Mentoring new employees: a method of training and adaptation of personnel

The term “coaching” was first introduced into the business lexicon in the early 90s by John Whitmore; it is literally translated into Russian as “to instruct, prepare, train,” but has a broader understanding.

The coaching method is based on behavioral feedback, this is its key difference from mentoring. The coach’s task is not to directly transfer knowledge to the person being coached and develop a certain list of skills, but to activate the processes of self-learning and self-development. This occurs by providing continuous feedback during joint analysis of situations or problems.

We can say that the effectiveness of coaching is achieved through the use of the effect of defamiliarization, when a person who is “inside” a certain situation or problem gets the opportunity to look at it from the outside, through the eyes of another person - the coach. Due to the capabilities of the method, coaching allows you to find solutions to complex problems of an interdisciplinary and interpersonal nature, therefore it is most effective when working with middle and senior management.

Who is a mentor

When a new employee begins his duties, he still has a lot to learn. To make this process more effective, it needs help. The mentor who will guide this process is usually an experienced and qualified professional. His responsibilities include the following:

Helps new employees quickly and efficiently adapt to work in a new company. Tells you how to behave correctly in various cases, what you need to work on in mastering your profession.
Provides assistance to career growth and professional development.
He has the responsibility to participate in assessing the success of newcomers in order to help give them a more objective assessment.

The role of a mentor can be said in two ways: he is a representative of his mentee when interacting with the company, as well as a representative of the company in matters relating to the newcomer.

It's important to note that using mentoring is actually a free, albeit helpful, resource. It is an important component of corporate culture, although it is used relatively rarely. Often this is only about assistance during the first months of work, although in fact the meaning of mentoring is much broader.

Formulation of the problem

In recent decades, the problem of providing organizations and enterprises with young specialists has become more acute than ever.
The term “young specialists” is used in professional activities both in a narrow and in a broad sense. In a narrow sense, this is a legal concept, according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (Article 70), “a young specialist is a person who has graduated from an educational institution of primary, secondary and higher vocational education, which has state accreditation, and who is entering work for the first time in the acquired specialty within one year from the date of graduation from the educational institution" [1]. In a broad sense, young specialists include young people with higher and secondary specialized education under the age of 30. The reasons for changes in the working conditions of such people are varied: employment in another organization, transfer to another position or to another department, introduction of new forms of labor organization, its payment, conflict, etc. It seems that this group of specialists from an organization or enterprise stands out, primarily because it is in the stage of professional and social self-determination and has a number of specific characteristics that distinguish it from other categories of employees. In addition, it has been noted that many of them often have good mobility, innovative knowledge and professional training, especially in the field of new technologies, have significant computer competence, and foreign languages, as a result of which they can be of great value to the organization. That is why it is so important to quickly “immerse” them in a new organization or unit, as well as in a team, for example, through the “Young Soldier Course” training.

Benefits of Mentoring

Before you decide to organize mentoring, you need to understand why it is beneficial for those who participate in it:

An employee receiving assistance receives support during the most difficult part of his career. He goes through a simplified process of integration into the company and receives assistance in adaptation, career and professional development.
The company is making efforts to stabilize its workforce and reduce staff turnover. Here a team of professional specialists is formed who have a high degree of loyalty to their company.
A mentor not only helps the newcomer, but also develops his/her management skills. By interacting with employees, he increases his status in the company. By ensuring the formation of a new professional in his team, he at the same time increases his own potential.

When introducing mentoring, you need to decide for which categories of employees it will be useful. Usually the following options are considered:

New employees who join the team receive human support and assistance in professional development.
If an employee has identified the potential for significant professional growth, he needs the guidance of an experienced specialist in order to move forward faster.
If there are employees on the team who are relatively low-performing, a mentor will help them reach a high enough level so as not to drag the team back.

What should a mentor be like?

When choosing a mentor, consider the following:

His level should be significantly higher than that of his ward. It is enough if it is superior by one or two levels. Starting from a certain career stage, mentoring can become one of the essential conditions for a future career.
It is preferable when the role in question is performed not by the immediate superior, but by an outside employee. Practice in most cases shows that for a manager, the immediate fulfillment of job responsibilities is more important than the progress achieved. In addition, an outsider has less subjectivity in working with the mentee.

When choosing a specialist for such work, it is important that he has the following qualities:

Not only professional knowledge is required, but also extensive work experience.
It is important that the person assigned as a mentor wants to do this work. If he is burdened by his responsibilities, the effect of his activities will be minimal. The ward will always feel how sincere the help provided to him will be.
The loyalty of a specialist to the company for which he works is important. Only the bearer of corporate values will be able to transfer them to a new employee.
It is important to have a systematic understanding of your company, and not just be a narrow specialist.
The main role in mentoring is played by the professional level of the employee who is entrusted with this responsibility.
You need to be prepared to spend enough time working with a new employee. Training a new employee is long and hard work.
When teaching, especially at first, the student will have to criticize a lot. It is important that the leader takes a constructive approach. It is necessary that criticism motivates one to improve and constantly work on oneself.
It is important that the beginner always has feedback from the mentor. Naturally, during training a large number of questions will arise. Timely answers to them will help you move further in your development.

