How Reverse Mentoring Can Lead to More Equitable Workplaces

To foster more diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout sectors, we need to rethink the traditional mentor/mentee relationship and give authority to younger colleagues who will understand bias and racial dynamics in a unique way.

Since formal research began on mentoring during the 1980s, it has changed. Mentoring is different from other work-related activities such as education, growth, management of projects among others where it first started between two individuals having different levels of expertise and prestige occasionally initiated by either. Mentorship has been made obligatory by organisations in recent times.

According to the Journal of Management (2010), mentoring is a balancing act between “coaching, advice, feedback, encouragement & emotional support” with the latter being critical. To be clear about this a mentor differs greatly from a sponsor. A sponsor lacks any kind of personal or material stake in the success of their mentee unlike mentors who have no financial interests in their protégés. According to Catherine McLaughlin Senior Fellow at Mathematica “a mentor is seen as an individual that can be emulated by the [mentee]” whether professionally or personally. It often takes people less effort to look forward into their future professions through somebody’s eyes higher up compared with those who don’t see themselves reaching top-level management.

One business justification for mentoring is helping people would otherwise find it difficult to ascend to senior management positions. This strategy often transcends firm boundaries for the purpose of building personal relationships among people involved. For example according to McLaughlin’s study on academic mentoring relationships must also share commonalities between mentors and mentees: “There needs to be some comfort level…” The conversation about “those barriers…,” should take place within secured space because neither of these mentorship programs nor their supervisors are able yet willing to discuss fearlessly many other important issues associated diversity or prejudice related stuff like that!

Cultivating Belonging

In 2018, the UK saw 253,000 immigrants join its workforce. Today, workers at every level of experience are in more diverse, multicultural workplaces than ever before. Out of a population of 66 million people, approximately 14 percent of England’s working-age demographic (98 percent) is Asian or Black. The figure is close to 40% for certain cities such as London and Birmingham.

These workspaces have gotten more diverse but not closer to becoming communities. This environment is so white bro culture that has emanated from white male controlled and led spaces which permeates many corporations globally ]. According to Farah Elahi who serves as a trustee at The Runnymede Trust, a race equality think-tank this culture has “a significant negative impact on people’s mental health” if they feel unwelcome at their workplace. Businesses suffer from psychological effects of these exclusions. Low productivity rates and retention levels coupled with shrinking possibilities for company employees that endorse it through positive word-of-mouth or even acting as brand ambassadors can be prone to poor mental health conditions.

At this time, mentoring needs to happen or more importantly, before it does. In an effort to create inclusion and a sense of belonging in the workplace, formal mentoring programs seek to ensure that people are made welcome when they arrive and supported beyond the limits of professional conventions. While development as well as pastoral care are included within mentoring processes, these are not typical leadership training exercises hence greatly transforming diversity balance at the top level management. The Harvard Business Review conducted a survey in 2016 which found out that organisations having targeted mentorship programmes for specific identity groups had a net positive result including an 18% increase in the number of black women holding leadership positions, 23.7% increase for Hispanic women on those roles and 24% increase for Asian women.

However, companies that can support their younger workers through their career difficulties and personal issues still lack enough representation to make a difference higher up the ladder. White people dominate most professions such as journalism, finance, law and architecture; as per The 2020 Campaign’s aspiration of not having any all-white executive boards among FTSE100 companies in Britain by that year. Organisations tend to have very small pools of good candidates internally because mentees are often expected to “find” mentors themselves. To be effective diversity mentors must reverse this responsibility.

Revamping Mentorship Norms

When an organisation is structured hierarchically, traditionally it is only the mentor who has power over the mentee. However if we want mentoring to promote diversity equity and inclusion throughout various professional fields we have to reconsider what power means between these two parties involved in this relationship. Reverse Mentoring employs reciprocal exchange model towards reimagining this aim. It is hierarchical and based on age such that young less experienced employees teach older more senior employees professional lessons aligned with their age groupings within work setting only (Blommaert & Dong 2012). Younger peers also tend to know about current social and cultural trends more, as well as being familiar with today’s fast paced business technology. On the other hand, younger employees are more diverse in terms of race and ethnicity compared to their older counterparts who were raised in a globalised world which was less diverse. The Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) in UK is one such pioneer that has reverse mentoring where ethnic minority staff members teach unconscious bias and racial stereotypes to their white colleagues. Reverse mentoring programs like those operated at FCO have allowed the conversation to go across demographics and to affect organisational culture.

Reverse mentoring as diverse mentoring can overcome traditional obstacles that prevent minority advancement at workplaces based on race. The power dynamics inherent in the traditional model of mentoring foster a sense of community, increasing social proximity among coworkers. It is this human connection that holds promise for greater fairness in future.