In this episode, Kareem Perez, founder and executive director of The Tech Effect, dives deep into the power of mentorship as a critical strategy for attracting, onboarding, and retaining top talent in today’s fast-paced workplace. Drawing from his extensive experience in digital marketing, education, and talent development, Kareem explains why mentorship is more than a “nice to have” – it’s a must-have for organizations that want to build resilient, high-performing teams.
Kareem discusses the challenges of high turnover, the importance of purposeful onboarding, and how mentorship fosters belonging, trust, and professional growth. He shares practical advice for implementing mentorship programs, measuring their impact, and ensuring they are embedded in company culture, not just a one-off initiative. The conversation also touches on mentorship’s role in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and how both mentors and mentees benefit from these relationships.
- Mentorship is Essential: It’s not just a perk; mentorship is a strategic tool for talent retention, development, and organizational success.
- Structured Onboarding Matters: Go beyond checklists; integrate mentorship into onboarding to accelerate learning and build early engagement.
- Build Belonging and Trust: Mentorship reduces isolation, increases trust, and helps new hires feel seen and supported, especially in remote or hybrid environments.
- Mentorship Drives DEI: Effective mentorship programs support diversity, equity, and inclusion by increasing visibility and mobility for underrepresented talent.
- Measure What Matters: Track retention, promotion rates, and employee engagement to assess the real impact of mentorship initiatives.
- Mentorship Benefits Everyone: Both mentors and mentees grow—mentors stay engaged and sharpen their skills, while mentees gain guidance and confidence.
- Multiple Mentors, Multiple Benefits: Professionals should seek mentors both inside and outside their organization, and at different career stages.
- Culture Over Perks: Embedding mentorship in company culture leads to higher performance, lower turnover, and a stronger leadership pipeline.
About our guest:
Kareem Perez is the Founder & Executive Director of The Tech Effect, a Canadian career incubator that delivers mentorship programs, digital marketing education, and talent development. A recognized leader in digital marketing strategy and mentorship, Kareem has worked with brands, educators, and professionals to bridge the skills gap and help teams excel.
Find out more about and connect with Kareem:
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemperez/
- The Tech Effect: https://thetecheffect.ca/
Episode Transcript:
Emanuel: My name is Emanuel and I have the pleasure and the privilege to introduce Kareem Perez. Now, as I said, I met Kareem at another event from Toronto Marketing Hub, and I’m just gonna do a brief introduction,
Emanuel: Kareem is the founder and the executive director of the Tech Effect, a Canadian career incubator that delivers mentorship programs, digital marketing education and talent development, and he’s a recognized leader in marketing strategy, mentorship, and Kareem has worked with brands, educators, professionals to bridge the skill gap and help teams excel.
Emanuel: That being said,
Emanuel: Kareem,
Kareem: Thank you Emanuel. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it, brother. Thank you. How about some marketing for having me. And we’re gonna talk today about one of my topics that are near and dear to my heart and also to my professional experience, which is mentorship.
Kareem: So I have a slideshow as well. If you could just pull that up and then we will get started.
Kareem: Okay, perfect. Hi everyone. Welcome. Feel free to engage in the chat type, any type of questions or comments that you have. And, for the next 30 minutes, I’m just gonna dive into the topic of mentorship, why it’s important how it helps you to onboard and attract and retain talent.
Kareem: Which is very important, especially nowadays. With so much happening in the job market and just overall companies, you see a lot of transitions, a lot of turnover. So we’ll talk about, how mentorship plays a part into retaining and attracting high level talent. Okay, so before we do that thank you Emanuel, for the introduction, but again, my name is Kareem Perez.
Kareem: I have over 10 years experience in the digital marketing and communication space. So working for a few different agencies within the marketing space. Also consulting on my own. So I do a lot of consulting in the education and healthcare spaces. So I have a lot of experience working with agencies, helping them to grow, but also a lot of different marketing, digital marketing tactics in terms of client management strategy and execution.
Kareem: So I’m also founder of the Tech Effect, so Emanuel mentioned that as well. the Tech Effect is a upskilling organization. We do a lot of training we do a lot of workshops. We do a lot of upskilling, and essentially it’s to help people increase their professional value increase their knowledge and connect with people within the digital agency space.
Kareem: So check out the Tech Effect when you have a moment. The book that I’m working on is very timely to this discussion that we’re having today. It’s gonna be called “Mentorship is the New Leadership”, and essentially this is what we’re gonna be talking about today, why mentorship is important, how leaders and organizations should be implementing mentorship, not as just a nice to have, but as a necessity in terms of staying ahead, developing talent, and retaining that top talent.
Kareem: So I’m a big, I’m a big advocate for mentorship. I mentor a lot. And I have some mentors that have helped me along the way. And I just wanna shout them out at this time. Last but not least I do teach as well. So I teach search engine marketing at Concordia University and I also do a lot of workshops and courses through Jelly Academy as well.
Kareem: Two great programs to check out if you ever have the chance.
Emanuel: I would’ve started with this. I don’t know why it was the last thing like an obscure university. Concordia is probably one of the most well known universities in Canada.
Kareem: Yes. And if you need to connect with me, LinkedIn is the best place to do that.
Kareem: Send me a friend request or connect with me on LinkedIn. But you can also see the Tech Effect website at the bottom there. And my email as well if you want to connect with me directly. Okay, so today we’re just gonna dive into a few different topics all related to mentorship.
