“To encourage creative brilliance, foster an atmosphere where it can thrive and then step out of the way and let it happen.” – Stewart Stafford

The core of any thriving company is its ability to identify and retain emerging talent. This will insure the success of the business and the sustainable development of the company culture and company processes.

The majority of international companies as well as multinational companies have a talent development platform for their employees, yet they still struggle with employee retention and the stumbling blocks of young employees. It is thus important to take into consideration that the majority of the entering workforce are millennials. They make up 40% of today’s workforce and are going to grow into 75% of the workforce over the next 10 years. Therefore, if you want your business to survive the future, make sure you have the right instruments to fascinate, involve and retain the millennial generation.

50% of young professionals claim that if a place of work has a mentorship program it would make them more likely to stay at the business. 49% of millennials leave a company within two years. With the future of employment being problematic, it  is of cardinal importance for companies to make use of mentoring programs and develop strong relationships between senior and junior employees. This will allow seniors to identify emerging talent at a young age and then nurture, develop and retain them.

Millennials entering the workforce have expectations and usually lay emphasis on learning, growing and advancing their career. Companies who have active mentors in their company already cater to these needs, as mentorships gives the mentees hands on guidance, develops self-confidence and shows them a clear path within the company. This is not only beneficial to the mentee and mentors’ professional development, but also to the company’s. With the estimated cost of replacing an employee being six to nine months of their salary, the business stands to lose a lot more.

As a whole, we can define mentoring as: “A process of learning informally through others.” We can thus say it is a type of collaboration, where a relationship develops and both parties experience professional growth. The relationship between the mentee and mentor fosters a feeling of belonging. This, together with the millennials preference of collaboration over competition makes mentorship programs a point of survival for companies.

The benefits of mentoring are endless, however the point stays that for the development of any company, it is essential.