Mentoring Program in a Workplace
Introduction
Workplace mentoring is a key element meant to introduce a partnership between employees, recruits, individuals seeking an internship in a company, and experienced workers. Mentoring in the workplace allows the sharing of technical information and insight concerning specific occupation, organization, or professional practices. Notably, mentoring differs in scope and certain needs of an occupation. Mentoring may be a formal program planned by the concerned organization or an informal, unstructured relationship. This paper undertakes issues considered when designing a mentoring program. It will include a marketing mentoring program at China Mobile Limited. The paper gives an overview of the marketing mentoring program and connects it to peer-reviewed literature. In addition, it evaluates mentoring and professional experience.
Context Analysis
Designing a mentoring program will involve understanding marketing operations in China Mobile Limited, a telecommunication company in the People’s Republic of China. It is a state-owned company that gives students and individuals a chance to work in its marketing department for its large customer base. China Mobile Limited offers mobile services to about 70% of the population. Notably, there are different marketing aspects that new recruits need to understand, hence the need to mentor people in the company. The most important thing to mentor people is in the firms’ need for segmentation, targeting, as well as positioning in the market. Similarly, there is a need for new recruits to understand different marketing information to evaluate like customer changing preference and buying behavior that is critical in informing decision-making in the marketing department. I hold the position of chief marketing officer in the company whose responsibility is to oversee all operations related to inbound and outbound marketing. On that basis, it is critical to have the right employees with the right knowledge concerning marketing operations in the firm.
This department's target mentee includes fresh graduates seeking internships, continuing students seeking an attachment program, and new employees willing to work with the company. These groups of people have less practical knowledge and experience working in a large firm serving such high numbers of customers. For such reason, mentoring them on the flow of operations, knowledge needed to execute tasks, and creating an effective framework to develop a close relationship with the manager is fundamental to these mentees and the organization. China Mobile Limited is structuring to increase its customer base and disperse its operations to neighboring countries; hence mentoring new individuals is necessary.
The target mentors in this program include all workers and subdivisions under the marketing department. Examples of marketing mentors include marketing analyst who analyzes the changes in marketing tools and strategies and proposes necessary changes to maintain competitiveness. A marketing coordinator will be another mentor showing the mentees how to organize all departments' operations to work flawlessly and harmoniously towards the objective of the firm and department’s target. Other mentors include vice president of the marketing department, brand manager, content marketing manager, and digital marketing manager among other marketing specialists in the department.
In addition, there are other relevant stakeholders in the mentoring program. The program will also include representatives of the board of management and the chief executive officer. These members undertake strategic decision-making for the company. Hence, their input in the mentoring program is vital as it instills confidence in mentees that management supports the program and their efforts. The company will also include external mentors who will acts as instructors during the mentorship program. They will offer in-depth guidance on how to evaluate the needs of the firm and that of the customers. Furthermore, the program includes experienced employees (those with more than three years’ experience) as they will be directly assigned to offer practical experience of how operations ensue.
The mentoring program has numerous objectives. First, it aims at introducing the new recruits to the operation of China Mobile Limited operation. Given that it is a new working area, mentorship will create the necessary rapport among mentees and company management. Second, the mentoring will instill knowledge and skills to interns and recruits, which will inform their subsequent tasks and responsibilities assigned. Similarly, the program wishes to provide practical and real-life experience of marketing decision-making in interns. The mentoring program will use two types of mentoring approaches. First, the external mentors and instructors will conduct group mentoring, where a single mentor will be assigned a cohort of mentees. Moreover, there will be traditional one-on-one mentoring where different employees will be assigned a single mentee to mentor throughout his/her stay in the firm unless guided otherwise. These two approaches will ensure maximum benefits to the mentee and the firm.
There is different information needed in this work that will inform the designing of the mentoring program. Examples of this information include the number of employees available to be matched with mentees. This information is necessary as it will inform whether the program is successful or not. Given that there is a need to outsource external instructors, the availability of funds to support this program is also necessary. In addition, the possibility of continuity of mentorship by a matched mentor is useful. Notably, mentees need support from a mentor to improve their skills, experience, and knowledge, where the shifting of mentors from one region to another may affect mentorship relationships if there are new matched mentors.
Literature Analysis
There is a need to evaluate literature that supports designing of a mentoring program. Below are examples of literature.
Menges (2016) is a relevant source that was included. The rationale for choosing this article was that it evaluated the effectiveness of formal mentoring programs by matching mentors' and mentees' personality. Notably, if mentors and mentees' personality is not similar, there is expected failure in the program. When designing a mentoring program more so for individuals working in the marketing discipline, it worth understanding personality. It informs on what kind of mentoring skills to employ and level of psychosocial support to offer to mentees making the study relevant to designing a mentoring program. Menges’ (2016) study results inform that there are two personality traits to look for in mentors and protégés: openness to conscientiousness and experience to enhance the mentoring program's outcomes. Without considering these personality traits mentorship program is likely to fail. Menges (2016) provides adequate evidence to support the claim. The study's result was that there was a significant relationship between personality traits and psychosocial and career support. For example, dyadic interaction between mentor openness and mentee openness was significant to career support provided (β = .30, p < .05) and psychosocial support received (β = .27, p < .05). The findings in Menges (2016) are directly applicable to designing the mentoring program. It will require matching mentors and mentees who show similarities failure to which the expected results will not be achieved.
