Mentoring is a valuable addition to the Learning and Development capability of any business, yet very few experienced staff are ever trained in how to be an effective mentor. Rockwell have invested in their people and protected their intellectual property by rolling out a mentor training program.
Rockwell Automation employs over 20,000 people in more than 80 countries, and over the century that the organisation has grown into its market leading position, it has developed a great deal of unique intellectual property. For any organisation that has been in business for more than a few years, Rockwell faces the problem of passing that knowledge to new generations. Knowledge management systems are cumbersome in a global organisation where local knowledge and local relationships are key in delivering high standards of customer care. Mentoring is therefore the obvious choice, with experienced technical and operational experts supporting the development of new staff.
To achieve this, I created and delivered a mentor development program which gave prospective mentors both the skills and experience to effectively engage in mentoring relationships.
Rockwell use the 70:20:10 approach to personal development planning, and mentoring supports all three areas of 'on the job' learning, relationships and formal training, and the mentoring program gave Rockwell's managers new value for the development frameworks already in place.