Upnotch™ empowers employers and their people teams to quickly deploy and deliver mentorship programs that build better employers and create stronger organizations. All employees can benefit from workplace mentorship programs, whether as mentees or mentors, from new hires to executive leadership.
Mentorship programs so profoundly impact organizations and their people that implementing them has become a best business practice across all industries.
The benefits of mentorship programs, regardless of the size, scope, or kind, all ultimately benefit organizational revenue. In fact, 55% of businesses report that mentoring had a positive impact on profits (Source). Companies with mentorship programs profit 18% more than average since 2020 (Source). And, companies without mentorship programs profit 45% less than average since 2020 (Source)
Upnotch™ provides the infrastructure, training, and support you need to run effective, self-sustaining mentorship programs in the workplace – all you have to do is act as the intermediary and look like the hero.
Benefits of Employee Mentorship Programs
Build employee-employer trust Employee mentorship programs help build great connection and trust between employee and employer. In fact, 52%—of companies offer mentorship programs to cultivate connections between employees. (Source)
Attract top talent Around 4 in 5 hiring managers (82%) believe job candidates are more attracted to companies offering mentorship programs — 85% of job seekers concur; companies are more attractive to them if they offer a mentorship program. (Source)
Increase productivity
The results are clear – mentorship programs increase overall organizational productivity. Across all industries, 70% of businesses increased productivity through mentoring (Source). And, 88% of businesses saw an increase in managerial productivity when mentoring is involved, compared to just 24% that used managerial training only (Source).
Increase retention One of the easiest ways to increase employee retention and reduce voluntary attrition is through mentorship, and 77% of companies report that mentoring programs increase retention. Retention rates for mentees (72%) and mentors (69%) in one study was higher than for employees who did not participate in mentoring programs (49%) (Source).More than 40% of workers without mentors have considered leaving their current roles within the last three months (Source). Millennials who plan to remain with their employer for over five years are twice as likely to have a mentor (Source).
Build Connections 52%—of companies offer mentorship programs to cultivate connections between employees, based on data from Express Employment Professionals. And when people feel like they matter to others and are important to the community, they are more likely to stay with an organization, give more effort and experience greater happiness. (Source)
Upskilling and Reskilling
More than ever, job seekers prioritize opportunities with companies that offer employee learning and development opportunities. 81% of respondents in the Express Employment Professionals poll said they offer mentoring as a way to upskill or reskill employees (Source). Upskilling through mentorship also reduces recruitment costs by investing in current human capital, and reduces the need to budget for costly learning and development programs by accessing existing, internal resources.
Employee satisfaction and fulfillment
91% of people who have a mentor are satisfied with their jobs, with 57% saying they are “very satisfied.” (Source) But, only 37% of professionals have mentors (Source).
When people had positive models for their work, they were more likely to say their work was fulfilling (68% with mentors, compared with 51% without), according to a poll of 4,000 respondents by Gallup and Amazon (Source).
And when employees had mentors, they were more likely to have jobs which offered both autonomy and authority and they were more likely to feel good about their work and experience esteem based on their role, according to academic research published in the American Journal of Community Psychology (Source).
Leadership development + succession planning Mentorship should be a cornerstone of any businesses’s leadership development program, especially to cultivate leaders with different perspectives and from different backgrounds. Employees are never too late in their career to benefit from mentorship – even at the executive level. And, 75% of executives say their mentors contributed to their success (Source). Of CEOs who receive mentorship, 84% become proficient in their roles faster 69% were making better decisions (Source). Mentorship also helps develop long-term leadership and succession plans within organizations.
DEI
Mentoring is a natural extension of your organization’s employee resource groups (ERGs), and can also help reach diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals. Mentoring programs increased minority representation in management more than 2.5 times from 9% to 24% (Source)
Raises and promotions Mentoring is an empowering relationship, including financially. Mentees are 5x more likely to receive a salary increase compared to those without mentors (Source). And, mentees get promoted 5x more than those without mentors (Source), and mentors are 6x more likely to be promoted than those who don’t mentor (Source).
Performance improvement Mentorship benefits all employees, no matter the stage of their career or their performance level. Though mentorship is often seen as a tool to further develop already high-performing employees, employees in need of improvement may, in fact, benefit more from mentorship programs. A study of 10,000 mentorship program participants at Sun Microsystems over 5 years showed that low-performing employees have potential to benefit more from mentorship programs. For human resources, mentorship can offer an alternative for traditional performance improvement plants.
Building an Employee Mentorship Program
Your mentorship program should be as unique as your organization and its members, tailored to your business’s overall goals and growth. Start maximizing your organization’s success by building your mentorship program with Upnotch™ in just four easy steps.
