It is said that anything you can learn by yourself, you can learn faster when guided and this is exactly the first principle of peer mentoring.
Actually teaching as we know it these days is only an evolved form of peer mentoring, which was the actual way of imparting knowledge in the ancient cultures such as Greek and Roman. Mentoring was a way that allowed a wise person to directly influence the youngsters’ minds so they will earn the wisdom of that master.
Peer mentoring these days is much more specific as we expect it in the workplace instead of a mentoring for the whole life but in the end, it seems to be very alike. But it definitely is a way to help your workers, especially the fresher ones to do their job better with fewer mistakes and a much more defined direction. So, today we want to talk about the benefit of peer mentoring.
Benefits of mentoring
Even if the mentoring keeps happening naturally within your workplace and especially if it is that way, you can organize a more established mentoring system and the results will be immediate:
- Growth opportunities without extra cost: you’ll be surprised of how many “teaching skilled” workers you have at your business and with very economic activities such as teaching lunches or mentoring picnic events, etc you will stimulate your workers to help each other improve and also give the opportunity to stand out.
- Better workplace relationships: as the peer mentoring doesn’t involve a manager-subordinate relationship, workers are more likely to be open to the new knowledge. Also, mentees feel more comfortable to express their doubts and shortcomings
- Your mentors can end up being your next managers as by mentoring you’re also training them in personnel management, employees coaching, etc.
- A peer mentoring program makes employees feel accompanied in the workplace and strengthen the bond between coworkers so the atmosphere is better and employees are more likely to maintain their works.
- Having a peer mentor program creates a more cohesive environment among coworkers and as they feel more compromised with their team, they also tend to apply a major effort into their duties so the poorly done work won’t affect their partners. Mentoring is an excellent way to improving workers efforts.
Improve your workplace production and reduce costs with peer mentoring
All these benefits seem very kind and motivating for a healthy work environment, but truth is that making workers feel more comfortable when they are at work is only a part of the improvement peer mentoring can have in your office.
When workers are happier in their daily routine, it’s more likely they will increase the production and not only it will generate more money, but also, a positive working atmosphere reduces a lot of intern problems that otherwise would need to be solved by investing in external solutions or by the constant replacement of the employees. So if you doubt about applying this peer mentoring system, just see it as a way for the business to go smoother and save some money.