Making Time for Mentoring — The Hidden ROI for Businesses
Why should busy professional women make time to mentor or be mentored? Why should competitive businesses allocate resources for an employee mentorship program?
It’s not just the pay gap. Forbes estimates the 2024 wage gap worldwide to be 77 cents to the dollar.¹ At this rate, the United Nations estimates that it will take a staggering 257 years to close that gap.² The statistics are even worse for women of color, particularly in rural areas.
It’s not just the leadership gap. In 2022 The World Economic Forum cites a study in gender leadership across 19 different industry sectors. Women only account for 31% of leadership roles.³
The reason women should make time for mentoring is because it will benefit both the mentor and the mentee. Women often cite mentoring and coaching as their preferred tool for professional development in addition to industry-specific management and leadership training programs.
Mentoring Complete explains two reasons women have difficulty accessing mentors and why some women are reluctant to be mentors.
- Successful and highly powerful women may resist mentoring another woman for fear of creating a future competitor within the company.
- Since specific laws govern appropriate behavior in the workplace…
