Diversity in the workplace is extremely valuable – provided of course that all of the members of your team are making a strong contribution and are willing and able to learn from what others have to offer. After all, workplace diversity brings together those with different levels of education and experience; workplace diversity allows those who are fresh out of school to work alongside those who have had industry experience for a number of years and enables women in the workplace to contribute to the company by offering a different prospective along with the work that they put in.



There are some challenges that have been faced by companies instituting workplace diversity programs in the past. Generation gaps have led to conflict when young staffers are promoted to a position of authority over those who have been with the company for a period of years; likewise, though it happen less frequently these days than it once did, generation gaps have created challenges for women in the workplace as well. Fortunately, putting a mentoring program into place allows boundaries to be crossed – and allows everyone to take advantage of workplace diversity.

A mentoring program can have a dramatic impact on the way that businesses operate. When a company puts a mentoring program into place, a wide variety of benefits are realized. These benefits include, but are not limited to:

1. With a mentoring program in place, all new hires are paired with those staff members who are more experienced and who have been doing the job for a while. As a result, relationships are forged and newer team members feel welcomed and are able to learn the job quickly.

2. With a mentoring program in place, all staff members are in a position in which they will be able to work with others; a mentoring program encourages everyone on a business staff – regardless of age, gender, education or race – to work within their level of experience and to do the best job possible.

3. With a mentoring program in place, businesses will find that their employees are constantly learning new skills and finding that they are able to take on additional tasks, eventually growing into higher level positions.

In other words, when businesses put a mentoring program into place, what they quickly discover is that they are in a position to have staff members working together and that a workplace team is forged; because of this, there is a greater level of job satisfaction, a higher level of employee retention and an increased opportunity to promote from within. Because everyone on staff is a member of the team and will be working closely with others, there is less room for judgments and criticisms, less likelihood for assumptions to be made and workplace diversity is more readily acceptable.

With a mentoring program in place, workplace diversity is able to thrive – as are all of the employees on your team. A mentoring program helps to erase the imagined boundaries between members of your staff and creates a work environment that everyone will be able to benefit and grow.

Copyright 2008, Cecile Peterkin. All rights reserved.