A thing called Reverse Mentoring
Mentoring, coaching, and supportive onboarding are strong strategies that may empower employees to become more professional. Often, the mentor and mentee are both employees of the same company, and the focus is on corporate goals, culture, career aspirations, professional development guidance, and work-life balance. Reverse mentorship is a hot topic in the business world right now, but is it suitable for your organisation?
The concept of reverse mentorship, originally made waves in the 1990s as a method to bridge the knowledge gap and introduce new technologies to senior executives, Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch popularised reverse mentoring just a decade ago,and has since been adopted by an increasing range of businesses, including Ernst & Young, General Motors, Citibank, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Cisco, and Procter & Gamble.
Reverse mentorship is a corporate program in which younger workers who are well-versed in contemporary trends, technology, and social media train senior leaders. It’s called reverse mentoring because the mentor takes on the role of the mentee and vice versa.
Why is this important? Senior executives might benefit from reverse mentoring by staying current on the newest business technology and workplace trends. It also allows junior employees to view the big picture and get a peek at management challenges at a higher level. Every business owner understands that employee retention is critical to the company’s success. Retention is more important than ever as Millennials and Generation Z enter the workforce. Together, these two categories make up the majority of the workforce today. The structure of reverse mentoring is what makes it so appealing. Employers foster a free flow of ideas and experience by pairing colleagues from various generations. Younger generations might provide a fresh viewpoint to organisations trying to break away from old or conventional workplace ideas. Moreover, even if Reverse mentorship was originally intended to bridge the age difference, it is now more often used to pair senior members of staff with workers from a variety of backgrounds, including women, BAME, LGBT, and handicapped personnel.
