The human resources development through mentoring: The Spanish case

Abstract

Purpose: Mentoring is a practice to encourage the development of human resources increasingly used by companies. However, research on the subject still presents many aspects that have not been sufficiently addressed. Thus, the aim of this study is analyze the effects of this practice and its benefits in individuals and businesses, exposing a series of practical guidelines for its use to be effective. Then, we proceed to contrast the previous approaches, analyzing the impact of mentoring on performance, both organizational and individual levels in a sample of Spanish companies. The results show that there is a direct causal relationship between the use of mentoring programs and growth of the company and its human capital.

Design/methodology: Following the theoretical approach we proceed to test the hypotheses using structural equation methodology and confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement scales.

Findings: The results show the existence of a causal and direct effect of the implementation of mentoring and businesses performance. This validated the theoretical approaches formulated and contribute to a deeper understanding of this practice, its conditions of effectiveness and benefits of the company.

Practical implications: Mentoring begins with the incorporation of the protégé (an employee with capacity for promotion and improvement and his career plan includes the use of this technique). From this moment, the next step is to choose a mentor, usually someone more experienced and knowledgeable about the organization. Much of the success of mentoring is based on the proper choice of the mentor, must be analyzed so thoroughly, so that the mentor-mentee pair has affinity, trust and develop in a climate. On the other hand, helps to provide mentoring and socializing new employees, as the mentor acts as a transmitter of knowledge and information about the company culture, values, norms, strategies, prepares professionals coming or for other countries, improving adaptation and knowledge of the country's pupil involved in the mentoring process, get ready to rise to positions of increasing responsibility in the company, according to their career plans and strategy of the organization.

Originality/value: This work enables the advancement in knowledge of mentoring in business and provides empirical evidence of its usefulness to staff of human resources.