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Your organisation might offer a mentoring programme, but are you realising its full potential?
Many organisations are well aware of the value mentoring can bring to them, from leadership development to social mobility programmes.
And while these use cases are powerful, they’re only part of the full picture.
In this blog, we’ll uncover ten use cases you may not have considered – so you can make sure you (and your people) are getting the most out of your mentoring programmes.
With Thrive’s recent acquisition of Guider (the world-leading mentoring and coaching platform) we’re introducing even more ways to bring mentoring to life at scale. With Guider’s tech, Thrive customers can now easily match people with mentors, track their progress, and measure impact across every part of the employee journey.
With that in mind, here are ten overlooked but powerful ways to use mentoring in your organisation.
Imagine if you could easily reduce that “first month anxiety” that new starters tend to feel. The right mentoring relationship, weaved into the onboarding process, can transform new-starter nerves into old-hand confidence.
Think about when you would start secondary school and be assigned an older “buddy” who’d already been there a few years. Having the guidance of someone who knows the lay of the land (and when Pizza Day is in the canteen) instantly eases those first-day jitters, and makes you feel like your proverbial hand is being held through the uncertainty.
Mentoring is a great way to put new starters at ease and help them settle in – but it doesn’t stop there. It can also be for employees who are returning to work after a career break (such as maternity leave) by pairing them with someone who’s been in the same position and can help them navigate the transition back into full-time work.
And don’t underestimate how powerful these programmes can be for career acceleration. By meeting their mentor regularly, employees can absorb the company culture and processes in a way that feels as natural as a weekly conversation with a friend.
With Guider’s smart matching as a part of Thrive, you can pair new starters with mentors who share relevant experience — for example, someone who joined the business during the pandemic and navigated remote onboarding successfully.
When a leader walks out the door without a clear plan for who’s stepping up, it leaves a chasm in your organisation. That chasm can quickly widen, swallowing into it critical knowledge and progress so that important plans end up on pause.
Something we’ve gleaned through our partnership with Guider is that their clients share a concern we’ve discussed in a previous issue of Insight: a significant portion of their workforce is set to retire within the next five years, taking valuable knowledge and skills with them.
Mentoring is one of the most effective ways to tackle this challenge head-on. By connecting today’s leaders with the talent of tomorrow, you create space for real-time knowledge transfer. Those hard-won lessons and the unwritten rules of how things really get done are all passed on before it’s too late.
You can take the guesswork out of the process. Guider helps you map mentoring relationships directly to critical roles, so you’re not scrambling to react when someone announces their departure. Instead, you build a proactive pipeline of future leaders who are ready to step up when the time comes.
Like we alluded to above, mentoring is incredibly valuable when it comes to internal mobility (e.g. helping employees move to different roles within the company.) It's also increasingly relevant for social mobility initiatives, where mentoring opens up pathways into non-traditional career moves. (Helpfully, Guider’s platform can help track those transitions and provide insights on mobility outcomes.)
Internal career moves are one of the best ways for businesses to retain talent – but for the employee making those moves, the next step forward is understandably daunting.
Mentoring can help to cushion the often-spiky transition, helping to provide employees with insight into new roles and departments before they take the final leap.
A mentor who’s been through the same transition can help to demystify that process, and ultimately reduce the risk of talent leaving for other opportunities.
Representation matters. As the old saying goes, “You can’t be it if you can’t see it.”
Mentoring creates spaces for employees from underrepresented groups to find support and guidance from those who have been in a similar position. Reverse mentoring is another component of this, flipping the traditional dynamic on its head and giving leaders the chance to learn from younger or marginalised colleagues.
It also supports wider social mobility and accessibility programmes. Guider supports these initiatives with multi-directional mentoring structures (think 1:1, 1:many, group mentoring, and reverse mentoring. More on that later…)
It's these types of relationships that create a culture where every single voice is heard, inspiring people to bring their whole selves to work and sparking the kind of innovation that drives a business forward. Which leads us nicely onto…
Groundbreaking ideas rarely appear out of thin air.
Not all of us can be hit on the head with an apple and discover the theory of gravity as a result – we need to have a conversation and hear different perspectives. That’s where new ideas are really born. Mentoring across teams and disciplines creates those moments of serendipity that drive innovation.
