July 25, 2022 | Carole Walters

HR Brew – In this article on mentoring young employees in the age of remote/hybrid work, Maggie Smith, Traliant’s Vice President of Human Resources, shares her experience and practical tips.

Here’s an excerpt:

For many of the workforce’s youngest entrants, forging a career in the age of remote work might feel like hitchhiking down a desolate road, clutching a sign emblazoned with a sad-face emoji and the words “Mentor me, please” scrawled in Sharpie.

“One challenge is ensuring that the employee who is assigned the buddy or mentor role is following through on the commitment they made. Everyone gets very busy and in a remote environment, it can be out of sight, out of mind,” says Maggie Smith, VP of HR at compliance-training platform Traliant.

If a company wants to present the possibility of mentorship to its new employees, it can try baking it into the onboarding process, Maggie Smith advised. Traliant initiates new hires to the company by pairing them with a buddy for three weeks or longer, depending on employees’ preferences. This can be a means of trialing a mentorship program, she said. “I’d encourage HR departments to start small.”

Read the full article in HR Brew