Without a doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic was a pivotal moment for organisations to welcome remote work. Businesses and employees were forced to adapt to working outside the office and work from home out of necessity.
In 2021, 40.3% of full-time employees worked from home in Australia. Even with organisations requiring employees to return to the office, 96% of knowledge-based workers still work hybrid or fully remote. Since employees get to save money on travel and have a better work-life balance with remote work, 78% of employees prefer a hybrid working model.
Unfortunately, not all organisations and employers are on the same page. Based on a study, employees reported that remote work had decreased productivity by 42%. The challenges that employees encounter in remote work include loneliness, difficulty maintaining focus, and a lack of separation between work and personal life. But with the right support from employers, these challenges can be kept to a minimum.
With remote work now a standard among organisations throughout the world, the best way employers can support their employees is through remote mentoring.
In this article, we’ll talk about what remote mentoring is and its benefits. We’ll also be giving some tips on how organisations can offer successful virtual mentoring programs to their remote employees.
Remote mentoring is pretty much self-explanatory. It is a type of mentoring that takes place virtually with the help of various online communication channels. Instead of the mentor and mentee meeting face-to-face, they can conduct a mentoring session via a voice call or chat.
The onset of the pandemic gave birth to such options as it was the only viable solution for meetings at the time. However, it further augmented the ability of individuals to perform certain roles while working remotely.
By implementing remote mentoring in the organisation, employers can support remote employees. They gain assistance through their mentors on how they can do their roles better and with confidence.
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Remote mentoring provides a wealth of benefits just like traditional mentoring does. It leverages technology to bridge the geographical gap between mentors and mentees while providing them with the ease to work around their schedules. So how can remote workers benefit from this?
During the pandemic, organisations launched virtual mentoring programs to help make remote workers feel less isolated. Since working at home was out of their comfort zone, some employees struggled with staying productive and having no one to talk to. But with the help of remote mentoring, those who worked from home were able to speak to a mentor and feel more connected to their organisations. This helped make remote workers feel more confident and be more productive team members.
Apart from helping remote workers, virtual mentoring can also come in handy for office-based employees. It is much easier to conduct a virtual mentoring session compared to an in-person session. They can do the mentoring session while they are at their desk instead of having to meet face-to-face, which is great for busy employees who can squeeze in the session in between tasks. They don’t need to travel to a meeting room, which 90% of employees say is an easier option to get a point across.
Since remote work doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, employers need to find a way to support their remote and hybrid employees. Through virtual mentorship, employers can have a mentoring program that doesn’t rely on the days when the mentor and mentee are in the office. For a full list of how mentorship helps organisations, you can read our previous article.
Establishing a remote mentoring program takes time. For it to be successful, it’s not enough that mentors and mentees know about the program. They need to actively fill their part in the mentoring relationship.
Here are some tips we suggest to make the remote mentoring program become successful:
The success of a paired relationship depends on the connection built between the mentor and mentee. For this to happen, they need to be able to talk to each other virtually instead of by email or a voice call, where emotions can easily be misconstrued. Even if the mentoring session is done virtually, the mentor and mentee should be encouraged to switch their cameras on.
One common reason why relationships fail is because each party has varying expectations from the other. This happens in mentoring relationships too, especially the ones that are poorly planned and executed.
For a mentoring program to work, the mentor and mentee need to accomplish a mentoring agreement from the start. This gives both parties a better understanding of how often to meet, what each other’s goals are, and how they are comfortable with the setup. By doing this, they can establish boundaries and get the relationship to form naturally.
The road to a successful mentoring relationship is trust and building rapport with each other. Mentors need to know how to truly listen to their mentees without any prejudice. This can be done by doing a virtual call instead of a written exchange of opinions. Even though the mentor and mentee are meeting virtually, their relationship can work once they can build trust and make the most of the communication tools available to them.
One of the most common reasons why mentoring relationships fail is because the pairings were done randomly and without further thought. Program administrators, however, are prone to unconscious bias when pairing mentors and mentees, especially when working in large organisations or groups.
Instead of having to draw out the names of the participants from a hat, the best way to do it is to go with a mentoring software that offers science-based pairing. And Brancher does this, with a satisfaction guarantee of up to 90%. Our platform pairs mentors and mentees based on their attitudes and values to create effective pairings in the organisation.
If you’re ready to see our mentoring platform in action, give us a call to schedule a demo. We’ll help you establish a mentoring program for your remote employees.
Sources:
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021, December 14). More than 40 per cent of Australians worked from home. https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/more-40-cent-australians-worked-home.
2. PwC Australia. (2022). Balancing Act: The New Equation in hybrid working. https://www.pwc.com.au/important-problems/future-of-work/future-of-work-report-2022.pdf
3. McCrindle Research Pty Ltd. The profile of Australia’s hybrid worker. https://mccrindle.com.au/article/the-profile-of-australias-hybrid-worker/
4. Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 04/23. (2023, March). Working from home, COVID-19 and job satisfaction. https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/4575795/wp2023n04.pdf
5. JobTogether. (2024, January 9). The Rise of Remote Work in Australia: Trends, Jobs, and Top Employers. https://jobgether.com/blog/the-rise-of-remote-work-in-australia-trends-jobs-and-top-employers.
6. Ashenden, Pauline. (2016, August 2). Lifesize. The Results Are In: Video Conferencing Is a Productivity Powerhouse. https://www.lifesize.com/blog/productivity-results-are-in/