Coach’s Corner By Laura Francis

Numbers Don’t Lie: Mentoring Makes Employees Happy & Productive M

entoring can be a great equalizer, giving employees access to leaders, knowledge sources, and collaboration opportunities that may otherwise elude them. Gallup’s 2017 State of the Global Workplace report showed that 67 percent of employees are not engaged, while 18 percent are actively disengaged, at work. That is a whopping 85 percent of the employee population who simply show up and put in time, but who are unfortu- nately indifferent about their work. Sadly, employee engagement contin- ues to be an issue for many companies. But on the bright side, our research with our clients shows that mentoring can have an impact on how motivated and committed employees are to their organizations, which can create a more engaged employee population. For example:

• 90 percent of mentees and mentors said the mentoring program helped them develop a positive relationship with another individual in the company. • 89 percent said that they feel like their company values their development because they offer a mentoring program. • 89 percent said mentoring allowed them to contribute to the success of their company.

These numbers point to the positive influence mentoring can have on peo- ple. Mentoring can be a worthwhile development process for people at all levels of the organization, not just high-potentials or people who are al- ready engaged at work. Use mentor- ing as a tool to bring your less engaged employees back into the fold and give them something that they can find ex- citement and purpose in.

A Gallup article, “Dismal Employee Engagement is a Sign of Global Misman- agement” by Jim Harter, points out that the 67 percent of employees who are not engaged are not your worst performers,

AUTOMOTIVE RECYCLING • January-February 2019

but they are indifferent to your organi- zation. Change that with mentoring! A disengaged employee population also has a real impact on an organiza- tion’s productivity and their bottom line. Harter says that the economic conse- quence of disengaged employees over- all is approximately $7 trillion in lost productivity. So not only can disengaged employees bring down morale of the re- maining staff, but they can also sabotage the company’s ability to make money. That is serious. We found in our research with our cli- ents that mentoring can have a positive influence on the productivity of mentees and mentors:

• 91 percent of mentees said they ex- perienced competency improvement in one or more of the areas that they worked on in their mentoring relationship. • 88 percent of mentors and mentees agree that their productivity or effective- ness increased due to their current men- toring experience. There is a very real economic reason for companies to offer mentoring to their employees, as these numbers show. You can find additional ways that mentor-

ing impacts organizations and employees in the ROI of Mentoring eBook online at www.riversoftware.com/mentoring-roi/ the-roi-of-mentoring-ebook. Also, find the 2017 State of the Global Work-

place at www.gallup.com/workplace/238 079/state-global-workplace-2017.aspx. “Dismal Employee Engagement is a Sign of Global Mismanagement,” by Jim Harter, is at www.gallup.com/workplace/ 231668/dismal-employee-engagement- sign-global-mismanagement.aspx. River, makers of award-winning mentor- ing software, has created an eBook, Build- ing Your Mentoring Roadmap, www.river software.com/mentoring-best-practices/ building-your-mentoring-roadmap. With these resources, you are on your way to building a mentoring program!

Laura Francis is Vice President of Marketing for River. She oversees all external and internal communications for the company, branding, marketing strategy, and lead generation. Laura has

more than 20 years of writing and marketing experience, and is a long-time employee of River, joining the company in 2000 as a senior writer and editor. Her fingerprints can be seen on many of the articles, eBooks, blogs, and collateral that River produces.

27