Diversity has been one of the major concerns in companies in the past years. Not only has it been proven that diverse teams have a higher innovation power. Diversity helps to face the challenges of the skills shortage in today’s labor market. Still, many companies have not yet reached their targets regarding their diversity goals. There are many opportunities, tools and approaches to tackle this issue in companies. One for sure is the company culture, which often has been coined by a male dominated environment. However, changing a corporate culture takes time and effort. So how can companies increase diversity in their teams in the short term?
One opportunity provides the concept of Mentorship. In mentorship programs, young and less experienced employees are introduced to a senior more experienced employee. Together they define what kind of goals the mentee wants to reach and how the mentor could help. As such, they meet on a regular basis where the mentor accompagnes the mentee on her career journey. Many companies are using these mentorship programs to support their female talents build their career within the company.
Do Mentorship Program work to increase Diversity in Leadership?
However, can these mentorship programs also impact the diversity on management level? As we know, to inspire women and other minorities to aspire a career with leadership function, they have to see that it is possible. As such, more diversity has to be reached on management level first. While mentorship program are great sources of sharing experiences, it lacks an important aspect. Basically, there are no opportunities provided to the mentee to get exposed to potential leadership position.
Here a new concept comes into place, the Sponsorship program. The sponsor is not only responsible to share her or his experience with the mentee, but to actively support and propose her for leadership roles. In a recent article in Der Organisator magazine, TechFace has published a more detailed article about the role of Mentorship and Sponsorship to increase diversity.
Read the full article here (only availbale in German).
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