Kareem: So first we’re gonna talk about, mentorship as a talent and strategy. Why is that important for organizations and agencies to implement mentorship as a way to attract and retain talent. We’re gonna talk a little bit about purposeful onboarding. So what does that look like in terms of, once somebody joins the organization, how does mentorship play a key factor in that?
Kareem: And then building belonging and then measuring impact. So how do we start to take steps to understand, what is the actual impact of having a mentorship program and incorporating it into our everyday business practices. Okay, so why does mentorship matter? A lot of times organizations, they think about the bottom line, right?
Kareem: So how are we driving results? How are we getting new clients? A lot of leaders, they might think of progressing and getting their team to perform at a high level. But sometimes mentorship is, put towards the back burner or seen as a nice to have, not as a must have. Let’s think about why mentorship is important.
Kareem: The first thing is a lot of organizations, especially in the marketing spaces and the agency spaces turnover is really high. So you might have, a boost in new business. You’re gonna hire new talent, but then just as quickly as that talent joins the organization, they’re leaving for other opportunities.
Kareem: So the average tenure in marketing roles within the agency space is just 18 months, right? So if you think about that that’s a LinkedIn Workforce reports stat. One year and a half is how much time you have before top talent starts to look somewhere else and starts to think, maybe I should be working somewhere else.
Kareem: Maybe I should be getting opportunities elsewhere. Thinking about that, what does that look like? High turnover is just like marketing, right? Keeping a client. It’s gonna it’s gonna cost you less and it’s gonna be less work and cost you less in terms of revenue and time than it is to attract new customers.
Kareem: So it’s the same thing with mentorship and turnover where high turnover it costs agencies and organizations time, right? You have to look for new talent. You have to fill that role. You don’t have that con continuity with your clients. It costs money. So you’re gonna have to invest again, have people to retract and get that new talent.
Kareem: And then the biggest thing, time and money aside, is it cost momentum, right? So now you have a team internally, you have clients, you have people that are managing these teams and a part of these teams and managing these clients. And now you’ve lost that momentum. ’cause you need to get, that person has left and you need to find somebody new to fill their spot.
Kareem: So there’s like a gap that happens in terms of knowledge, transfer information, and just overall momentum.
Kareem: And then when it comes to, that burnout, so fast-paced deadlines, basically leave a little room for thoughtful onboarding or development. So when you’re burning through talent and you’re getting people onboarded, now you’re just trying to get them into the role, right?
Kareem: You’re just trying to get them active and get them participating versus having the time to actually onboard them mindfully and taking that time. So then the second thing is, gen Z and millennials are seeking purpose now. They’re seeking growth, they’re seeking connection. So it’s no longer a case of where, I’m working at an organization and just doing my job is enough.
Kareem: 80% of Gen Z want their work to be meaningful. So what does that mean? I wanna be able to grow. I want to be able to learn things. I want to be able to connect with senior leadership. And that’s exactly what mentorship helps with. And, as Emanuel alluded to a lot of times, we’re in organizations and we wanna grow and we wanna develop, but we just don’t have that support, right?
Kareem: So we don’t have somebody in the organization that’s mentoring us teaching us, bringing us to the next level. So if I can’t find it internally within the organization I’m in, I’m gonna start to look elsewhere.
Kareem: So most people now, they’re working for an organization. They’re not just looking for job titles, they’re looking for a growth pathway.
Kareem: How can I learn new skills? How can I meet new people? How can I develop not only doing the job, but how can I develop my professional development and my skills over time? And I want to have a organization that’s gonna help me do that.
Kareem: Okay, so then the last thing here is just around retention. Like a formula.
Kareem: So mentorship equals retention, right? So mentoring, you get to retain your talent, it increases your performance because essentially you’re developing that talent, so they’re gonna be better anyways. And this results in having a development culture where people are excited, people are interested, and people are getting better and they’re, gonna be willing to stay and very interested.
Kareem: If they are mentored. Mentored employees are five times more likely to be promoted.
Kareem: Okay, so let’s talk about mentorship as a talent strategy. What we want to do as a organization, what mentorship is gonna allow you to do, it’s gonna shift you from the sink or swim concept, to a actual structured support. I remember when I started working in the agency, there was a concept, it was called Baptism by Fire.
Kareem: Essentially, you’re not getting any training, you’re not really getting, you’re gonna get a quick crash course, I’m just gonna throw you in there and you’re just gonna learn. So it’s the concept of sink or swim. You get thrown into the deep end and now it’s up to you to figure it out.
Kareem: Now, a lot of us marketers and a lot of us professionals, we’re gonna figure it out, right? We’re gonna do the knowledge, do the research, and we’re gonna get to that point where we’re gonna succeed. Some of us may struggle along the way, and again, that’s the whole point of mentorship. It’s taking away that guesswork.
Kareem: It’s taking away that extra struggle, and it’s helping you to, reduce that struggle of sink or swim and then it’s gonna give you structured support that allows you to ask questions and develop over time. 70% of employees are more likely to stay if they’ve had a mentor. And in the early stage, supporting somebody in that early stage where they just joined the company basically leads to that stronger long time, longer term performance.
Kareem: So rather than having to figure things out on my own, now I have a structure around me that’s helping me to develop and basically ramp up sooner so that way I can start to have an impact and I can start to add value a lot faster. So again it also that structured mentorship. It lowers the learning curve and it reduces that early attrition.
