Everyone can potentially benefit from participating in a mentoring relationship. These relationships can help you gain new skills, advance your career or enrich your personal life.

There is the potential to connect with experts in your profession, role models, political groups, and even spiritual leaders. If you are considering enriching an area of your life, starting a new job or initiating a special project, you may want to find a mentor who can guide you through the process.
General benefits of mentoring:
  • embraces individual and organizational learning
  • values and promotes individual and organizational growth and development
  • strengthens relationships within a group of employees
  • enriches learning that takes place
  • helps to focus and maximize time and effort
  • leverages energy
  • can maximize the utilization of time, effort and resources
  • shortens the time it takes to get new hires established in their jobs
  • facilitates the establishment of a working culture that connects and cares about the next generation
  • increases productivity of the mentoring pair or groups
  • encourages the professional skill development of both mentors and mentees
  • creates an environment and promotes networking
  • assists in the development of professional confidence and identity
  • often increases work satisfaction
  • provides an avenue for dealing with work-related stress and role conflict
  • assists in personal growth and development

Mentee benefits:
  • have a professional relationship that fosters guidance and offers support
  • benefit from increased confidence and sense of security
  • be challenged to go further, take risks, set new goals, and achieve higher personal and/or professional standards
  • experience decreased stress
  • have a mentor or mentors that promote insight in times of uncertainty
  • participate in groups to dialogue on professional issues and to seek and receive advice on how to balance new responsibilities
  • have increased job satisfaction
  • expand your networks and participate in leadership development
  • benefit from significant career and psychosocial gains including higher compensation and faster salary growth
  • assist with the creation of survival skills as you transition to a new job
  • develop skills for career advancement
  • get support with psychological challenges of adjusting to a new role or work climate
  • feel greater career and organizational commitment
  • assist in personal growth and development
Mentor benefits:
  • demonstrate professionalism and a commitment to your personal and professional development
  • increase your learning, personal growth and leadership skills
  • enhance your self-fulfillment and job satisfaction
  • boost your potential for career advancement
  • strengthen your personal knowledge base and become motivated to try new ideas
  • improve your communication skills
  • become a more reflective practitioner
  • create new support networks within your work environment
  • participate in organizational citizenship behavior
  • invest into favorable work attitudes
  • experience career revitalization
  • benefit from enhanced career success
Organizational benefits:
  • have an increased ability to recruit and experience decreased attrition
  • promote a clearer understanding of professional responsibilities and expectations
  • see increased employee commitment to the organization
  • benefit from improved employee job performance
  • develop partnerships and grow leaders from within
  • contribute to a positive organizational climate
  • enhance organization attraction and recruitment
  • reduce employee turnover
  • increase organizational learning and employee socialization
  • promote greater collegiality among professionals within and across institutions
Benefits of mentoring program at Sask Polytech:
  • it is supported by administration
  • can provide you with access to mentoring resources within you own department
  • can provide you with a structured way to maximize your access to resources within the organization including:
    • Learning Technologies
    • Instructional Leadership Development Center
    • Library Services
    • Applied Research Department
  • provides an opportunity to give back to the organization by mentoring someone else
  • can facilitate the retention and recruitment initiatives for employees
  • assists with the orientation process of new hires
  • re-energize established employees
*References

Allen, D.T.,  Fickelstien, L.M., & Poteet, M.L. (2009). Designing workplace mentoring
programs: An evidence-based approach. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Canadian Nurses’ Association (2004) Achieving excellence in professional practice: A    
guide to preceptorship and mentoring (pp.19). Retrieved from Frequently Asked Questions_April 26_2010-2.rtf/CNA/nursing/education/mentorship/default_e.aspx

Eby, L.T., Durley, J.R., Evans, S.C. & Ragins, B.R. (2006). The relationship between
short term mentoring benefits and long-term mentor outcomes. Journal of Vocational  Behavior, 69(3), 424-444,

Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education (n.d). Who benefits from mentoring?  Everyone!!! Retrieved from http://www.coe.uga.edu/chds/ mentoring/benefits.htm
Mullen, C.A. (2008). Bringing formal mentoring to the fore in the academy. In C.A. Mullen (Ed.)The handbook of formal mentoring in higher education (pp. 1-19).Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers Inc.
There are two conventional ways that mentors and mentees are initially connected to each other.

Informal method
  • One method is informal paring where an inexperienced person approaches an experienced person that he or she respects and admires for the purpose of learning about a special talent for which  the experienced person is an expert. Once the inexperienced person has met his or her learning goal, the scheduled interaction between the two individuals stops. This type of relationship may already be established in your workplace but is not currently identified as mentoring.
Formal method
  • The other method involves a third-party (Program head, supervisor or mentorship coordinator) that matches up new employees with experienced employees that have volunteered to assist the mentee to adjust to his or her  new work role. The third party can take into consideration factors such as personal requests, common work assignments, shared interests in professional development and personality when making the matches.
Other approaches
  • Other approaches can include group or team mentoring where one experienced individual will assume responsibility for a small group of mentees. These groups work together to assist new employees through their adjustment period.
There is no concrete answer to this question. Some mentoring pairs or groups set a timeline for the relationship that can last from six months up to five years. In formal mentoring programs, the timeline may be determined by the program organizer or outlined in the program. The main indicator that the mentoring relationship is ready for closure is that the mentee has completed all of his or her learning goals. Once this has been accomplished, the mentoring partnership dissolves into a more collegial relationship or friendship.
In every human relationship there is a potential for conflict, and mentoring relationships are no exception to this rule. Potential antagonism can be minimized or even eliminated with planning and open communication. Establishing some factors up front can be helpful. Here are a few things to consider:
  1. Determine what the mentee needs and wants out of the relationship.
  2. Outline what the mentor is able to offer in relation to time and skills.
  3. Establish how often and where to meet.
  4. Establish preferred methods of communication outside of meeting times (e.g., telephone, Skype and email).
  5. Develop an agreement that other mentors may need to enter the relationship in order to meet the mentee’s learning needs.
Other basic actions like coming prepared to meetings and respecting personal time and space are all crucial.

It is good to have a third party that mentors and mentees can to go to for assistance in mediating difficulties. If all else fails the relationship may need to be dissolved and new pairings be made.
Many activities that are carried out in mentoring relationships, by both the mentor and the mentee, can be linked to continuing education and professional development. It is best to check with your professional association or human resources department to ensure that your participation in mentorship activities meets the intents and objectives of the accrediting organization. For more detailed information on this topic see mentorship competencies.

Contact us

Contact mentorship.nursing@saskpolytech.ca if you are interested in learning more about the mentorship team.