Why mentoring works in Information Technology

Full disclosure: We’re going to be borrowing heavily from a mentoring study carried out by Sun Microsystems. You’ve heard of them if you’ve anything to do with IT.

Why THIS study in particular?

Because it’s HUGE. Lots of businesses will offer up the results of their mentoring programmes and point to tangible positive outcomes. But it’s only across 100 or so employees & managers over a year.
The Sun Microsystems study, however, covers 13 years. Yes, you read that right thirteen years.
Not just is it across a fairly significant time frame. It also covers – are you ready? – over 7,000 employees.

So, it’s a substantial sample size, across a substantial time period. For a VERY well-known business.
We’re also not just talking about employees and managers here. Very high-level executives and director-level staff were involved (more than once) in the mentoring.

What were the headlines?

You’re only here for the juicy stuff really. So here you go 😊

Salary Increases:

Mentees involved – 25% experienced a salary increase within 2 years of being mentored
Mentors involved – 28% experienced a salary increase within 2 years of mentoring
Not involved – just 5% of people not involved in the mentoring programme saw a salary increase.

That’s a pretty telling argument, on salary alone, for getting involved in mentoring whether that’s as a mentor or as a mentee. Don’t you think?

What about if my goal isn’t to get more money, but to achieve a promotion?

Promotion rates:

Mentees involved were 5 times more likely to be promoted than those who weren’t
Mentors involved were 6 times more likely to be promoted.

If you’re not necessarily looking for more money but are focused on navig8ing the career ladder. Again there is a very compelling argument for mentorship.
Let’s be honest, you’re also likely going to get that pay rise – whether you are aiming for it or not – if you’re getting promoted. Any you are 5 or 6 times more likely to be promoted remember.

What if I’m the manager and I just want to keep good people?

I’d give up now if I were you. There are no flaws in this argument, but ok, let’s keep going.

Retention rates:

If you don’t mind – we’re just going to switch up the format quickly. Mainly to stop you from getting bored as this is all very dull and factual 😊
So, you want to ‘keep your best people’? Get them involved in mentoring:

Again, information based on the Sun Microsystems report:

Average retention rates at Sun Microsystems for people not involved in mentoring = 49%

Mentors involved = 69% retention rate
Mentees involved = 72% retention rate
The graphs just keep going up  – don’t they 👆

A quick recap then. Based on the, frankly, massive Sun Microsystems study – people involved in both sides of a mentoring relationship are likely to:

– Earn more money
– Get promoted more often
– Stay in their job for longer than those not involved

Mentoring seems to work across all of the key metrics; whether you’re involved as a mentee
OR as a mentor.
Whether you’re an employee looking to improve your own career. Or whether you’re a manager looking to improve your promotion prospects. Or the business owner looking to keep hold of your best staff.
Lest we forget – keeping hold of your best staff saves you thousands of pounds (and days) in advertising, hiring, training and retaining staff.

Ok, but WHY does it work?

When you invest in people, you show you value them. When people invest in themselves, they show a desirable level of commitment and desire for self-improvement.
People love value, and being valued.
If you’re an employer and you see people investing in themselves, you like that. It shows they want to be better and do better. The main beneficiary of that is you. The employer.
If you’re an employee and your company invests in you, you want to do better for them because they’ve shown they value you. You also know that your career prospects are better.

Mentoring increases loyalty (as shown by the retention rates above). Loyal staff are happier staff. Happier staff are more productive. More productivity is never a bad thing. 

For any business.

In conclusion then. Mentoring works?

Yes – mentoring does work. And, we can say with some certainty that it works in IT, as that’s the field Sun Microsystems are in (but you already knew that).

If you’re working in IT – firstly, you have a huge amount of opportunities before you. It’s such a broad and far-ranging industry that there is ‘almost’ anywhere you can take your career.
If your peers are investing in mentoring and you’re not – you risk being left behind
If your peers aren’t investing in mentoring and you are – you’re ahead of the pack and giving yourself a higher chance of more money – more promotions and more chance of finding your ideal job.

Compelling arguments aren’t they?

Added strength to the argument

Let’s look outside of the Sun Microsystems mentoring study for a few more juicy tidbits.
In case you’re not familiar with the Fortune 500 list of companies – It is a list of the top 500 companies in the United States. Ranked by revenue. These are companies that know what they are doing, and have been successfully doing it.
We are talking about companies the size of Amazon, Apple, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor Company & IBM.
Big companies across lots of different sectors. And what percentage have mentoring programmes?
84%. 84% of fortune 500 companies run a mentoring programme.

What about the up-and-coming companies – where a lot of IT and technology opportunities will be?
We should look at the Fortune 50. This list shows the 50 global companies that show the best prospects for continued (and sustainable) growth. So these companies have been tipped to be successful over a sustained period of time and with very sustainable growth patterns.
What number do you think?  (go high, there’s probably a reason we’ve mentioned them

100%. All of the Fortune 50 companies run a mentoring programme for their employees.

Every single last one. These are the companies destined for success and every last one of them has a mentoring programme.
Mentoring works. Most of the largest companies in the world think so – and are actively doing it.
All of the top 50 companies forecasted for sustainable growth think so.
Isn’t it time you thought so too?

IT is becoming more and more important in the ever-increasing online-ness of today’s world.

Maybe it’s time to invest in your own future!

If you currently work in IT and want to get yourself on the mentoring ladder – but your company doesn’t offer a formal mentoring programme, just pop along to the page we’re about to link to.

Pop in your email address and we’ll let you know as soon as the site is ready
(won’t be long, just after Christmas maybe)
And you can start investing in yourself with Career Navig8r

Yes. Start my mentoring journey!