What is the investment and what is the return on investment?

(discussing traditional mentoring)

First, it is a voluntary investment of both sides, however it is low: In average it is a one hour talk per month. Plus

• for the mentee half an hour to prepare the meeting and half an hour to reflect afterwards (process learnings), plus about one hour for the induction briefing and some readings.
• for the mentor one to two hours induction

And what about the return of investment?

• Mentee: “You invest one hour and get four back J». Of course, mentoring is done that the mentee improves, so the invested time should be more then saved through improvement and less mistakes. There’s no guarantee, but stop a mentoring when you think you have no return on investment. Further see the benefits for mentees: “Why should I became a mentee”
• Mentor: Evaluations show that beside the “obvious benefits” such as gain recognition and a sense of fulfilment as well as to develop skills in listening, questioning and giving feedback, that mentors state that they enjoy to have some quiet reflection time in busy times and that they learn as well.
• Organization: Mentoring is one of the most effective (and cheap) staff development methods.