It is not always possible to find a mentor who meets the listed requirements. However, in each situation, when choosing suitable specialists, one must proceed from specific circumstances.

Terminological overview

Despite the different ages and reasons for joining the organization, young and new specialists for the most part go through a period of adaptation: professional, psychological, social, and for visitors from the southern or northern territories, sometimes even climatic. Experts on adaptation problems note that this period can last from one month to three years for different people and, therefore, assistance in getting through it must be differentiated, taking into account individual difficulties and characteristics of people. In connection with the above, in recent years, as practice shows, the problem of mentoring, as well as rotation and the necessary training of personnel in the workplace, has become urgent again. Considering the modern conditions of change, rapid progress and constant improvement of a variety of technologies that require new competencies, then, undoubtedly, all this is reflected in the processes of professional activity. In this article we will consider only the aspect of professional adaptation training for young specialists, as well as new employees who do not have practice or experience in this activity.

Every year, the requirements for specialists become more complex or change due to the emerging socio-economic, technical and political situation in the country; The workers themselves and their qualities also change. Today, specialists are in demand who are mobile, flexible, competent, but at the same time aimed at constant development, capable of learning all the time; work with the Internet, own computer programs, quickly process information; stress-resistant and also tolerant of intercultural, ethno-cultural and cross-cultural situations in the team.

In connection with the above, approaches and schemes for the development and training of young specialists and new employees, their assessment, motivation, and assistance during the adaptation period are changing. In particular, in the field of adaptation training and support for young employees, organizations have recently increasingly offered on the Internet, instead of traditional mentoring, rotation or on-the-job training, the use of “informal” methods that came to us from the West, such as: coaching ( Coaching); training using the shadowing method (JobShadowing); Secondment method; Buddying method; scaffolding, as a special type of process of instruction, mentoring, etc. Due to the fact that today in Russian organizations controlled adaptation is, in our opinion, not so much a new direction as new goals and objectives, then, speaking about methods of adaptation of new employees to new conditions, the orientation of organizations is, as practice shows, primarily towards foreign companies and their many years of experience, which, in our opinion, is not entirely and not always correct.

At the same time, the abundance of such terms and technologies presents terminological uncertainty for employees of organizations and specialists, which we will have to understand in this article. Most of the terms listed above (and there are actually many more, for example, storytelling, metaphorical play, Play-back theater, tutoring, etc.) have something in common, not always complementing each other, which causes confusion, and they are designed for certain organizational specifics of companies . The author suggests that for our compatriots it is not always advisable to use such a variety of pseudo-innovative methods. Firstly, because our country, as you know, has its own rich experience of mentoring, which, especially in the 80s of the last century, was effectively carried out and, therefore, there is no need to strive for new terminology, but it is worth studying Russian experience and helping young specialists and to the mentors themselves, methods of training, adaptation and development that are accessible to their understanding and perception, which have earned a good reputation in the past, and allow them to achieve an adaptation effect today. Secondly, if you analyze each method listed above, it turns out that many of them either duplicate what we call mentoring, rotation, or represent specifics that cannot always or even should be introduced into domestic practice.

In order to confirm what has been said, let’s try to understand the essence of the listed methods. According to experts, terms such as shadowing, budding, and secondment are types of mentoring and on-the-job training.

Methods used in mentoring

When working as a mentor, a number of methods are used (see table 1).

Table 1. Mentoring methods

Method	Description
Creative tandem	At the same time, the newcomer actually becomes a full participant in the labor process from the first day. He receives the full scope of rights and responsibilities, trying to act in accordance with them.
Demonstration method	The mentor himself solves the production problem, demonstrating to the employee what actions and in what sequence need to be performed.
Role-playing game	An effective preparation option. In this case, the manager plays the role of a client in front of the ward, playing out various typical situations and teaching the correct behavior in them.
Supervision method	The mentor fully controls the work process of the subordinate, correcting him or giving clarification if necessary.
Situational mentoring	The new employee is trusted to do the job independently. He can seek help only when non-standard and difficult situations arise.
Formal Mentoring	The specialist explains the methods and goals of the work. Based on the knowledge gained, the ward performs his job duties.

