoring

In the process of training, the role of the instructor is not only to mechanically transfer the trainee the necessary information, but also to control its correct and complete assimilation.

Using the feedback methods, the manager can analyze the level of perception of the student, his mistakes, shortcomings and errors. Correction of the fulfillment of the labor function is carried out by discussion and delicate prompting of the right direction, that is, through constructive criticism.

Any remark should be constructed as follows:

1. The mentor describes the situation, which is the subject of discussion (task, project, teamwork, observance of corporate ethics).
2. Then he expresses his attitude to it and its consequences.
3. Manager announces his wishes about the future results of the student's actions in the same (similar) circumstances. Also, it can offer a simpler version of the behavior to achieve maximum workflow efficiency.

In any case, the behavior of the mentor in relation to the adapting staff should be based on tact, patience and diplomacy.