Imagine a finance professional mentoring someone in Product, or a marketer learning from an engineer. Those conversations often lead to fresh solutions that wouldn’t have surfaced in a siloed environment – and with Guider’s analytics, you don’t have to leave innovation to chance. Find out more about how Guider can help your organisation fuel innovation here.
High performers thrive on growth and a clear path to progression.
Simply put: If they don’t see that path in your organisation, they’ll leave for other opportunities.
A good mentoring programme mitigates this risk. By pairing high performers with mentors whose guidance reveals their next steps, mentees know that your organisation is really invested in their growth. (And we don’t need to tell you twice that this is a key to employee retention. But okay, we will: 94% of employees said they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career. Are you sold yet?)
An often overlooked use case for mentoring is employee wellbeing.
Even the most supportive workplaces aren’t without their stressors – big projects, deadlines, not enough desktop monitors… Whatever the challenges are, having a mentor to talk to helps employees manage any resulting stress.
And it’s not just for one-off situations. On a continuous basis, wellbeing mentoring supports Neurodiverse colleagues and those in high-stress, client-facing roles. Through Guider, managed service support can train mentors to support wellbeing conversations safely and effectively so that it doesn’t blur together with counselling support.
These conversations are about practical support and perspective – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t huge wellbeing benefits. Several studies have found a positive link between mentoring relationships and a healthy work-life balance, plus lower levels of stress and burnout.
Roughly 70% of digital transformations fail.
It seems that the answer to this issue is that leaders often overlook the most important part of any digital transformation: The humans behind it. If people don’t know how to use new tech, they’ll end up feeling overwhelmed, which will lead to them opting out altogether.
That’s where mentoring comes in. Instead of throwing people into formal training sessions or one-off workshops, mentoring offers a safe, low-pressure way to build digital skills. Pairing digital natives with colleagues who need a bit more support creates a space where people can learn in a way that feels natural and hands-on.
Peer-to-peer mentoring is often more effective than formal training programmes (not to mention cheaper.) You’re not paying for external trainers, or buying additional training. You’re simply tapping into the skills that are already inside your business.
Most importantly, mentoring builds confidence, not just competence. Guider’s auto-matching helps create these peer learning opportunities specifically based on skill-based learning, so digital adoption is smooth and sustainable.
Employees leaving your organisation needn’t signify the end of that relationship.
Whether they’re made up of retirees or former employees who’ve moved on to other opportunities, alumni networks are an extremely valuable (but lesser-known) mentoring use case. Your alumni have been there, done that, and as a result they have a wealth of experience that can benefit your current teams.
They can also act as “brand ambassadors”, referring great new talent your way and advocating for your organisation.
Alumni mentoring helps you tap into this network in a structured, mutually beneficial way. Connecting past and present employees expands your mentoring ecosystem beyond the walls of your organisation, which not only supports knowledge sharing but also strengthens your talent pipeline by keeping relationships alive long after someone has moved on.
Mentoring isn’t a one-way street; senior leaders also have a lot to learn from those younger than them.
For example, Gen Z can offer:
Cross-generational mentoring bridges these worlds and creates a two-way exchange of ideas. When a tech-savvy graduate pairs with a seasoned leader, the graduate gains insight into high-level decision making, while the leader stays in touch with shifting employee expectations… (and maybe comes away – for better or worse – having learned what a Labubu is?)
It’s from this relationship that fresh ideas can form – and preconceptions start to break down. Guider’s platform supports multi-directional mentoring and makes it easy to design these programmes intentionally.
Mentoring used to be difficult to scale, but it no longer needs to be.
While mentoring is usually associated with leadership, our use cases above show just how much broader its impact can be – from onboarding to succession planning and everything in-between.
With Guider as a part of Thrive, you get more than just matching. Together, our services help your organisation design and scale mentoring programmes that advance what matters most.
By weaving mentoring into your people strategy, you create a culture of learning that sets your organisation apart from the rest. It’s time to rethink what mentoring can do for your business. Let’s have a conversation.
Or, if you'd like some free National Mentoring Day resources, download the pack below.
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Explore what impact Thrive could make for your team and your learners today.
