Fill Your Training Gaps with a Low-Cost Mentoring Program

Businesses across the globe are seeing a decline in revenue as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, business leaders are rushing to cut costs and remain competitive.

Employee training is often one of the first areas considered when cutting costs during an economic downturn. However, you can’t expect employees to find ways to cultivate their skills, especially when adjusting to the current circumstances. 

The Harm in Not Providing an Alternative to Training

On the surface, ending your training program may appear to be a straightforward way to cut costs. Unfortunately, organizations that do not have an alternative solution to training often pay for this decision with these consequences:

1. Employee engagement takes a hit. Training can not only help employees perform their roles better but can also help connect their individual role with the greater mission of the organization. According to research, most employees (73%) who believe they work at a “purpose-driven” company are engaged. On the other hand, just 23% of people who didn’t find their company “purpose-driven” said they were engaged. Engagement isn’t an empty HR term – engaged employees show up in their roles as passionate and productive team members.
2. Employee morale declines. On an individual level, employees who don’t receive training may struggle to meet performance standards. At an individual level, performing in a mediocre – at best – manner impacts employees. This can also degrade the department as colleagues become frustrated with having to correct mistakes or pick up the slack.

3. Minimize industry relevance. Training programs aid in refreshing industry knowledge and keep employees and the organization current on trends. Without training, it’s easy to quickly fall behind industry innovation by focusing too much on task execution.

4. Increase in legal risk. Poorly trained employees can make costly mistakes that expose the business to legal liabilities or public relations nightmares. Ultimately, the resulting lawsuits, fines, or negligence charges can wind up being far more costly.

Fill Training Gaps with a Mentoring Program

If keeping your training program is not an option, don’t worry. There is still good news.

You don’t have to forego personal development when budgets are tight. Mentoring is a low-cost solution to fill the gaps created by losing your training efforts.

Through individual mentoring relationships, organizations can:

1. Build better cross-functional relationships. Without a mentoring program, some mentors and mentees may never cross paths. By promoting the development of multi-level relationships, mentees can learn how to navigate the organization, while mentors are armed with insight into skills that need to be developed.
2. Engage the workforce. Top performers will feel engaged by taking on a mentoring role and developing employees will feel valued and invested in as mentees.
3. Reduce turnover. Interestingly, research shows that mentors and mentees benefit from these programs, with both demonstrating:

• More career success
• Stronger organizational commitment
• Lower risk of turnover

3 Steps to Implementing a Mentoring Program

As businesses pivot to survive in an unstable time, it’s important to invest the thought and time required to implement the right mentoring program. Business leaders should focus on 3 key areas to design the most valuable mentoring program to replace training.

1. Develop Business Objectives. Organizations need set business objectives to define the purpose of the program and set a foundation for measuring the success of the program.
2. Match mentors and mentees effectively. Business leaders need to establish criteria for mentor matching to ensure the connection and relationship established is valuable – and authentic. Using mentoring software gives you access to algorithms that support this process to help refine matching.

3. Measure Mentoring Program Results. Setting the goals is just the first step. Business leaders need to actively monitor and analyze results at a program level to ensure the program is working as intended.

With Insala’s mentoring software, your business can seamlessly manage your mentoring program. From supporting the matching process to analyzing program results, our software empowers you to engage and support mentors and mentees along the way.

We know these are tough times, and we’re ready to help you navigate them. With more than 30 years of experience, we understand the challenges of establishing a mentorship program and guide you from start to finish.

Please contact us to request a demo and see for yourself how Insala can help you develop a mentorship program that engages and inspires your employees.