Mentoring - one of the latest trends in the workplace - isn't really new. The idea of inexperienced individuals learning from older and wiser counterparts dates back at least to Odysseus. Before leaving for the Trojan War, he entrusted the education of his son Telemachus to his friend Mentor.
But in recent years, the corporate world formally has sponsored and encouraged mentoring because of the benefits of these relationships. Experts say mentoring can help address the challenges of a diverse workplace, help workers feel included and well-adjusted, grow future leaders and share corporate knowledge, while reducing training costs.
According to the International Mentoring Association (at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo), mentoring not only improves organizational cultures but also increases employee retention and performance - thus affecting the bottom line.
Retention is a major challenge in today's health care setting. With a critical nursing shortage, hospitals are going to dramatic and costly lengths to find and recruit new nurses. Too often, those new graduates move on because they don't get the one-on-one encouragement and support they need to make the transition from student to nurse.
"The first six months on the job is the hardest for a nurse," said Judy Murray, nursing support coordinator at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. "Suddenly, they no longer have an instructor backing them up. They realize that they're 'the nurse' and that they have full responsibility for their patients. At the same time, they have to learn hospital policies and procedures, time management - it's extremely stressful.
"Given a little nurturing and encouragement, then they know they can make it, and we see them blossom."
Seeking to take better care of its work force, Piedmont Hospital created the position of nursing support coordinator and moved Murray, a 22-year veteran nurse, into the role.
"I love it, but I can't be all things to all people, so our 2-year-old mentoring program is a valuable extension of what I can do," she said.
New graduate nurses (protégés) who wish to participate in Piedmont's program are paired with seasoned nurse mentors in a different department. The hospital defines a mentor as someone who takes a personal interest in assisting an employee over a period of time to develop the protégé's knowledge and skills needed to realize his or her full potential and major life goals.
"We wanted to distinguish the role from a preceptor, who is a nurse in the new hire's department who works with her and makes sure she understands documentation and hospital policies and resources," Murray said. "The preceptor teaches nuts-and-bolts knowledge. The mentor is more of a counselor and sounding board."
Mentors volunteer for a year, are selected based on written applications and letters of recommendation, and go through a four-hour mentoring orientation. They receive support and tips from a monthly newsletter.
"I chose to be a mentor, because I didn't have one when I started my career, and it was the worst year of my life," said Heidi Lain, who works on the postpartum floor at Piedmont. "I started on a neurological med-surge floor with really sick patients, and I didn't have the self-confidence that comes with experience."
She encourages her protégée, Bridget Lick, by calling her, taking her out to lunch and answering questions.
"Mostly I'm here to help her get acclimated to Piedmont and to listen when she's having problems," Lain said. "Other nurses helped me, and I wanted to give something back. She's done very well, so it's been an unexpectedly easy first experience as a mentor."
Lick said that having a mentor had "definitely been a good thing" in her first job.
"There's so much to learn. It's important to have a neutral person, someone in a different department, who can give you advice and just listen if you're having a bad day," she said.
Murray has seen an improvement in employee retention and community spirit since the mentoring program began.
"New nurses know that they have someone in their corner, and, since mentors and protégés get together for group events, it promotes connectedness and unity among the nursing staff," she said.
Sheri Eschenfelder, who has been on both sides of the mentoring relationship at Northside Hospital, said that it also has given her "friendships, kinships and commonalities" that made her job doable. As part of the traveling nurse program, Eschenfelder comes from Tennessee to Atlanta for a three-day stint in labor and delivery each week.
"Northside was so big and overwhelming at first. It would be easy to give up, because the pace is so incredible, but my mentor helped me through it. She made me feel like we're all in it together," she said.
At 55, Eschenfelder said that her best matches had been to mentor nurses her own age, some of whom had entered the profession as a second career.
"Our issues at that age are different, and I understand them, as well as the system.
There's no agenda as a mentor. You just have to listen and be there for the person. It's rewarding, and I feel like I'm making a difference," she said.
Corporations with successful mentoring programs, such as State Farm Insurance, have felt that difference in several ways.
"We've documented increased employee retention," said Ebony Lincoln, senior public affairs specialist with State Farm's Southern zone (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina).
The program also has fostered leadership development and commitment to the company, she said.
When State Farm started the program in 2000, company officials arranged mentor/mentee matches. An employee committee asked for more involvement in the process, so the program was changed to self-matching. Based on their developmental needs and goals, mentees choose mentors from a database of mentor profiles. With the change in how mentors were assigned, participation jumped by 10 percentage points.
"About 1,000 employees are involved. Growing from 20 [percent] to 30 percent participation shows that the program is improving and that people value it," Lincoln said.
"Mentoring creates an environment of mutual learning within the company, and that greatly increases employee satisfaction."
State Farm publishes a newsletter to share tips for mentoring and maintains a help line. Mentors are expected to be role models, reinforce positive behavior, act as career coaches and willingly share their time and knowledge. A mentee is expected to solicit feedback, communicate openly and not abuse the relationship by asking for help with personal problems.
"It's a professional relationship, and both parties discuss confidentiality, expectations and set the parameters of the relationship at the first meeting," Lincoln said.
Having moved up the ladder from claims representative to senior public affairs specialist, Lincoln was seeking guidance in how to move into management. She chose Deborah Young, Insurance Support Center director, as her mentor.
"She's been a friend and a great influence on my career," Lincoln said.
Young allowed her to job-shadow some of her managers, encouraged her to learn other parts of the business and opened her mind to seeking management opportunities outside her own department.
"Knowing someone who has 20 years with the company who has the expertise to answer all my questions and offer greater insight into situations has been a really valuable experience," Lincoln said.