Globally, multinational industries spend more than $50 Billion annually on leadership development. Majority of which is spent on talent development through mentoring programmes. Targeted individuals may include those who are starting within the firm as juniors, employees who are looking to develop their skills further or the CEO who is looking to go the extra mile to take the organisation to the next level.
The spending on mentoring has been increasing year on year and companies are willing to spend more as mentoring produces clear benefits for the organisation. Mentoring in the workplace produces highly skilled and confident individuals. Mentoring also helps individuals manage stress at work better and become better critical thinkers. Mentoring increases individual productivity and team engagement, leading to a better financial outcome for organisations.
Although firms are willing to spend more on mentoring employees, the opportunity afforded to employees and to which employee may differ. More privileged individuals may get the opportunity ahead of the less fortunate. A mentoring program helps develop a person who is more comfortable in challenging the status quo. This raised confidence may lead to the organisational hierarchy taking notice of that individual and therefore being more engaged with this less privileged but talented individuals within the firm.
Where there are no opportunities within a firm to progress, the skills and confidence developed throughout a mentoring process is easily transferable to another firm. However, if the individual who has been mentored chooses entrepreneurship, they are still able to do so with confidence, leading and growing their own firm.
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