Mentorship benefit helps retain top talent

Career Pizzazz.
Employees feel more valued when their organization provides a mentorship program. This was the clear message from a recent
national survey.

Last year the American Institute of CPAs published a “top talent survey” looking at workplace benefits as incentives for recruiting
employees. According to AICPA, “the most pressing concern facing accounting firms today is finding, hiring and retaining quality
staff … This concern has remained constant since 1996 and the staffing crisis is likely to get worse.”

By Anne Wolfinger The Independent Record

The chair of the Committee Task Force on Staffing was Ellen Feaver, a CPA consultant with Employee Benefit Resources, LLC, in
Helena. According to Feaver, the survey recommendations were based on the feedback of 558 “highly valuable” CPA firm
employees nationwide. The survey was distributed to the top one or two staff members in the small firms membership division.

“Encourage or start a mentoring program” was among the dozen or so recommendations.
About 46 percent of those surveyed said they had a mentor, 42 percent of them through formal employer-sponsored programs and
58 percent through self-initiated, informal programs. More than half of the mentorees selected their own mentors based on an
established, good professional relationship; one-third of them had a mentor assigned and the rest had a mentor select them.

In response to the question, “Do you think the mentoring program at your firm works?” a strong 65 percent replied yes and 27
percent said no. The answer was even more emphatic to the question, “Does the mentoring program at your firm make you feel like
a valuable member of the professional staff?” A strong majority, 71 percent, said yes and the “not sures” dropped to 19 percent.

With these pronounced responses, it is easy to see how mentoring made it on the recommendations list. Feaver says, “I think the
survey gave us a jumpstart on what to do next in terms of helping our members cope with the shortage of talent and suggesting
positive steps firms could consider to retain the talented staff they already have.”
If your organization is facing similar challenges in recruiting and retaining top notch staff, a mentorship program may provide a
low-cost incentive. But before you jump in with both feet, here are some points to think about:
— Be clear what you hope to gain from setting up a mentorship program. Do you want your organization to “look good” or are you
sincerely committed to growing and developing your employees?

— Set up a mentorship program structure that covers mentor/mentoree matching, role expectations, time commitments, etc.

Approaching this as a “program” from the outset can lay the groundwork and help increase the level of success.

— Consider having some standards or parameters for employees you invite to be mentors. Ideally, a mentor should enjoy helping
others, have a good personal foundation, have enthusiasm and interest in their work and in their organization, and have
well-developed communication skills.

— Learn from the mentorship program as it develops and matures. Fine tune the structure based on the experiences of both the
mentors and mentorees. Especially the first year of the program, let the participants know you’re beta-testing and are open to their
suggestions.

Anne Wolfinger, a career and business coach, publishes a free e-newsletter called Career Pizzazz! and is working on a mentorship
book. She can be reached at 442-9655, by e-mail at anne@anne
wolfinger.com or through the Web site http://www.careerpizzazz.com

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