Kareem: Rather than me having to figure things out on my own, now I have somebody that can guide me and teach me. And it reduces attrition because some people that, they’re not willing to learn on their own, or they’re just very confused or very overwhelmed, that’s when they start to look elsewhere and leave.
Kareem: Having that structured support is gonna make sure that people upskill and get onboarded a lot faster, but then they also, stay longer rather than thinking about leaving. Okay. Agencies with mentorship programs retain creatives longer, right? So people, organizations with formal mentoring see that, 20% higher retention rate because creativity, burnout, right?
Kareem: Or burnout drops when you feel supported, right? So in a lot of other conversations that I have, we talk about showing up. How can you show up in an organization? As yourself on a regular basis and perform at a high level if there’s nobody around supporting you. So if you have a question, who are you gonna call?
Kareem: If you need help, or if you’re not sure about something, who are you gonna call? So having that mentorship, when people feel supported, they get burned out slower, or they don’t burn out at all, and it just provides that supportive atmosphere that they need to, maybe four days out of the week, you’re doing great.
Kareem: That one day maybe you can’t, you don’t, you’re not feeling the best. You need that support. You need somebody to help guide you. That’s where the mentorship comes into play and supports, that overall burnout. And then.
Kareem: In terms of DEI, right and cross cross team support. Again, mentorship helps to retain and attract diverse talent. So you want to see that there’s other people that understand your story. You have a diverse set of leadership leadership, people who can support you along the way. It also helps to increase visibility and internal mobility for underrepresented voices, right? So again, if your talent is working in your organization, they don’t know what they don’t know, so they’re gonna do the best job they can. But of course, everybody wants to develop and grow. Everybody wants to succeed to the next level. So having a mentor to actually help you and, put your name in some of these opportunities.
Kareem: So if there’s a opportunity for a promotion or if there’s opportunity to launch a new software or be part of a new initiative, rather than having to advocate for yourself, now you have a mentor that can actually help increase your visibility, showcase some of your work for you and help you to, basically, move around internally, whether that’s into lateral roles or whether that’s up the ladder. And it just really builds that support and team cohesion across teams of different functions. So again, being able to ask questions, having mentors, they’re gonna help you navigate and go through different parts of the organization as you develop.
Kareem: So the key takeaway here is that, mentorship shouldn’t be a nice to have. You should treat it just like marketing. It’s intentional, it’s consistent and it’s strategic, right? So you want to have it implemented across different aspects of the organization. You always want to have it there.
Kareem: So it’s not just a one-time thing, but it’s always something that’s available and you want to be strategic on how you implement it.
Emanuel: I might interfere here and just add a couple of words because the subject is very important and very close to my heart. First of all, I believe that it’s not just in agencies and not just for marketing.
Emanuel: It applies perhaps to any field of business, trade, you name it, any kind of organization. To be honest and how important mentorship is. I came to Canada roughly 10 years ago, almost 10 years ago, and that’s where I understand what the difference mentorship can make. I was a mentee at the beginning and shared some of the knowledge I learned as a mentor further on, and it does make a difference.
Emanuel: And I would have paid, even paid to have a mentor, those struggling moments. And I can’t tell you how many managers or experts I’ve trained myself in the job that they were supposed to be doing because, just because that’s the nature of things. But I had to make that note here because this is so powerful.
Emanuel: Thank you so much. And you see me taking notes, I’m taking a lot of notes and I hope everyone does as well. And feel free to drop a question if you have or keep them towards the end. That’s it. Back to you.
Kareem: Thank you Emanuel. And yes, as you mentioned, applies to everything, even not even just organizations, but life in general.
Kareem: So mentorship is a key thing and part of our work and our research is around redefining mentorship. And, it’s not, again, just a senior mentoring a junior. It could be different skill sets. You really get a lot of benefits as a mentee and as a mentor as well. So thank you for that.
Kareem: Okay, so let’s talk about the onboarding process. So now you know, you’ve Okay. Implemented mentorship in terms of the key takeaway. So now, your organization wants to have mentorship front and center. So what does the actual onboarding part of that look like? So the first piece is, going beyond the checklist.
Kareem: It’s not around, just checking off, okay, did you get your computer set up? Did you have access to these trainings? And that kind of basic setup. It’s really about the cultural experience. So again, having a mentor, meeting different people. Introducing new hires to key storytellers within the organization, key mentors is gonna be, a lot more of a better experience rather than just giving them, here are the procedures, here are the checklists, this is how you log on, and so forth. So you want to go beyond that technical HR checklist, and you want to make sure that you introduce, tell them about the culture, let them meet people who have worked there before.
Kareem: Let them understand why people are still there. And just not only the procedures and the paperwork, but get them to understand what the culture is like and where they see themselves fitting in a long, over, long over time. And then just the statistic research shows that structured onboarding improves retention by 82%.
Kareem: Okay. And then we go into the first 30, 60, 90 days. In terms of mentorship and training, this is a big piece. So what is that onboarding experience that first 36 to 60, 90 days look like? Because essentially after that first 30 days, everybody starts off excited, right?
Kareem: They want to prove something. They just joined. They’re very excited. Usually after that first 30 days, that’s when they start to engagement starts to go down. So again, having a mentor, checking in, building that culture is gonna help. And really setting those clear goals within the first 90 days helps to drive that momentum and that accountability.
