Mentorship program: also very valuable in a production environment!

In an earlier blog, we already wrote about the added value of a buddy bee onboarding from a new employee. In any work environment, human contact provides a warmer welcome than any bouquet of flowers or high-tech laptop. This is just as true in the office as in a factory or healthcare facility.

A mentor at work is also very valuable, but goes an important layer deeper than a buddy when it comes to training and personal development. This is especially useful in a production environment. In this blog, we explain why, and how to get one here. mentorship program could design well.

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What is a mentorship program?‍

You speak of a mentorship program when a mentor works with one or more mentees for an extended period of time. The purpose of mentoring is usually mainly to pass on knowledge or skills that the other person does not have yet. This can include practical issues directly related to production, but often a mentor also opens his or her network to the mentee so that they can also build relationships at work.

By the way, mentorship is not the same as coaching, although it may seem like it. A mentor provides advice about and direction in a specific field where he or she has also spent sufficient flying hours. Like a mentor, a coach does have the skills to guide someone, but does not necessarily have to have the same content knowledge or expertise as the coachee.

The benefit of mentorship in the manufacturing sector‍

Mentoring has many benefits in any work environment:

• more engagement from employees;
• maintaining knowledge and experience within the organisation;
• higher staff retention;
• personal development from mentee and mentor;
• more job satisfaction and happy customers.

If we specifically zoom in on the production sector, we also get some extra advantages: mentorship against:

• increment safety awareness and product knowledge;
• less risk of industrial accidents and absenteeism;
• increasing efficiency and productivity.

In short: it's definitely worth thinking about structurally deploying a mentor in your factory or workshop! Of course, we have a few tips for you in this context:

‍1. Choose your mentor wisely

A mentor has an advisory role and must be able to properly supervise his or her mentee (s). This therefore requires not only substantive experience and expertise, but also good soft skills, such as social skills, motivation and leadership skills. Keep this in mind when appointing a mentor.

A mentor is usually an “old hand” in the field, with a lot of flying hours in the field and years of experience with the employer. However, there can also be “the other way around”. mentorship': in that case, it's just a younger employee who helps older colleagues find their way around. For example, in the use of AI or other computer technology, or high-tech production tools.

‍Mentorship can therefore also close a generation gap in the other direction!‍

2. Facilitate mentors properly

Typically, mentoring must be combined with other daily activities. Prevent workload by properly facilitating mentors. For example, schedule enough time for them to supervise mentees. Take into account preparation time and evaluation times in the schedule, and make it possible to work and observe above strength while the mentee does the performing work.

In order to review the progress of the mentorship program being able to monitor well will require a few things online must be registered. If the mentor is not really digitally proficient yet, offer a computer course in addition to a laptop. Also, keep in mind that, especially in a production environment, not everyone is used to giving direction to a more inexperienced colleague. That is why training the mentor is, for example, leadership skills no superfluous luxury.‍

3. Method of supervising mentees

Make a conscious choice in the form of guidance. If you want to improve an employee's skills and perhaps also want to better shape your future career, 1-on-1 guidance will probably be the most appropriate. There is then extra room for customisation when learning and supervising and offering personal attention.

But sometimes the idea is to take an entire team to a higher level in expertise or efficiency at the same time, or you want to improve mutual cooperation. In that case, a mentor could also supervise several mentees at the same time. The advantage then is that colleagues can learn from each other through their best practices to exchange, and a mentor only has to explain something to the group mentees (if it's okay 😉).‍

4. Program Content

The duration and content of your mentorship program depends, of course, on various factors. Consider, for example, the goal you want to achieve, but the knowledge and experience levels of both mentor and mentee (s), the training budget and the organisational culture can also vary. When putting together the process, include at least the following components:

• Introduction: first check during an individual interview whether there is sufficient click between mentor and mentee. Is the mentee open to guidance and development? Is the learning question clear in mind? And, last but not least for the learning process, is there a personal click between the two?
• Make a plan: set the goal and what it takes to reach that dot on the horizon. Don't set the bar too high; with smaller intermediate steps (and associated success experiences), you can often reach the end goal more easily and pleasantly. Don't cast the plan into concrete either. Should the process prove that the pace is too fast or too slow, or if there are organisational or personal developments, it must be possible to adjust it.
• Schedule evaluation moments: let the mentor and mentee (s) regularly evaluate the state of affairs. Only then can you be sure whether everything is still going as planned, or whether the program needs to be adjusted. That is why, even at the start of the mentoring program, set the agendas to schedule regular evaluation moments.
• Finish: if all is well, there will come a time when the end goal of the mentorship program has been reached. This could well be given a festive touch, with a cake and issuing a certificate, for example. Optionally, a new development goal can be set together with the mentee, which could be further worked on, with or without the same mentor. And don't forget to reflect on the past period. Do the mentor and mentee have any tips and tips?

This can provide valuable input for other mentoring programs.‍

‍5. Use e-learning

One mentorship program is mainly about increasing knowledge, skills and personal development. Not just from the mentee, but also from the mentor himself! E-learning offers a lot of advantages in this context. Not only to avoid having to reinvent the wheel with each program over and over again, but also to be able to properly respond to differences in levels and learning styles.

Combine direct personal contact with online material. This saves time, is attractive and offers a lot of flexibility. Whether it's about acquiring hard skills (such as learning technology, language, or computer skills) or soft skills (think of leadership, collaboration or customer friendliness): you can break down the material to be learned into easily manageable modules, of different levels. Is something changing in the organisation or production method? Then the course material is fairly easy to adapt.

Use various media in e-learning so that there is something for everyone. Especially in a production environment, where employees usually don't have their nose in the books or behind a screen every day, a video or podcast will be experienced as a lot more attractive. If you opt for text, please keep it accessible B1 language level.

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Interested in more tips & tricks about creating an attractive mentoring program?‍

Experience the power of Pluvo for yourself! Click here for a demo or call +31 (20) 560 5001.

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