According to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 report, employee engagement continues to be a challenge for businesses. In fact, 85% of executives surveyed rated engagement as an important or very important priority for their business. Corporate leadership understands that an increasingly diverse, multi-generational and virtual workforce requires flexible, creative and purpose-driven employee engagement strategies.
One such strategy is to engage employees in mentoring youth which can be facilitated in a variety of program models. This engagement can produce positive youth development outcomes, enhance employee skills in the areas of collaboration and communication, and increase employee retention.
For many years, Deloitte has prioritized engaging employees in community and school-based youth mentoring programs through their education and corporate citizenship initiative called RightStep. From their engagement in programs such as City Year and Big Brothers Big Sisters, Deloitte employees see firsthand that mentoring is a demonstrated method for improving academic, social and economic prospects for young people. Research outlined in The Mentoring Effect (2014) supports this by showing that young adults who face an opportunity gap but have a mentor are 55% more likely to be enrolled in college than those who did not have a mentor.
Sponsored by the Deloitte Foundation this past summer, Deloitte created and launched RightStep Virtual Mentoring, a virtual mentoring program that enables their employees to engage in meaningful mentoring relationships – anytime and anyplace through Strive for College’s virtual platform. Deloitte has recruited nearly 700 employees in two months and continues to see interest from across all business units and geographic markets.
“Virtual mentoring aligns so well to the evolution of our business culture here at Deloitte where we are seeing increases in virtual teaming,” states Meredith Fontecchio, Senior Manager, Corporate Citizenship, Deloitte Services LP. “Many of our professionals are eager to engage in supporting community initiatives and really value the flexibility that virtual mentoring is providing them to make a difference.”
There have been five key lessons learned from the design and launch of RightStep Virtual Mentoring that others interested in driving employee engagement can leverage:
- Align employee engagement initiatives with your company culture. At Deloitte, mentoring is a part of the company’s DNA so it makes sense that mentoring is a priority within employee engagement and corporate citizenship.
- Engage subject matter specialists to complement your core business competencies. Strive for College and MENTOR have provided Deloitte with expertise in managing mentoring relationships, training employee mentors, supporting students on their path to college and evaluating mentoring initiatives.
- Provide diverse options for employee engagement. Deloitte continues to support in-person local mentoring initiatives and has expanded the opportunity now for Deloitte professionals who frequently travel or prefer to engage in virtual mentoring.
- Support employees who step up to mentor youth. Deloitte supports their professionals who register to mentor by facilitating a program orientation, offering training and technical assistance, and promoting an internal, online mentoring resource center for mentors to access activity guides, effective mentoring practices, and research briefs.
- Set realistic expectations for employees engaging in youth mentoring. During orientation, Deloitte mentors are coached on how to meet youth where they are and support them in advancing through several college preparation stages ranging from helping search for schools to writing their college essay to applying for financial aid. Taking time to build trust and co-creating their plan of action with their mentees helps to set up both the mentor and the youth for success in the mentoring relationship.
Our research at MENTOR shows that one in three youth will grow up in America today without a caring adult in their lives outside of their family. Programs like Deloitte and Strive’s virtual mentoring program can be critical to closing this gap, and are helping companies increase employee engagement in tandem. To learn more about how corporations of all sizes and industries are leveraging youth mentoring to drive employee engagement, join over 1000 mentoring practitioners and philanthropic partners at the 2017 National Mentoring Summit in Washington DC from February 1-3, 2017.
Dan Horgan is is the CEO of D.G. Horgan Group and is the Corporate Partnerships Consultant for MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership.
As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.