Kareem: So rather than just, again, having that sink or swim approach where somebody just figures it out on their own, you have a mentor and you have that onboarding process that helps them to define, okay, what are the goals for the first 90 days? What are the things that you should be focused on and how do we hold you accountable to make sure you’re doing them.
Kareem: Contrary to popular belief sometimes, no news is not good news, right? If you don’t hear from them, if they’re not asking questions, that could be a sign of they have nobody to talk to. They have no mentorship. So mentorship during this time helps to identify what those early strengths are, what are their growth areas?
Kareem: Again, you’re not just identifying them or letting them figure out what the next step is. No, you’re gonna foster those strengths to a mentor who knows the organization, knows some of the goals, knows some of the actual tactics and execution that is happening some of the day-to-day work. Now they can take that mentee and they can say, okay, this person is really good in these areas.
Kareem: Let’s get them to do some of these things and help us the organization that way. But at the same time, there’s gonna have gaps in growth areas. So how do we fill those in? How do we provide that training and development, that mentorship so that this person knows, even though they have gaps and they’re, they have areas of growth, they’re not on their own to figure those out, they feel supported.
Kareem: And then essentially mentors shorten the ramp up time, right? So pairing with mentors accelerates the learning curve, mentored employees reach full productivity really quickly, real time coaching accelerates creativity, confidence. So again, rather than having to figure it out or wait until a certain type of review, having somebody right there at that moment.
Kareem: They can coach me, they can mentor me. Now I’m gonna feel a lot more confident to come up with new ideas, make decisions, and add value, and then it reduces repeated mistakes or knowledge gaps from poor onboarding. So rather than learning something and doing it wrong and learning something and doing it wrong, or failing or not doing it the right way, now you have somebody that can help guide you and coach you, through that process, which essentially, reduces any type of mistake. So in this case, their takeaway is your onboarding should reflect the a agency’s brand, values, and culture. And that should make the person wanna stay and help them with the onboarding process. That whole onboarding process, it shouldn’t just be the checklist. It should definitely be more about what the culture is and how this person or this new talent is being ingrained into the culture, right? So you wanna understand the values and the culture.
Kareem: So the next, per the next piece around mentorship is about building belonging, right? So now from an organizational perspective. Mentorship is top of mind. It’s incorporated into our day-to-day conversations and processes. We’ve onboarded with mentorship in mind, so we’ve provided that support for the first 90 days, and then now it’s all about, how do we build that belonging?
Kareem: How do we get those talents to be bought into our culture and a part of our culture, not only necessarily a part of our culture, but how do we help them? How do we get them to help shape our culture, right? Because every person in the organization is gonna be part of the culture and how it develops. So we want to keep that in mind.
Emanuel: I’ll tap into this really quick. Perfect practice makes it perfect, not just practice makes it perfect, but perfect practice. It took me a while to understand this and to learn this. I learned it the hard way and for sure a mentor would have helped with not doing the work, unnecessary work. There’s a question here if you wanna address it right now, or…
Kareem: yeah, we can address it now. Address it now. Thanks. So that’s on the screen. I have to plug in my laptop ’cause it was dying. No problem.
Emanuel: How does firm assign experience employees as mentors for new employees fit into this idea? That’s from Kevin?
Kareem: How do firms assigning experience employees as mentors for new employees fit into this idea? Yeah, perfect. So again, that’s part of that onboarding experience. So normally when you join an organization, you’re gonna have, you’re gonna have your typical HR related things. You’re gonna have to put your name, your information, your pay, how are you gonna get paid, all of that administrative paperwork.
Kareem: So that’s gonna be step number one. Then you’re gonna have your. Procedures, right? So you’re, what are your operating procedures? That’s gonna be step number two in terms of, okay, this is how you log in, these are how you access our different platforms, and this is how you do the actual job. So part of the challenge with a lot of organizations is having the resources to do all of that, right?
Kareem: So you might say, okay, the HR person and the senior leadership are now overwhelmed ’cause they have to onboard all of these different people. Or they have to onboard people when they’re just coming up. That’s where you would lean on other experienced employees to support with the mentorship pieces.
Kareem: Your new talent, they have their HR related paperwork completed. They have access to all the documentation and the procedures that the organization needs to, move forward and do the job. But now you assign different experienced employees as mentors so that they can share their experience in different areas.
Kareem: So whether that’s, at the actual skill level in terms of navigating the day-to-day work, or navigating the day-to-day culture, you’re gonna have different experienced employees assigned to help and help integrate that new employee into the culture. Yeah, and that’s another way to keep those employees engaged as well.
Kareem: Because with mentorship, it’s not only the person who’s being mentored that is receiving the benefits. A lot of times when we’re in an organization or we’re at a senior level, part of staying in tune, part of staying keeping your skills sharp is teaching it and giving back and showing somebody.
Kareem: So that’s also another way to keep experienced employees engaged through developing and helping with the mentorship as well.
Kareem: Another one. Yeah, another one. So how much of the onus is on the employee to reach out to find their own mentorship versus what should be provided to them? Is it the responsibility shared? Is it dependent on the person to person?
Kareem: Okay. So I would say it’s, it depends on the person to person or the organization, but the way I see it is this.
Kareem: The onus is on the organization, in terms of our conversation today, attracting talent, developing talent, and performing as an organization. At a high level, the organization should be the one when somebody joins to provide them with mentorship throughout their duration. So when they start the onboarding process, we’re implementing mentorship there.
