A couple of years ago, no one imagined how so profoundly a sudden, necessary change in workplace circumstances could affect employers and employees alike. At the time, the transition to working from home was thought to be a quirk. It was purely a response to the pandemic, a very specific disruption to established routines and norms that would surely self-correct once (so we were told) the curve was flattened; mentorship for a hybrid workforce was the last thing on people’s minds. Two years on, though, remote/hybrid workplaces have become more of the rule than the exception for at least “63% of high-growth companies” and their employees.
Companies and those who work for them are still grappling with the consequences of a revolution in the workplace that came about more due to necessity than choice. Notably, a sea change took place in the ways in which colleagues connect with each other, and the adjustment hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
How Mentorship Programs Found Their Place
At the beginning of the pandemic, virtual happy hours were tried, but couldn’t replace real-world meet-ups. In fact, employees soon came to feel that these Zoom events were more of an obligation than anything else; they longed for the days in which they could visit each other’s desks, to vent, seek advice, and relax face-to-face. For savvier companies and supervisors, mentorship programs were able to come to the rescue. These employers recognized what their employees were missing, and how much they needed face-to-face connections.
Virtual Not-So-Happy Hours
As opposed to the virtual happy hours that soon sparked feelings of social anxiety even in the comfort of one’s own home, mentoring represented a chance to build deeper one-on-one connections between colleagues. While no replacement for in-person relationship building, mentorship became the next best means of ensuring that employees working in a remote or hybrid environment still had a way to meaningfully connect with one another, no matter how far apart circumstances forced them to be.
The Mentorship Advantage
Mentorship became a way for employees to remember what it is about their company and their job that they love. Having the chance to complain about their day, talk about an especially difficult project, or even just bounce ideas off of a colleague or supervisor reinforced the idea that their workplace is one that doesn’t take them for granted. The institution of mentorship programs enabled a hybrid workforce to work more closely together, wherever employees are based, and showed employees just how much their employers valued their contributions.
Mentorships for New Hires
A mentorship program isn’t just good for your current employees. It’s also an incredibly effective tool for onboarding new hires. Once you’ve hired someone for a position, you need to ensure that that position stays filled, right? Finding the right candidate for a position should actually never be your endgame. You should instead aim to make sure that all of the time and energy you’ve spent on adding to your workforce was worth it. Mentorship can help.
Adjusting to a new job has always been a challenge, but adapting to a wholly – or mostly – virtual workplace is harder still. Through providing a friendly face on a team to help ease new hires into their new environment, you’re lending a virtual ear or two to new team members. You can ensure any questions or concerns new hires have will be answered, and this will go a long way towards making them feel more comfortable, more quickly, at your company.
The bottom line is, the happier your new hires are – and the more attempts you visibly make to foster their growth and happiness – the more likely they are to stay with you for years to come. Win-win.
Reveal Your Employees’ Happiness with Mentorship
Studies have shown that remote workers are 29% happier than their colleagues working on-site. But, it isn’t just their work or duties that make them happy; it’s their sense of fulfillment with their employer. They know they fit right in both with their position and their company culture. Reveal can help you ensure job fit with pre-hire assessments, but once the hiring process is done? Well, you’ve got to pick up and run with the ball yourself!
A 15-minute call with Reveal can help you find the right people for the right seats, but mentorship will help keep those seats filled for the long-term. After you let Reveal help you build your team, use mentorship to help you keep it together.