Why not capitalise on the many advantages provided by mentoring?

This practice is gaining more and more traction as it offers a tailored and effective solution to various workplace issues. Nevertheless, in order for it to take place under optimum conditions and to succeed, mentoring, which tangibly leverages the transmission of knowledge, must be subject to specific oversight. 

Mentoring is very infrequent in the French civil service for a variety of reasons (time spent is not always acknowledged and there are still problems in pinpointing the benefits). It is however being mainstreamed in a number of countries (1) that consider it a solid means of supplementing skills acquired through training.

To help improve integration, a course has been introduced in Sweden for newly-hired executives. It lasts for six months and has a dual goal: to raise awareness of diversity in the public sector (highest rate in the EU) and to familiarise other nationalities with government practices. The mentors are incumbent executives with personal experience of this situation.

Israel is taking a similar approach. Mentors, who are different from the line managers, are involved from an earlier stage, before the person takes up his/her position and for one year thereafter. They are provided with a monitoring instrument to manage the four support stages that they will progressively handle and assess.

In both Austria and Ireland, targeted programmes aim to encourage more women to take up management positions. Interministerial networks have been formed to actively buttress career development. Each member commits to personally help an applicant to outline her personal career path.

The mentoring chosen by Portugal is geared towards developing innovation and leadership. On a voluntary basis, the system allows civil servants to be assisted by experienced professionals from diverse sectors with an eye to gaining fresh knowledge and bolstering individual capabilities.

To build these bridges on top of existing structures, the Belgian Federal Public Services have introduced cross-cutting mentoring. The premise is straightforward: a civil servant assumes responsibility for and advises a colleague from another organisation who is looking to move forward with his/her career. As the two parties do not necessarily carry on the same occupation, the primary result is an exchange of practices.

Even if there is a framework, it is not always simple to find an ad hoc partner. In the United Kingdom, an app puts civil servants looking for a mentor in touch with those who are offering to share their skills with a colleague. Setting up a profile is deliberately limited to providing essential information and LinkedIn users can also import certain data (identity, position and location, areas of expertise). Along the same lines, in South Korea, the e-Saram HR information system has a functionality that allows managers to identify pairs.

Usually, we imagine that mentors are older employees but young people may also be called upon to help their elders to familiarise themselves with new resources. In the United States, this reverse mentoring is gaining ground. A number of federal agencies, such as NASA, have taken the plunge and their senior executives are now benefitting from this assistance.

Young pensioners can also use the model to ease their transition to retired status. In Lithuania, for instance, they are offered mentoring contracts with a maximum two-year term when they agree to pass on their know-how. They are both more readily available and able to supplement their pensions.

¹ According to the most-recent “Government at a Glance” report published by the OECD in 2019, 11 of 36 OECD countries use coaching and mentoring.