Kareem: And as you’re working there, over time you should be mentored. Now again, that doesn’t necessarily mean your boss or your leader is mentoring you. It could be cross-functional mentorship. It should be ingrained throughout the organization. Whereas, if I’m curious about something, if I wanna learn about it, I might not be in the IT department, but hey, I could talk to somebody in IT that could help me and guide me if I’m interested in learning more.
Kareem: So that’s from the organizational standpoint. Now when you asked about the onus on the employee to reach out and find their own mentorship, I believe that this is something that every professional should have in mind, and that mentor doesn’t necessarily work in the same organization, right? So a lot of times what happens is you do join an organization, and whether they do have that mentorship or not, there are topics, there are certain types of discussions that you basically wanna have outside of the workplace. So I’m a big advocate of whether you are looking for a new role or to upskill or to switch positions, or if you’re in a position, you should have a mentor also outside of the workplace that can help you to navigate some of the things that may be more personal or maybe more, a little bit more how do you say, like a touchy or subject, that you might not wanna raise internally. So that’s how I see it. The organization, if you want to keep talent and retain, you should definitely have mentorship ingrained into your culture. But as an individual, when you’re in an organization, you should seek that mentorship internally.
Kareem: But you should also have external mentors as well. So when I talked about earlier redefining mentorship. A lot of times mentorship is seen as, okay, I have one mentor that’s my mentor, that’s the person that’s helping me. That’s what mentorship is. Whereas what we teach at the Tech Effect, and we’re a big proponent of is.
Kareem: You should have multiple mentors, right? You can have an internal mentor for your organization. You can have one in your life, just your personal life. You should have one professionally outside of the organization that can help you. Redefining the concept of I don’t have to just have one mentor that’s senior to me.
Kareem: I can have a variety of mentors. And I think there’s another question.
Kareem: Great question. Thank you. In your experience, what are the common mistakes companies make when introducing mentorship for the first time? Really quickly, the first one is it’s usually the first time and the last, right? So they’re usually, bring it up, but they won’t really have that buy-in or that follow through.
Kareem: It might be, for example, a one-off training or a one-off part of the conversation, but it’s not actually ingrained into the organization. The second thing is, preparing the mentor and the mentee to get the most out of the relationship. So a lot, again, going back to the typical definition of mentorship, we all feel like we know what mentorship is and we know what to expect, but one of the biggest mistakes is making somebody a mentor and expecting them to know what to do, right? How often do you meet? How do you support that person? How do you push them to the next level? What are some things that you get them to do versus how you help them? So it’s really about equipping the mentor and the mentee to get the most out of the relationship.
Kareem: So I would say that would be, probably the biggest mistake is not having some type of guideline, some type of training to make the most out of being a mentor.
Emanuel: Excellent answers. I hope you save some questions for the end as well.
Kareem: Thank you. Okay, so let’s talk about building belonging, right? Trust is the number one predictor of team performance. If you’re, if you trust the company, you trust the team you’re working with, then you’re gonna perform at a high level.
Kareem: So trust is the number one predictor of team performance. And mentorship builds that trust, it reduces that isolation, right? How many times, especially now in a digital world where we’re online, right? When you’re in the office, it’s a little bit different ’cause you can talk to the person beside you.
Kareem: Hey. You know what, I’m about to run this campaign. I’m just a little confused right now. What would you do in this situation? But when it’s virtual, it’s even a lot more challenging. So that isolation is where, people are trying to figure things out on their own. Mentorship, builds connections and trust.
Kareem: It creates that open space for honest conversation and feedback loops. So feedback is another really big piece, right? Being able to give feedback, being able to receive feedback. This is gonna help to develop self-awareness and help people to strive and thrive within any role, whether they’re a leader or a mentee.
Kareem: So mentorship, it provides that forum, it provides that space for that conversation. The feedbacks over time without thinking that, now it’s my review and I’m gonna be in trouble, or I’m gonna be at risk in terms of my raise or my promotion, or anything like that. So mentorship, it keeps that conversation going rather than only having it at specific times.
Kareem: Employees with mentors report a lot more trust in leadership in general. It also helps new hires feel seen and supported, right? So again, most employee turnover happens within that first 30 to 60 days. Lack of connection is a leading cause of leaving, right? You join a company, they throw you into the deep end.
Kareem: You have nobody to talk to. You have nobody to ask questions. You’re feeling left out in a way. So that lack of connection can be avoided through mentorship and helping new hires to feel like, Hey, I’m important here. A lot of people are helping me, different departments, different type of learnings, different type of cultural insights.
Kareem: So that can help them feel, again, like they belong. And then, mentorship is gonna anchor new hires to relationships and support systems. So now I’m a new hire. I feel like, okay, if I have a question, I know I can go, I can ask somebody, I can talk to somebody.
Kareem: And then again, we all want growth.
Kareem: We all want that development and that ilu inclusion. So mentorship is gonna help with internal mobility, so moving around and then that over long-term development. So now I want to grow, I want to build my skillset. Do I have to go take a course somewhere else? Do I have to join another organization to do that?
Kareem: I might have to, unless the organization I’m with supports that development and supports that mentorship. So it’s basically strengthens that succession planning. Leadership pipeline. So now you’re developing people who be, can become senior managers. They can become leaders. Or even if they do leave, at least they’re gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and that support and that kind of runway for you to attract new talent, right?
Kareem: So somebody who feels left out, no mentorship, no development, they’re gonna get their new position two weeks and they’re gonna go, I have experience where one of my favorite mentees, we were working in the agency space. We did a lot of work together, helped do all of these same kind of principles in terms of onboarding and development.