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Your organisation might offer a mentoring programme, but are you realising its full potential?
Many organisations are well aware of the value mentoring can bring to them, from leadership development to social mobility programmes.
And while these use cases are powerful, they’re only part of the full picture.
In this blog, we’ll uncover ten use cases you may not have considered – so you can make sure you (and your people) are getting the most out of your mentoring programmes.
With Thrive’s recent acquisition of Guider (the world-leading mentoring and coaching platform) we’re introducing even more ways to bring mentoring to life at scale. With Guider’s tech, Thrive customers can now easily match people with mentors, track their progress, and measure impact across every part of the employee journey.
With that in mind, here are ten overlooked but powerful ways to use mentoring in your organisation.
Imagine if you could easily reduce that “first month anxiety” that new starters tend to feel. The right mentoring relationship, weaved into the onboarding process, can transform new-starter nerves into old-hand confidence.
Think about when you would start secondary school and be assigned an older “buddy” who’d already been there a few years. Having the guidance of someone who knows the lay of the land (and when Pizza Day is in the canteen) instantly eases those first-day jitters, and makes you feel like your proverbial hand is being held through the uncertainty.
Mentoring is a great way to put new starters at ease and help them settle in – but it doesn’t stop there. It can also be for employees who are returning to work after a career break (such as maternity leave) by pairing them with someone who’s been in the same position and can help them navigate the transition back into full-time work.
And don’t underestimate how powerful these programmes can be for career acceleration. By meeting their mentor regularly, employees can absorb the company culture and processes in a way that feels as natural as a weekly conversation with a friend.
With Guider’s smart matching as a part of Thrive, you can pair new starters with mentors who share relevant experience — for example, someone who joined the business during the pandemic and navigated remote onboarding successfully.
When a leader walks out the door without a clear plan for who’s stepping up, it leaves a chasm in your organisation. That chasm can quickly widen, swallowing into it critical knowledge and progress so that important plans end up on pause.
Something we’ve gleaned through our partnership with Guider is that their clients share a concern we’ve discussed in a previous issue of Insight: a significant portion of their workforce is set to retire within the next five years, taking valuable knowledge and skills with them.
Mentoring is one of the most effective ways to tackle this challenge head-on. By connecting today’s leaders with the talent of tomorrow, you create space for real-time knowledge transfer. Those hard-won lessons and the unwritten rules of how things really get done are all passed on before it’s too late.
You can take the guesswork out of the process. Guider helps you map mentoring relationships directly to critical roles, so you’re not scrambling to react when someone announces their departure. Instead, you build a proactive pipeline of future leaders who are ready to step up when the time comes.
Like we alluded to above, mentoring is incredibly valuable when it comes to internal mobility (e.g. helping employees move to different roles within the company.) It's also increasingly relevant for social mobility initiatives, where mentoring opens up pathways into non-traditional career moves. (Helpfully, Guider’s platform can help track those transitions and provide insights on mobility outcomes.)
Internal career moves are one of the best ways for businesses to retain talent – but for the employee making those moves, the next step forward is understandably daunting.
Mentoring can help to cushion the often-spiky transition, helping to provide employees with insight into new roles and departments before they take the final leap.
A mentor who’s been through the same transition can help to demystify that process, and ultimately reduce the risk of talent leaving for other opportunities.
Representation matters. As the old saying goes, “You can’t be it if you can’t see it.”
Mentoring creates spaces for employees from underrepresented groups to find support and guidance from those who have been in a similar position. Reverse mentoring is another component of this, flipping the traditional dynamic on its head and giving leaders the chance to learn from younger or marginalised colleagues.
It also supports wider social mobility and accessibility programmes. Guider supports these initiatives with multi-directional mentoring structures (think 1:1, 1:many, group mentoring, and reverse mentoring. More on that later…)
It's these types of relationships that create a culture where every single voice is heard, inspiring people to bring their whole selves to work and sparking the kind of innovation that drives a business forward. Which leads us nicely onto…
Groundbreaking ideas rarely appear out of thin air.
Not all of us can be hit on the head with an apple and discover the theory of gravity as a result – we need to have a conversation and hear different perspectives. That’s where new ideas are really born. Mentoring across teams and disciplines creates those moments of serendipity that drive innovation.
