5 Reasons Why Your Retiring Employees Could Be The Perfect Mentor

« Back to Articles

Attracting and keeping employees has become increasingly important, with an enormous decrease in employee satisfaction over the last few years. As well as showing an improvement in satisfaction, there are many benefits seen when a company implements a mentoring program within the workplace, from reduced costs to promoting personal and professional development. With retirees often seeking out meaningful ways to contribute through either volunteer or paid work, businesses are undoubtedly benefiting from bringing back retired employees to mentor staff.

Here are the 5 reasons why your retired employees would make the perfect mentors:

No Competition

Introducing a retiree mentor within the workplace has provided evidence that it can help avoid the competition element found within employees, where the anxiousness and stress of someone often one-upping them is usually found. This can help enable the mentor and mentee to work together and reach their full potential that would be difficult when working with a current employee and mentee that could present fear in terms of taking their place within the organisational hierarchy.

Your employees will no doubt be looking to grow professionally and make impactful gains whilst working for your company, but may also feel that they become intimidated by current employee mentors which can lead to decreased employee satisfaction and an ineffective mentoring program. This over the long term can further lead to employee untrustworthiness and long-term stress. A retiree mentoring program when paired correctly can help attain better progress for the mentee, less stress, more support and encouragement for the achievement of career goals.

No Time Limits

Retirees often find themselves feeling they aren't being productive enough during retirement and look for new and exciting activities to help contribute in comparison to employees who are often on the go constantly. Mentors, whilst they have the best intentions in mind for their mentees, may often find time constraints due to work or family commitments and may present itself as a hurdle when it comes to trying to build a relationship with a mentee.

Negatives aside, having a mentor that is a current employee is very beneficial to both the workplace, and the mentee, but work responsibilities, deadlines and individual goals will still take priority. More often than not this isn't the case for retired employees, who are less likely to be limited on time, making them able to connect and establish a more consistent and trusting connection with their mentees.

Insider Knowledge

Retiree mentors have highly valuable insight and knowledge about your company. They already know what's operating well, what can be improved and more than likely have some excellent ideas of how these obstacles can be approached. The mentors were previously in the shoes of the mentees, making them the ideal character for a current employee to speak with and possess a tremendous amount of knowledge about the company, the role and the industry as a whole. When frustrations arise, the mentor will be able to truly empathise with the mentee, using their prior knowledge and experience to help provide assistance and relevant advice to the situation.

Decreased Costs

On the financial side of things, having retired employees as mentors can dramatically minimise workplace expenses. Within any company, there is a considerable cost correlated with training fresh or current employees, and when acquiring new talent. The retirees can hugely assist your company with this process by serving alongside the department to assist, guide and share their expertise. Retirees can also make a tremendous influence when it comes to employee retention, with a recent study reporting that companies who offered a mentorship program boosted employee retention and engagement by 50%.

Trust and Friendships

Retiree mentors have already reached great heights within their careers and take pride in sharing their expertise. Due to this, mentees will be more willing to come to them to seek counsel and guidance as opposed to a mentor who still works for the company, making it more challenging to build a genuine relationship. The retiree and mentee may have previously worked with each other over the years and have a mutual connection and trust pre-established making it ideal for the mentoring environment. A great mentor will find satisfaction in forming a relationship with their mentee, taking genuine curiosity in the individual and feeling delighted to share their prior expertise and experience, with respect and friendships being developed through their shared interests, delivering an invaluable learning experience.

Summary

Retirees are an excellent asset to aiding progress in your current workforce, having all the prior experience and background required to help your employees attain their full potential. As shown above, there are numerous advantages to having a retired employee come back as a mentor for your company. Having an efficient mentoring program in place can remarkably improve the performance of your employees and devise a more skilled and productive workforce. Are you interested in setting up a mentorship program? PushFar offers innovative cloud-based technology and assistance to help ease the mentoring process. Click here to assist your employees on their professional journey.