Stages of developing a mentoring system

At an enterprise, work on the development of new employees should be carried out systematically. Therefore, it is necessary to create a mentoring system. To do this, you need to take the following steps:

First you need to set goals and specify tasks. They must be formulated in accordance with the specific needs of the company. At this stage, you need to determine what budget should be allocated for them.
It is necessary to appoint those who will be responsible for organizing mentoring activities. This is usually entrusted to the personnel department of the enterprise. Registration can be made in the form of an order or in the form of relevant provisions included in the job description. If we are talking about additional work responsibilities not specified in the employment contract, then the employee is assigned a salary increase. At this step, you need to consider what resources the company can allocate to carry out such work. It is necessary to specifically estimate the required costs. Here, for example, you need to take into account appropriate payments to employees and working time costs. If separate staffing units are required, their availability must be provided for at this stage of preparation.
Training programs for new employees are being developed.
It is necessary to formulate criteria on the basis of which mentors will be selected.
It is necessary to determine how interaction with newcomers will take place. Mentors should receive at least basic training in how to properly perform this type of work. It is necessary to develop criteria for assessing the effectiveness of mentoring activities.
It is necessary to draw up a regulation on mentoring and approve it. It should discuss in detail all the main issues of organizing and performing work related to mentoring.
It is necessary to regularly evaluate the work of mentors, as well as the system as a whole within the enterprise. This will allow you to objectively assess existing difficulties and motivate participants to work more productively.

Well-organized work with new employees will help make the company more efficient.

Specific Goals

For any manager or mentor, work with personnel is, first of all, based on the principle of specificity in the formulation of tasks, responsibilities and required results.

At the same time, along with specificity, the goal is set from a positive position. For example, it would be incorrect to ask to make a title page layout without using red and black colors.

In contrast, the task of producing several layout options using a template that is well known to the employee will be more correct.

Mentoring, as a method of training staff, should be based on positive statements without a particle of “not”. It has been proven that it is not perceived by the subconscious, so there is a serious risk of getting exactly the result that you really wanted to avoid (a layout in red and black).

Instead of telling the trainee what not to do, a good mentor gives the trainee the right and clear course.

Regulations on mentoring

This document is necessary for the proper organization of work with new employees at the enterprise. The presence of such a provision makes it easy to resolve any issues related to the organization and conduct of mentoring.

This local document should address all possible situations and provide appropriate responses. For example, it is necessary to consider the criteria for assessing performance, the payment system, the procedure for organizing classes, providing training with the necessary resources - for example, financial, time, educational materials and others.

If additions or changes become necessary due to experience gained, they can be made in the normal way. The regulation on mentoring should become the main document in this area of activity in the company, which should contain answers to all important questions related to such work.

Shadowing

Thus, shadowing (from the English hadow) means that a trained employee follows “like a shadow” behind a more experienced employee and watches how he performs his duties. At the same time, the new employee himself, as a rule, does nothing, does not comment on what is happening, does not ask questions, and generally does not interfere in the process. The method is usually used in practice in conjunction with other training technologies to introduce a new employee, trainees, as well as prepare (“nurture”) those who are promoted to a higher position within the company, or move from one department to another with a change in specialization .

At the same time, as practical activity shows, in this formulation of the question, shadowing is not in demand in the Russian practice of adaptive training, moreover, there are many types of activities when following the master like a shadow (silently) is not always acceptable, and if the activity is related with some trade secrets or exclusive technologies, this adds to the complexity. It is also known from psychology that those who work under supervision are not entirely psychologically comfortable, which can lead to failures, omissions and mistakes; many people also tend to be wary of all kinds of “surveillance.” This can raise doubts about the loyalty of the organization’s management to the employee and greatly demotivate the person, which will subsequently harm the company, especially if the experienced employee had no intention of leaving. It should also be noted that the visual channel for the majority of Russian students (according to NLP data) prevails, as a leader in only 35 percent of people, and the assimilation of information is no higher than 50% (and even then, if they were told and shown). It has also been noted that in order to master skills and abilities during observation, you need to be very motivated and not be distracted by any external or internal extraneous factors, which is almost impossible to achieve, in addition, much also depends on the individuality of the student, his intelligence and perception characteristics information.

Monitoring the work of mentors

Supervision of mentoring activities is mandatory. This allows you to control the quality of mentors’ work and the level of progress of their wards. If training becomes ineffective, action must be taken, including replacing the mentor. The latter measure is justified in the following situations:

The mentee does not show progress in mastering professional knowledge and skills. If this happens for a long time, you need to look for more effective ways of learning.
If more than 20% of the employees with whom this mentor worked failed to complete the training program.
A newcomer who has completed training shows an inability to perform his job duties.
If more than 30% of trainees have valid complaints against the mentor.

In order to ensure proper supervision of new hires, it is necessary that mentoring activities be conducted in accordance with specific goals. They must be measurable and completed within a specific time frame. In the process of work, it is necessary to evaluate the progress of students, as well as compliance with discipline during classes.