The benefits of a mentoring relationship

What are the benefits of having a mentor?

The specific benefits of being mentored include:

• being encouraged and empowered in personal development
• being helped to identify and achieve career goals
• being helped to identify and correct gaps in generic skills and knowledge
• increasing your confidence
• developing and maintaining a broader perspective on career options and opportunities
• having access to a senior role model
• gaining insight into University culture
• developing mentoring/coaching skills

The Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) commissioned a literature review (Hawkes 2012) and study into Mentoring: progressing women’s careers in higher education (Quinn 2012) and found that mentoring has a number of benefits for mentees, mentors and HEIs alike.

From the study, Quinn identified the following as being generic benefits for mentees:

• career advancement, including a higher rate of promotion
• increased opportunities and a likelihood of staying at the institution
• higher salaries
• increased productivity and better time management
• greater success in achieving external research grants
• personal and professional development, including increased job-related wellbeing, self-esteem and confidence, and better work-life balance
• preparation for the future and heightened career aspirations
• developed networking skills

What are the benefits for mentors?

The specific benefits of being a mentor include:

• recognised involvement in a programme of strategic importance to your Faculty
• new perspectives and insight into your Faculty
• potential for networking
• additional experience in staff management and development
• opportunity for self reflection, and personal satisfaction
• funding bodies increasingly value an active mentoring programme and often encourage senior staff to be mentors
• developing mentoring/coaching skills

Additionally Quinn identified the following as being generic benefits to mentors:

• career rejuvenation
• increased confidence
• personal fulfilment, particularly satisfaction form seeing junior staff progress

What are the benefits for your Faculty and the University?

Increasingly, funding bodies require research staff to have access to an active mentoring programme. We can only offer this if we have enthusiastic mentors on our database. An active and successful mentoring scheme brings benefits to your Faculty and the University by:

• improving academic performance through staff development
• improving communication between individuals/groups/units
• reinforcing your Faculty’s commitment to learning and development
• creating a breeding ground for fresh ideas and innovations
• enhancing your Faculty’s reputation through improved career destinations of its research staff
• demonstrating to funding bodies that we already have an active and successful mentoring programme in place

For more information from RCUK about benefits of mentoring for HEIs please click here

Additionally Quinn identified the following as being generic benefits to HEIs:

• increased employee productivity, motivation, retention and commitment