All you need to do is get started with Upnotch™, sit back, and your program practically runs itself.
1. Design
Upnotch™ provides completely customizable solutions to build the mentorship program that’s right for your organization. You can create your own program from the ground up, or select from one of Upnotch™’s suggestions to help you start leveraging the power of mentorship quickly. Then, set goals and add topics to refine the intent of each program.
2. Invite
At the heart of any successful mentorship program is a strong community. You have the flexibility to begin with a small group or invite your entire team, depending on your community’s goals and needs. To build a successful mentorship program, invite participants through marketing and communications channels like email, websites, social media, and more.
3. Launch
Kick off
Host a virtual orientation session to introduce participants, discuss program goals, and provide guidance on mentorship best practices. You can also share organization resources, including Uptnoch’s resource library to help mentors and mentees understand their roles, prepare for sessions, and make the most of their relationships.
Match
Pairing mentors and mentees well is key to building productive mentorships and mentorship programs. Upnotch™ allows flexibility to determine how mentors and mentees are matched.
Admin assigned – Program administrators can manually pair mentors and mentees based upon personal recommendations.
Mentee selected – Mentors can search for their ideal mentor, filtering by interests, languages, departments, industries, experience, seniority level, title, location, organization, and more.
AI-Matching – Powered by AI, Upnotch™ evaluates optimum mentor-mentee compatibility to provide perfect pairings.
Closed or Open Mentor Pool – Admins can establish who participates in your program and the pool of mentors available. Some programs may want to include only participants internal to their organizations, while others may want to expand mentors available to the global network of leaders on Upnotch™.
4. Optimize
Upnotch™’s easy to use dashboard lets program administrators instantly pull reports about individual mentors, mentees, number of sessions, programs, and more. Admins can also automatically receive reports via email to constantly monitor program analytics.
Benefits of Mentorship with Upnotch™
Instant Implementation Upnotch™ provides turn-key solutions so that your business can instantly implement a mentorship program at the employee, team, department, or company-wide level. Once you have defined your program’s objectives, or selected one of Upnotch™’s, your people teams can immediately begin invite, registering, and pairing mentees and mentors. Easy admin Upnotch™ makes it easy for HR to deploy and administer the program. Similar to GitHub, Dropbox and Slack, once Upnotch™is implemented, accounts can be upgraded to expand from individuals, to teams, to departments and ultimately to the entire organization - all with little involvement from HR leadership and/or their teams.
Integrates with existing systems
Upnotch™ is easy to connect with your existing HR systems, including your HRIS. We can use a .csv file to upload the right employees with the right permissions. We can refresh the user list at a frequency that makes the most sense for your program or can be done ad-hoc as needed.
Easy user adoption Upnotch™ is built like a Slack model so users will find it familiar and intuitive. This will help increase the % of adoption and usage of the platform. Hands-on or off Upnotch™ puts the power in the hands of mentors and mentees and puts the accountability in the hands of employees and their managers. Once deployed, mentees and their people managers can assign their own goals, track progress and leverage the platform to have performance conversations - all without HR business partners needing to be involved in the process (unless they want to be). However, administrators looking to closely monitor KPIs in order to achieve specific mentorship program goals may want to take a more hands-on approach.
Ideal Mentee-Mentor Matching
Upnotch™ provides three solutions to pair mentees and mentors perfectly. Study after study proves that compatibility and perceived similarities are essential for driving the success of any mentorship. With Upnotch™, mentees can self-self their mentors, using a range of powerful filters to find someone the specific skill set and experience that best match the things they want to learn or the problems they’re trying to solve. Admins can also assign mentees particular mentors, or allow AI to select the perfect match.
Instant Analytics
Upnotch™ has at-a-glance dashboards so program administrators can instantly pull reports about individual mentors, mentees, number of sessions, programs, and more. Admins can also automatically receive reports via email to constantly monitor program analytics to monitor number and diversity of participants; successful matches; individual goals achieved; retention rates, compensation increases, or promotions of participants; contributions towards company KPIs; and certifications, awards, honors participants have earned.
Extend Employee Resource Groups
Upnotch™ is a logical extension of existing employee resource groups (EGRs) and can be used to increase participation in these programs. Leverage Upnotch as an additional incentive for employees to join and participate in one (or more) company ERGs.
Support DEI
Upnotch™ supports your DEI initiative by ensuring greater participation in your mentorship program and fostering a deeper sense of belonging through the mentor-mentee relationship building process.
Unparalleled support
Upnotch™ offers unparalleled customer support to help your organization grow. Connect by email, phone, and video call with Upnotch™ anytime Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm CST. We’re here to help drive your success!
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