Post-Recovery Planning...And Mentoring

A strategic move today for some companies that are anticipating more aggressive business levels as the recovery progresses is proactive use of mentoring programs to enhance the development of current talent and enrich jobs.

This strategy not only can lead to employee retention across virtually any function or division of a company but can also prepare existing talent to assume greater responsibilities and efficiencies for greater post-recovery business success. It makes sense to invest in what you already have.

For the same reasons, a focus on mentoring early-career HR practitioners to develop new skills and nurture broader perspectives of the HR responsibility, including business acumen, can accelerate company solutions to changing workforce needs and other post-recovery challenges. This can be particularly effective where the early-career HR practitioner is the sole company resource — in an increasingly complex business function (human resources) — where there are no other senior professionals in that discipline to learn from.

The practicality of "learning-while-doing" and developing "just-in-time" approaches to daily business situations, guided and supported by a senior, experienced, credentialed HR professional/mentor, literally turns the day-to-day business routine into a classroom and you achieve real-time ROI. Company required HR work is accomplished while new capabilities are developed.

This strategy also makes future, formal training or certification investments in the developing HR practitioner more meaningful and the company can actually save money when developing your own precludes the need to hire a more experienced HR person later. Investing to develop current talent can pay a number of dividends.

To be most successful however such a mentoring program should be carefully planned and a good match made between the senior HR professional/mentor and the person being developed. It is critical that the mentor and the mentee develop trust in each other and become extremely clear about expectations and the different roles each plays in the relationship. They each must desire to participate, goals should be set and accomplishments reviewed systematically. And — oh yes — there must be strong support from the coached person's supervisor including consistent, open communications between the two and recognition within the business as growth takes place and goals are attained.

We have experience successfully providing this type of support to businesses. If you are interested in developing an HR mentoring strategy in your organization give us a call. If you have questions about how HR practitioner mentoring can enhance your preparation for new business challenges ahead in recovery, we would be glad to share our ideas about that with you as well. And of course, if you find yourself overburdened and simply need extra hands to get projects started or completed then give us a call. We're here to help.