Bradford, Rutherford & Friend’s (2017) study was chosen as it involves the study of the benefits of informal and formal mentoring to sale person. The study is relevant in designing the marketing mentoring program to evaluate what mentees prefer as they seek mentoring. Notably, marketing is closely related to sales in a firm; hence, the study's results could be transferred into the marketing mentoring program. From Bradford, Rutherford & Friend’s (2017) study, it is evident that having internal mentors like managers and employees is more helpful than considering external mentors given that internal mentors provide greater exposure, challenging assignments, and role modeling. Therefore, in planning the mentoring program, more emphasis will be on empowering internal mentors. Bradford, Rutherford & Friend’s (2017) study results indicated that salespeople with internal mentors had higher levels of personal learning as compared to those with external mentors (β=.227, p<.05). This shows that matching experienced employees as mentors with mentees is effective. The findings are directly applicable to designing the mentoring program. It informs that there is a need to find employees and managers who will mentor students coming to the company as opposed to including many external instructors and mentors. There are no concerns in applying the finding as it provides evidence-based practice.
Jain & Chaudhary’s (2017) study was included as it evaluated the quest for effective mentors. The study indicates that mentoring is an instrument for successful enterprise survival, and China Mobile Limited would like to continue operating. In the context of designing a mentoring program, understanding what policies and strategies to include in the program is very critical. Preferences of mentors are important in determining training, selection, and recruitment of individuals to mentor protégés. There are different thing learned in the study, which includes that mentors’ typology indicates their awareness and availability; hence they can be contacted based on mentoring as well as entrepreneurial needs. Similarly, effective mentorship support at the right time encourages potential entrepreneurs to act. A post hoc analysis showed a significant mean difference in entrepreneurs’ potential. Mentors from academics showed a mean difference of 0.7605 and p=0.012, while a group of mentors had a mean difference of 0.7290 and p=0.006. It shows that mentoring encourages entrepreneurial thinking. The findings in the study are directly applicable to designing a mentoring program. The results show that the firm needs to undertake mentoring of new recruits as a way of attaining its objective of expanding its customer base. Mentoring is necessary to encourage entrepreneurial thinking that the organization needs. Direct applying the results from the study shows no concerns as the study shows the importance of mentoring and its advantages in encouraging effective employees and entrepreneurs.
Mentoring and Professional Experience Analysis
In my past mentoring experience as a chief marketing officer, there have been numerous issues that have worked well. Notably, it has been easy to identify mentees’ personal traits through critical evaluation of their preferences, which inform personality traits. It has made it easier to match the mentors (internal mentors) with mentees. Similarly, I have attained better personal, communication, and listening skills that made it quick to understand mentee and create a strong rapport, which acts as a foundation for mentoring. Furthermore, the setting of mentoring topics, program outlines, and supporting systems like handling of similar queries and formal and informal mentoring has been successful from mentoring knowledge and skills attained over time.
Given my past experience, there are concerns and considerations that must be taken into account before undertaking this mentoring program. First, there is a need to encourage keeping in touch with the mentee. Mentors may overlook the importance of keeping in touch. Notably, when there is no follow-up, mentees tend to backslide, and efforts made during mentoring are not fruitful. It is worth to keep in touch through phone calls, or word-of-mouth with the aim of keeping mentees active in what they learned. Moreover, the lack of funds is a significant impediment to succeeding in the mentoring program (Chen et al., 2016). Before undertaking the current program, there is a need to ensure enough funds are available, failure to which, the mentoring program will fail.
My past experience is likely to shape my current approach. Notably, none of my mentoring programs has failed. It is on this foundation that I expect even the current approach will succeed. However, it needs to take great attention not to make the assumption that this mentorship is common to others as such assumptions may encourage non-commitment and needed attention. In that case, I will be required to show the dedication of time and commitment to the current mentoring program to its completion. Likewise, just like my other programs, undertaking an evaluation of personality traits will be imperative to increase the openness of mentors and mentees and promote satisfaction.
Conclusion
Summarily, undertaking a mentoring program is critical for any company that has new employees. The paper analyzed and identified key aspects of China Mobile Limited marketing department. As discussed above, the marketing department engages in issues like segmentation, targeting, and branding, which requires new recruits to understand. The mentors in the department include the chief marketing officer, market analyst, and employees, among others. The paper also undertook a literature analysis of three peer-reviewed academic literature showing the factors to consider in designing as well as implement the mentoring program and its models. In addition, the paper identified that the mentoring program has been easy due to skills and experience attained over the years. It is important to look at resources and commitment for the current program to be fruitful.
References
Bradford, S. K., Rutherford, B. N., & Friend, S. B. (2017). The impact of training, mentoring and coaching on personal learning in the sales environment. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 15(1), 133.
Chen, M. M., Sandborg, C. I., Hudgins, L., Sanford, R., & Bachrach, L. K. (2016). A multifaceted mentoring program for junior faculty in academic pediatrics. Teaching and learning in medicine, 28(3), 320-328.
Jain, S. K., & Chaudhary, H. (2017). Quest for effective mentors: a way of mentoring potential entrepreneurs successfully. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 18(2), 99-109.
Menges, C. (2016). Toward improving the effectiveness of formal mentoring programs: Matching by personality matters. Group & Organization Management, 41(1), 98-129.
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