Kareem: Two years later, she got a job at one of the big tech companies, Google, and essentially, it was a bittersweet ending to our relationship. What could I say, right? She developed, she got a great offer, but when she came she said, man, I really loved working here. I really loved that kind of working with you guys, but I’m going to Google.
Kareem: I can’t say no obviously. So it just builds that relationship so that when things do end, ’cause a lot of positions are not forever. But essentially you still maintain that relationship and that belonging. Belonging boosts creativity and collaboration, which is the key takeaway there.
Kareem: And then the last piece is really about measuring impact. As a organization we wanna know, if we do all of these things. Is it gonna work out? So you want to be able to track, retention rates before and after implementing the mentorship initiatives, right? So comparing retention rates of employees who have that mentorship versus not having that mentorship.
Kareem: How long have they stayed with the organization. You can also monitor time to promotion. So this is one of the biggest ones as well. I always tell mentees, in the beginning they’re very I don’t wanna say shy, but they’re very timid. They wanna make sure they’re doing all the work, they want to get accepted and they’re looking for that approval essentially.
Kareem: But once they do good work and they have that guidance and that mentorship, that’s when they’re start to get asked to do more, given more responsibilities and eventually get that promotion. So in my experience it’s gonna be somebody that’s mentored and developed and doesn’t have to figure it all on their own.
Kareem: Now they’re gonna be able to get promoted or fill the gap with higher level senior positions. So again, in my experience, you’re working with a client database. Say I have 10 to 15 clients, I’m a senior level account manager on those accounts, mentoring people to understand how to manage those accounts.
Kareem: Now I can transfer those accounts to them and I can remove myself from those accounts. So you’re gonna develop people and promote them along with that mentorship. And then of course you can use exit interviews for feedback when people are leaving as well. Surveys are good as well. So quick check-ins to help measure perceived support and engagement.
Kareem: So again, not waiting until it’s time to do a six month review or a one year review, but having these mentorship check-ins is a great way to say, Hey, how are you feeling? Are you feeling supported? Are you feeling engaged? Are you feeling supported in your growth? And actually a really cool story is, the agency that I was working with, that’s actually how I got into teaching and public speaking.
Kareem: Because when I was working in the agency, I realized that, okay, I want to do speaking. I want to do teaching and do more of the event style conversations around marketing. And when I came to them, they said, that’s amazing. We will actually help you. We’ll get you a speaking coach. We’ll help you build your profile.
Kareem: And that’s where I was like, whoa, I feel supported in this. I thought they were gonna be like why just do your regular job? But that helped me to grow within the organization and use that skillset to raise the profile of the agency. So surveys help to flag mentorship gaps early and just understand what that engagement looks like.
Kareem: And then the last one is sharing stories and outcomes internally. You wanna share stories, success stories to inspire buyer from leadership. Celebrate mentee and mentor milestones within team meetings. Sometimes. We don’t do it ’cause we’re not sure of what the impact is, but a lot of times what you’ll hear is mentors who mentor, right?
Kareem: Yes. It’s a lot of time and it’s a lot of energy, but man the type of rewarding feeling that you get from helping somebody in their journey is amazing. It might be a lot more work in the beginning, but if you can mentor and train them and upskill them within the organization, now you have a team of people who can do really good work and then the burden, you get less burden on yourself.
Kareem: So showing visible investment in people development is gonna really help to create that culture and that culture of impact. Of course, what gets measured gets managed. So it’s not like just doing it and say you’re doing it, but let’s highlight, what are the actual numbers, what are the actual results that we’re seeing from this mentorship.
Kareem: So a few really quick, easy ways to get started. Going back to that question, so you can launch that buddy system or a peer mentorship. I know preferred previously we’ve done random coffee chats where you’re matched with somebody and then you just, again, informational chat to get to know them.
Kareem: So pairing down like new hires with peers, not just senior staff, but it could just be other people within the organization that helps to build confidence and, again, offer that real time navigation of, okay, do we go out for lunch or do we stay in for lunch? Do we stay after work or do we just clock out at four o’clock. Just navigating some of those things you might not know. And this also makes it easier to scale across departments ’cause you never know, you might be in one department, but you wanna move and learn different things. And then an onboarding map with mentorship touchpoint.
Kareem: So again, a lot of organizations have their onboarding flow and their onboarding training, which includes, HR paperwork related stuff and procedure related stuff. So where does mentorship happen within there? It might not have to be every day, but maybe every 30 days, maybe every two weeks, right?
Kareem: Maybe there’s a project where somebody shadows gives feedback. Some of those one-on-ones, but again, make it visible in onboarding schedule. So this person knows, okay, I’m gonna do my paperwork, I’m gonna learn more about the day-to-day work, and then I’m gonna have an opportunity to, connect and talk to some people in the organization.
Kareem: And then training mid-level managers as mentors is a great way to develop people into leaders as well. So team leads are often the first culture touchpoint. So even if you’re a senior manager or a CEO, chances are you’re not really working directly with the new hire or the junior talent. So getting mid-level managers into the mindset of mentorship helps them to offer that, support and that culture on the front lines.
Kareem: And again, you teach them to coach, not just manage. So I’m mentoring, I’m supporting, I’m not just managing your day-to-day activities and what you should be doing, but, in order to get the most out of people and get them producing, you wanna understand not only what makes them tick professionally, but personally, right?
