It is said that employees who mentor can build their business acumen through the management and development of talent and improving their own communication skills; according to a recent article titled How Mentoring Builds Business Insight posted to forbes.com by Deborah K. Holmes. The article was written during the National Volunteer Week in April 2015 and was to showcase how businesses can make positive impacts on their communities through youth mentoring.
In the article, Holmes talks to a joint report done by EY and MENTOR that discusses the power and promise of private sector engagement in youth mentoring. The report unveils the best practices and case studies from both businesses and Fortune 500 companies. Furthermore, the following are strategies are taken from the joint report (Mentoring: at the crossroad of education, business and community) for starting a mentoring effort or enhancing an existing mentoring program:
Align mentoring engagements with corporate priorities. Businesses should find ways to integrate mentor programs with their broader corporate mission, values and capabilities. One Fortune 500 company in the high-technology sector, for example, partners with K–12 STEM and business organizations to help with out-of-school-time programming oriented around hands-on experiments, classes and internships for high school students; volunteer visits; and summer programs. This enables the company to mesh its mentoring efforts with its corporate priority to develop a pipeline of talent for the future.

• Collaborate with national and community partners. By establishing relationships with nonprofit experts or educational institutions, private sector mentoring efforts will benefit from your partners’ experience, robust systems, processes and standards, investment in talent development, and materials and methodologies.
• Foster employee engagement. Employers must realize that mentoring happens in many different ways. Flexibility is a key element, especially the ability to mentor during working hours. Companies need to clearly illustrate which mentoring options are available to employees and work with their nonprofit partner to provide training, a curriculum, relationship tools and ongoing support.

To learn more please feel free to read to full original article How Mentoring Builds Business Insight

source: ey.com