A helping hand leads to success

A successful mentoring scheme will ensure that your staff have someone to turn to for guidance and knowledge, which will bring substantial benefits to your business, finds Philip Chadwick

Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates is one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. Having amassed such a fortune and taken such a stranglehold on the market, you'd think he'd pretty much know it all by now. However, far from believing himself above help, he has a mentor in the form of high-profile stock market investor Warren Buffett, who continues to advise and guide him through the minefield of modern business. It goes to show that mentoring can help everyone, regardless of age and position within a business.

"Anyone can have a mentor," explains Terry Watts, chief executive at Proskills. "My mentors are my board, who have experience in business management. You have to have the mindset that you can always learn from someone."

For those entering the print industry, a mentor can help a rookie get their head around the complex terminology and systems that make any company tick. An inspiring older head can also pass on the pearls of wisdom that make the job easier and more enjoyable. Having a mentor can ensure a smoother settling-in period and get them quickly up to speed.

"Mentoring helps people to understand what they are doing and allows them to ask questions they may believe are ‘silly' or too simple without feeling embarrassed," explains Watts. "It's about developing people within an organisation."

All of this is, of course, not just for the employee's benefit. Having a happy workforce that has a full understanding of their job is beneficial to companies of all sizes and in any type of industry.

However, like any form of training, successfully implementing a mentor scheme demands a high level of commitment from a print firm and, with the industry battling hard against recession, it's perhaps not surprising that any formal mentoring may fall by the wayside.

But for those willing to take the time to implement a scheme, planning and highlighting objectives are crucial to success (see top tips box). All parties have to be fully behind the initiative, not just the mentor, and a company needs to foster an environment where training isn't just an afterthought, but is a well considered, integrated part of the day-to-day process of how a business is run.