Kareem: So how do you coach them into trying new things? How do you coach them into, pushing things to the next level, but also how do you provide that support where if they’re stuck now they know, okay, I can ask this question and I can do things better. I might be doing things good, but I can improve and do it better.
Kareem: So a few final thoughts. Mentorship isn’t extra. It’s essential. So it’s not a nice to have, it’s a must have. It keeps your best people growing with you, not away from you, right? So over time they’re gonna be more inclined to give positive reviews to the organization, stay around longer if they have that mentorship incorporated.
Kareem: Again, if your culture doesn’t grow with your people, they’ll outgrow your culture. You want to embed people into your culture and help them to shape it, not just dictate what they should be doing. And it doesn’t require a big budget it just requires a little bit of intention.
Kareem: Follow up and follow through, right? So as long as you’re intentional and you incorporate it into some of your day-to-day activities, it doesn’t have to cost a lot, but when done right, it becomes a multiplier. So more trust, less turnover, better performing individuals and talent, and just like a better performing organization altogether.
Kareem: So that’s my time open to questions, but again, please connect on LinkedIn and yeah. The more that I talk about it, the more I know that, this is really important. Mentorship as a topic to be in, incorporated in organizations and lifestyles globally.
Emanuel: I was muted. Okay, there are questions first, Sabrina, then I’ll ask one. I have a question for you. Thank you.
Emanuel: Sabrina is asking, curious to, okay, curious,
Kareem: what defines top talents these days? What are the different ways this can look like? Okay, so top talent, I would say, you have the skillset, right? So somebody that could do the skillset at a high level. So whatever the output you’re looking for they can achieve that at a high productive level.
Kareem: But I would say the willingness to learn and grow is the biggest thing that defines top talent, right? So somebody who’s not necessarily good at what they do and stays there, but somebody that is willing to grow to the next level. So how do they do that? They do that through upskilling and mentorship, asking a lot of questions but also being willing to accept and apply feedback.
Kareem: So a lot of times some people or a lot of talents feel I’m doing the best I can or my, if I get. Critic. If I get critiqued about the work that I’m doing, then that means something’s wrong. But it’s really not about something being wrong, it’s just about how you can be 1% better every day and grow into better than you were yesterday.
Kareem: So that’s what I would say in terms of defining top talent these days and what that could look like.
Emanuel: My question was, if you wanna elaborate a little bit, what is the Tech Effect?
Kareem: Absolutely. Yeah. So the Tech Effect is a training and upskilling organization that provides marketing and technology training to individuals and organizations who are looking to basically keep up with the times, right?
Kareem: So whether you’re organization that provides, training to a group of individuals or your organization needs to be trained. We provide that training for you. And then we also have coaching and mentorship programs for individuals who are looking to advance their career. So if they’re looking to get a promotion, they’re looking to change industries.
Kareem: We provide coaching and mentorship programs and workshops to accelerate that process. Now, mentorship is a big piece of it because again, we feel like the skill is something you can learn a lot of different places. You can learn online, you can find out the skill, but who’s gonna help you to take that skill and leverage it within the industry to attract opportunities?
Kareem: That’s where the mentorship comes into play. So we do mentor matching, we do training and upskilling, and we also do events to bring community together.
Emanuel: Thank you so much. Sabrina has one more question, but I’ll let her or you take her and then I’ll make another comments ’cause I don’t have questions.
Emanuel: I have comments and opinions. Okay. Yeah. In my own notes I wanna make.
Kareem: In your opinion, what is the best plan for ROI and investment for onboarding training? I’m assuming it depends on the situation.
Kareem: Yeah, I think that it’s again, it’s a lot of what we talked about today. It’s about showcasing mentorship and talent development. So training is a part of the culture itself. So when you have people train them, onboard them, upskill them through training and mentorship early but I would say: people want to join organizations as well that have these things. So I would say you just have to, embed it as part of the culture. So it happens throughout the duration of the careers and the talents, careers within the organization, but showcasing that externally will help to reduce turnover, but also attract top talent as well.
Emanuel: I’m gonna read some of my notes here because I think they’re they’re interesting and I would like to know your comments on them as well. I wanted to say that Sabrina and I are both Toastmasters and inside your organizations once you join a club, you go through the HR work, right? Submit your application, pay your dues and all those things.
Emanuel: But you are also assigned a mentor. And that can make a huge difference in your development inside your organization. And of course developing those skills that you joined your organizations for: leadership, public speaking and so forth.
Emanuel: And that’s something that I’ve learned within that organization. And I’ve applied and support any other, when I say organization, it’s mostly companies like private companies that, that I work with. So that’s something worth mentioning. Are you aware of any other major organizations who actually have these embedded in their process and would like to give examples?
Emanuel: If you wanna give names?
Kareem: I don’t have any clear examples to give.
Emanuel: I see another question again from Delia. If you wanna address that, we’ll still have a couple of minutes, so we should be good with time.
Kareem: Shouldn’t be extra, but are there specific skills that a business owner should look for when training and assigning mentors?
Kareem: Yeah, that’s a really good question. Are there specific skills that business owners should look for when training and assigning mentors? Again, that you wanna have a mentor is gonna guide somebody to go where they want to go. So you want them to have that firsthand experience of being in that role.
