Mentoring is about reciprocity. Regardless of whether you are the mentor or the protégée/mentee, the knowledge passed on is invaluable. Most people know what a mentor is and have a good idea of how mentoring can help a young professional's career. But what many people don't recognize is how much mentors stand to gain from the relationship.

A few years ago, a manager from Visteon Corp. (No. 43 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list), a company whose program has drawn approximately 200 mentor/mentee pairs yearly for nearly eight years, mentored a young woman from Lebanon. The mentor, a gentleman from Texas, had been able to impart a good deal of business savvy and their working relationship was blossoming nicely. On the first day of Ramadan, the mentor decided he would celebrate the holiday with his mentee by taking her out to lunch. The mentee respectfully declined, and explained that in accordance with Islamic law, eating during daylight hours is forbidden. Later, he confessed to Jennifer Karaskiewicz, the manager of diversity and work/life at Visteon, who told us the story, that this was not the only lesson he took away from this relationship.

"He called me and shared a really profound lesson that he wasn't aware of. He said, 'I never really realized how insensitive I was.' [The mentee] was able to provide a lot of insight like this and now he is one of our better directors ... actually, both have had a good deal of success here," says Karaskiewicz.

The Real Benefits

It is lessons like these that have turned mentoring from the basic concept of a junior employee learning the ropes from a superior into some of the most successful employee programs in the corporate world. Not only does having company-sponsored mentoring programs benefit employees looking for the best route to a successful career, it also helps companies train and retain quality workers.

Over the years, the mentoring programs throughout companies such as Visteon, Merck & Co., New York Life and the Pepsi Bottling Group have grown steadily. Companies such as Merck (No. 24 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list), whose program last year had more than 500 participants, are in the process of developing new programs that will allow employees from around the world to be paired up via the Internet.

A successful mentoring program not only helps build up an effective work force but also attracts and retains employees. Quality workers generally are attracted to organizations that offer them opportunities to enhance their skills and knowledge. These programs foster a sense of loyalty, thereby reducing turnover and related costs. They also help promote an image of a company that encourages growth by making advancement opportunities readily available to junior employees.

Mentoring programs available through human-resources departments can be listed under various names and cater to people from an ever-expanding list of professional backgrounds or specialties. For the most part, they tend to also be structured one-year programs, but not all of them match people up the same way. Some base their pairings on skill or areas of interest while others listen to what employees would like to get out of a mentoring relationship before mentor/ mentee pairs are formed through interviews.  

Should Race or Gender Be an Issue?

Although pairings also can be based on similarities such as race or gender, it is not a widely practiced method. Most program directors say they will not normally match mentors and mentees this way unless an employee specifically requests it. They'd much rather rely on personality assessments and individual goals. It also helps expose employees to ideas and environments that they otherwise would never experience.
 
"Every participant is interviewed and subjected to a series of questions, some of them about their personal interests and background, but the majority of them discuss their career interests," says Karaskiewicz. "For mentors, we ask questions about experience, positions they've held, where they have worked in the past. For mentees, we ask what aspirations they have, what types of experiences they are looking for, what are their most significant challenges they have with their position. We make every effort to match people across organization lines. We won't match anyone within the same reporting structure.
 
Merck, which has had mentoring programs for the past 10 years, has a slightly different approach to its matching process, according to Jean Gogarty, the director of work environment, mentoring and disability initiative. 

The company has what Gogarty calls an "open approach to mentoring." Potential mentees are encouraged to apply for the program but are not restricted to mentors from their own division. This allows an employee to get a better understanding of the company and increases the opportunity to build on experience. 
 
"This actually allows you to learn about another area of the organization or the company in a non-linear way," says Gogarty. "This allows employees to explore areas that might be of interest down the road as far as a career path is concerned or to interact with someone at a senior level who could help build a skill that would help enhance their career."

Gogarty adds that employees at all levels may be able to participate in what she calls reverse mentoring. This is when an executive or a senior employee has a mentor who is a junior but has expert knowledge in a certain field, although this is less common.
 
Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG), No. 14 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list, has had a successful formal mentoring program for more than three years. In the past two years, the company has attracted more than 400 participants per year and is expecting more people this year. PBG also has noticed employees who are not part of the mentoring program forming their own mentoring relationships.

Individuals for the formal program are chosen by managers based on performance, skills and an employee's desire to develop his or her career. The program, according to Mary Beth DeNooyer, director of diversity and leadership development, is building on itself.

"I'm a mentor and I have learned a number of things from my mentee," says DeNooyer. "It helps us all to stay grounded in recognizing the challenges that some of our new, junior and diverse employees face." 

Going Outside for Help

But not all companies rely on creating mentoring pairs internally. Minority Interchange, a nonprofit that New York Life has sponsored for 31 years, facilitates a mentoring program that has been in existence for close to five years. Founded in 1974, it provides a forum for the development and nurturing of future leadership ability and the promotion of career-enhancing skills.

Minority Interchange also runs other initiatives along with the mentoring program. New York Life Chairman and CEO Sy Sternberg is a strong advocate for the mentoring program and other programs sponsored by Minority Interchange, says Angela Coleman, vice president of human resources.

"[Sternberg] will often kick off the new mentoring season, typically in the fall. He champions this because of his belief in the importance of mentoring," says Coleman.
 
Deon Hall-Garriques is assistant vice president of internal control at New York Life and a mother of two young children, as well as a mentor and a mentee. Hall-Garriques began her career as an accountant but became interested in exploring the different career paths within the company. She sought out a mentor and has not stopped learning and growing since then.
 
Her first mentor taught her to read and absorb everything she can, while her second mentor (Coleman) taught, as Hall-Garriques admits, patience. As a mentee, she still is learning. But as a mentor, she is learning how to better communicate with junior employees, learning from the feedback she gets, and is enjoying her ability to influence younger generations of workers.

These lessons, however, are not strictly kept in the workplace--she even has noticed they've filtered into her personal life, particularly her relationship with her children and husband. 

"I am a lot more patient with them and have a better understanding of how to work my schedule around them. It really has made a big difference," she says.

"While speaking with Angela, there are always things that I learn. They do not have to be specific things, but often little pointers and ideas," says Hall-Garriques, who added that "working with a mentee, you learn how to temper different situations and they help you to see things you may not be aware of, which is what makes it a rewarding experience."

Over the years as a mentee, she has referred many people to the program and wonders why more people aren't given the benefits. "I don't understand it ... I would always encourage particularly junior people because it is always beneficial to have a mentor."