Reverse mentoring, is a mentoring program in which more junior staff mentor senior staff on new systems or processes. This may see younger staff mentoring older staff in emerging tech trends or social media use.

Reverse mentoring is becoming common in organizations that are based online; this is due to the fact these organizations use a number of systems in order to run their operations successfully, which senior staff might need further training on. 

The traditional way of mentoring involved connection of senior managers or members of staff with younger employees; this with the goal that the mentor will offer advice and guidance to help the mentee in their career and job. However, as the nature of work is developing, the face of mentoring is also changing. 

Reverse mentoring is a great strategy to increase the visibility of minority employees for future leadership opportunities.

Now that you know what reverse mentoring is, it would be helpful to find out what a reverse mentoring program offers.

Implementing a reverse mentoring program within the organization, provides a different level of learning and development for employees at different levels. Benefits of a reverse mentoring program include the following:

• Increasing employee’s skill sets and engagements
• Overcoming generational gaps
• Cultivating a culture of learning 
• Reducing turnover rates of young employees 
• Leadership development 

Reasons why reverse mentoring is important

Recently, reverse mentoring has been on the rise with the aim of engaging employees (such as millennials), in order to offer younger employees the opportunity for them to play an active role in the mentoring process. 

For example, if a more senior employee wants to learn about social media or coding, the younger employee then plays the role of a mentor on training the older members of staff on how to use social media.

Another reason why reverse mentoring is important is because it is a good approach to leadership development. In such scenarios, senior employees must be keen to listen to the younger employees and gain an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Doing so, endorses younger employees and forms a foundation of trust which is essential for successful mentoring.