Kareem: From a skillset perspective or a job position perspective. So that’s one thing. The other thing is looking at the cultural experience, right? So sometimes it’s the diversity element where, I’m looking for a leader that could understand my upbringing, my culture, my perspective as well.
Kareem: So the other part is diversity in terms of thought and experience. So I would think those are the two things. And then the last thing, which is probably the biggest is curiosity, right? People who are interested in not sticking with the status quo, but they’re interested in being curious, asking questions, and learning new ways to do things.
Kareem: So whether I’m a mentee or I’m a mentor, I want to be asking a lot of questions. And I want to be thinking of new ways and new perspectives on how to do things rather than just stuck in a bubble or stuck in my way of doing things. So flexibility and curiosity as well.
Emanuel: And before we go to Kevin, which put in a really great comment, I would like to mention, and I think you would touch on this, the importance of having different mentors at different stage of your career and with different different topics. It can be one of the hobbies or a side hustle or side business that you are invested in and you can jump on board for mentorship and reach out.
Emanuel: And I rarely found someone, if I was turned down is because they didn’t have capacity and time, but willingness. I never sense that, nobody, that those person that I reach out to didn’t wanna didn’t wanna help me in terms of mentoring me.
Kareem: Kevin left two so just two really quick points on that.
Kareem: Yeah, a lot of people do want to help, right? So that’s the key, but. What I find is I mentioned earlier is having a guidelines or if somebody’s gonna mentor, having a framework so that they know how to mentor rather than just throwing them in there. And part of that framework is ending the relationship, right?
Kareem: So sometimes it’s, you’ve been my mentor for a year, two years. When you met me, I was just starting off in the industry. Now I’ve grown, so maybe like you mentioned Emanuel, the next step is, we’ll still be friends and we’ll still be associates and colleagues, but maybe you need another mentor or somebody else now to take you from, second base to third base, essentially.
Kareem: Rather than the person you’re always with. So part of it is, what are we trying to accomplish here and what does the ending of this mentorship relationship look like?
Emanuel: Actually, my next note was the goal is somehow to move along and to graduate, not outgrown, as you said, but to graduate and contribute further.
Emanuel: Yeah. It’s good when the bird flies from the right. It’s time to fly. Exactly. Exactly. And Kevin made a really interesting comment.
Emanuel: For those who are listening and not watching Stanford University, or at least some parts of it, assign student mentors. I know this because that’s how Google founders met. One was assigned to mentor the other. That turned out fairly well. One last thing I had noted here, actually two agenda, usually in any mentorship relationship mentee that during those meetings, it’s good to have an agenda or at least I had.
Emanuel: Some sort of an agenda. Even this webinar has an agenda. There’s some method behind the madness, and I believe that’s also something important.
Emanuel: Before we end this call, I would like to make one last note: this webinar today has represented Premier, a couple of premieres in any way, but I would like to highlight one very important not for these how also marketing webinars, but for all the webinars that I’ve attended for the past two years or so.
Emanuel: I think no one mentioned ai, to be honest. So far and in this context it’s hard to insert. But given the paradigm that we’re in, and obviously it influences and it’ll influence our lives careers more and more. What are your comments on this Kareem AI and mentorship or mentorship in the AI paradigm?
Kareem: Oh, that’s a good one. That’s a good one. I haven’t given stuff. Yeah, I haven’t given it too much thought from that angle, to be honest. But I think that just like we said of having multiple mentors now you could have a, you could have a AI mentor as well.
Emanuel: Enhanced and perhaps, actually that’s the only thing that will remain human to human, the relationship between mentor and mentee, because AI will be pretty good at doing the stuff that we do. And then what? What’s in it for us, right? If we don’t end up in a scenario similar to Matrix, where we are used for fuel, then it’s gonna be the relationships, the communities mentor mentee groups, attending webinars such as this. Because at the end of the day, that’s what I’m trying to build with how both marketing: a community of peers to turn to each other for questions, for stuff.
Emanuel: It came from my own struggle, right? I wish I had somebody to ask. Instead of spending two days or two hours researching something and learning a totally different set of skills, just because I had to come up with a solution for a client or for my work. I would have loved to get the answers sooner rather than later.
Emanuel: That being said, thank you so much Kareem, for taking the time to put together this wonderful presentation. Recording will be available. Thank you everyone who have joined. Any final thoughts? Any final message for our audience and the ones that will be watching the recording?
Kareem: That’s it. Thank you for your time.
Kareem: Thanks for having me. How about some marketing Emanuel, really appreciated. If you don’t have a mentor or if you’re not mentoring anybody, go out. Don’t be shy. Be curious and find somebody. And I guess my last thought is if you don’t mentor, then you can’t go on vacation. Because if you are doing all the work and you’re not actively teaching somebody and showing somebody how to do what you do, then you really don’t have a succession plan.
Kareem: You can’t leave the office. You have nobody to fill your shoes. So I would say invest in people. It’s great to have material things. Material things come and go, whereas people, you develop them, they’ll be there to support you and to fill your shoes and to support you when you need help.
Kareem: So the give and take philosophy, if you have something to give it. And if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask and take. But again, connect with me on LinkedIn. Thank you so much for having me. And I appreciate your time today.
Emanuel: Nothing to add to that. Just go to howaboutsomemarketing.com. Make sure you sign up for the newsletter, make sure you register for the upcoming webinars.
Emanuel: And over there you will see links to the previous recordings of the previous webinars including this one. Thank you so much everyone for joining and we’re gonna end the live stream as well. Right now.