Imagine a finance professional mentoring someone in Product, or a marketer learning from an engineer. Those conversations often lead to fresh solutions that wouldn’t have surfaced in a siloed environment – and with Guider’s analytics, you don’t have to leave innovation to chance. Find out more about how Guider can help your organisation fuel innovation here.
High performers thrive on growth and a clear path to progression.
Simply put: If they don’t see that path in your organisation, they’ll leave for other opportunities.
A good mentoring programme mitigates this risk. By pairing high performers with mentors whose guidance reveals their next steps, mentees know that your organisation is really invested in their growth. (And we don’t need to tell you twice that this is a key to employee retention. But okay, we will: 94% of employees said they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career. Are you sold yet?)
An often overlooked use case for mentoring is employee wellbeing.
Even the most supportive workplaces aren’t without their stressors – big projects, deadlines, not enough desktop monitors… Whatever the challenges are, having a mentor to talk to helps employees manage any resulting stress.
And it’s not just for one-off situations. On a continuous basis, wellbeing mentoring supports Neurodiverse colleagues and those in high-stress, client-facing roles. Through Guider, managed service support can train mentors to support wellbeing conversations safely and effectively so that it doesn’t blur together with counselling support.
These conversations are about practical support and perspective – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t huge wellbeing benefits. Several studies have found a positive link between mentoring relationships and a healthy work-life balance, plus lower levels of stress and burnout.
Roughly 70% of digital transformations fail.
It seems that the answer to this issue is that leaders often overlook the most important part of any digital transformation: The humans behind it. If people don’t know how to use new tech, they’ll end up feeling overwhelmed, which will lead to them opting out altogether.
That’s where mentoring comes in. Instead of throwing people into formal training sessions or one-off workshops, mentoring offers a safe, low-pressure way to build digital skills. Pairing digital natives with colleagues who need a bit more support creates a space where people can learn in a way that feels natural and hands-on.
Peer-to-peer mentoring is often more effective than formal training programmes (not to mention cheaper.) You’re not paying for external trainers, or buying additional training. You’re simply tapping into the skills that are already inside your business.
Most importantly, mentoring builds confidence, not just competence. Guider’s auto-matching helps create these peer learning opportunities specifically based on skill-based learning, so digital adoption is smooth and sustainable.
Employees leaving your organisation needn’t signify the end of that relationship.
Whether they’re made up of retirees or former employees who’ve moved on to other opportunities, alumni networks are an extremely valuable (but lesser-known) mentoring use case. Your alumni have been there, done that, and as a result they have a wealth of experience that can benefit your current teams.
They can also act as “brand ambassadors”, referring great new talent your way and advocating for your organisation.
Alumni mentoring helps you tap into this network in a structured, mutually beneficial way. Connecting past and present employees expands your mentoring ecosystem beyond the walls of your organisation, which not only supports knowledge sharing but also strengthens your talent pipeline by keeping relationships alive long after someone has moved on.
Mentoring isn’t a one-way street; senior leaders also have a lot to learn from those younger than them.
For example, Gen Z can offer:
Cross-generational mentoring bridges these worlds and creates a two-way exchange of ideas. When a tech-savvy graduate pairs with a seasoned leader, the graduate gains insight into high-level decision making, while the leader stays in touch with shifting employee expectations… (and maybe comes away – for better or worse – having learned what a Labubu is?)
It’s from this relationship that fresh ideas can form – and preconceptions start to break down. Guider’s platform supports multi-directional mentoring and makes it easy to design these programmes intentionally.
Mentoring used to be difficult to scale, but it no longer needs to be.
While mentoring is usually associated with leadership, our use cases above show just how much broader its impact can be – from onboarding to succession planning and everything in-between.
With Guider as a part of Thrive, you get more than just matching. Together, our services help your organisation design and scale mentoring programmes that advance what matters most.
By weaving mentoring into your people strategy, you create a culture of learning that sets your organisation apart from the rest. It’s time to rethink what mentoring can do for your business. Let’s have a conversation.
Or, if you'd like some free National Mentoring Day resources, download the pack below.
Explore what impact Thrive could make for your team and your learners today.
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