Mentoring as an Effective Diversity Equity & Inclusion Strategy

A truly successful business is more than just good branding and marketing.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is an easy way to capture the hearts of your audience and make your business a highly sought-after place to work. You’re probably already familiar with the basics of DEI, such as ensuring the workplace environment includes people of different races, genders, backgrounds, etc., and that each person has the opportunity to contribute equally, regardless of their role. However, an often overlooked  DEI strategy, mentoring, is incredibly effective and can help significantly improve your company’s DEI initiatives.

Let’s look at what mentorship programs with diversity at the forefront are, how they are beneficial to your business, and why you should implement one if you haven’t already.

Mentorship Programs with a Focus on Diversity

Culturally diverse individuals often face unique challenges in the workplace. A mentorship program that acknowledges diversity and works to help your culturally diverse audience overcome obstacles is crucial to creating a healthy workplace environment. A well-structured mentorship program helps employees in the following ways: 

• An Outlet – Employees have someone they can express their concerns and propose potential solutions to. 
• Part of a Team – Mentoring fosters connections between employees, which makes everyone feel like part of the same team.
• Seen – Mentorship helps ensure that minority employees are not overlooked. Visibility for growth in the company increases.

Of course, everyone can benefit from learning the knowledge and skills of veteran team members. 

Benefits of Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Mentorship

Focusing on diversity equity and inclusion in your mentorship program is easy and offers a myriad of benefits, including:

• Increased Retention Rate – Employees who feel they belong and know they are valued are more likely to stay for the long haul. This means you do not have to constantly spend time, money, and resources hiring and training new employees due to a high turnover rate. 
• Higher Productivity – Satisfied employees put forth their best effort in the workplace, which leads to higher productivity and increased efficiency.
• Better Talent – Gaining a reputation as a desirable place to work means your company will attract higher-quality talent for open positions. 
• Higher Revenue – Studies show that those who focus on diversity earn 35% more than the industry average. 
• Faster innovation – Diversity and inclusion offer fresh perspectives, which contributes to more rapid innovation. 

Diversity equity and inclusion mentorship programs, especially with diversity as the focus, have a significant positive impact on increasing the stability of your workplace. A company with a strong workplace infrastructure is well-positioned to be sustainable long-term.

Improving DEI Initiatives with Mentoring

Mentoring allows employees to be heard, voice concerns, and increase visibility within the company. Adding a focus on diversity equity and inclusion ensures that participants know they are valued and see themselves as an equal part of the team.

The benefits of implementing a mentorship program with diversity as a focus cannot be overstated. Your audience will appreciate having access to critical relationships as they build their careers.. In turn, you will strengthen your brand’s reputation and attract new customers and clients. Satisfied employees will spread the word about how much they enjoy working at a company that values them. This is powerful marketing for your business, and you will attract higher-quality talent for open positions, which allows you to strengthen your team even more.

October is Diversity Awareness Month, and we challenge you to take your diversity initiatives to the next level. Need a little help? Engage Mentoring is here to give you the tools you need to make your company one that everyone wants to be a part of. Let’s talk!