Reverse mentoring in companies: “The world upside down”?

Do you know reverse mentoring? This training method, based on the exchange of skills between employees of different generations… In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of reverse mentoring and give you an overview of current practices..
Prêt à inverser les rôles et à découvrir le monde à l’envers ?

“The World Inside Out”. How many times have we heard this interjection without necessarily associating any meaning or answer behind this fatalistic statement? While it can enliven Sunday lunches in the private circle on various themes, this observation of the “world upside down” is increasingly anchored around the “digital revolution”, identified as a clash of values between the old and new worlds.

It is clear that the emergence of increasing digitalization of our tools and operating methods has a direct impact on the professional world. A study carried out by the Institute for the Future and Dell technologies shows that 85% of jobs in 2030 have not yet been invented.
As for skills, they are proving to be increasingly obsolete, as they are no longer in line with new business standards.
In other words, the emergence of new businesses is leading to the rapid evolution of new skills. It is therefore up to companies to ensure that their staff’s skills are upgraded or retrained in the years to come.

So, rather than asking “ Why is digital devouring the world? ” as the Wall Street Journal headlined in 2011, if we were more interested in knowing “ how can we support these changes? “. Traditional training alone will not be enough to keep up with this movement and we need to invent other ways of learning. In this respect, reverse mentoring, the most successful expression of the social learningappears to be one possible answer.

What is reverse mentoring?

In 1999, the concept of the “ reverse mentoring “(in French reverse mentoring “) was born within the American conglomerate General Electric. Its chairman, Jack Welch, obliged his 500 top managers to choose “mentors”, but with one instruction: these mentors must be chosen from among the youngest employees of the company. The objective: to help managers develop their technological skills, inspired by the new generations.

Unlike traditional mentoring, then, the reverse mentoring consists in reversing the system by placing the experienced manager in the position of apprentice, and the recently-arrived junior in the position of coach. The starting point is simple: each party has a gap in their knowledge base (in the broad sense) that can be filled by the strengths of the other.

reverse mentoring is thus a system of reciprocal learning, giving rise to a win-win relationship:

• It saves precious time for managers and more experienced leaders by helping them discover new digital tools and trends in a concrete, quick and focused way. They also have a fresh look at the company and a vision of the technologies of the future that can enrich their decision-making.
• On the junior side, becoming a mentor and having access to privileged exchanges with managers higher in the hierarchy represents, beyond the constitution of a first professional network, a mark of confidence and an important source of motivation and commitment.

The reverse mentoring is to encourage the mutual exchange of knowledge, skills, contacts and worldviews between young employees and experienced managers. Thus, it brings a new dimension by distinguishing qualification from competence.

Indeed, if reverse mentoring is based on a classic form of intergenerational transmission of knowledge (the mentoring), it hijacks it, since here the mentor is the least experienced in the company. As for the mentee, he’s a senior. It is in this sense that reverse mentoring is a paradigm shift, as digital expertise is no longer recognized by a diploma, but by a skill.

But beyond this win-win relationship between mentors and mentees, it’s really the company that emerges victorious from the deployment of reverse mentoring on several counts.

To anticipate the recruitment challenges of tomorrow, it is essential to develop solid adaptation strategies. In our dedicated article, find out more about keys to adapting as a recruiter and remain effective in a constantly changing environment.

What are the benefits of reverse mentoring?

In an ever-changing world, companies have to constantly adapt to new developments. new technologies and new business standards to stay competitive.
By encouraging the exchange of knowledge and skills between generations, reverse mentoring enables companies to develop unique competitive advantages.

reverse mentoring :

• Accompanies the transformation of the company through the acculturation of employees to digital
• Participates in the intergenerational transmission of skills
• Promotes interdisciplinary cooperation within the company
• Can be a tool for discovering future talent among mentors
• Helps strengthen its employer brand
• Rely on the company’s internal strengths
• Break down the “silos” by establishing pairs that would not necessarily have crossed paths in their activities.

Reverse mentoring is a key factor in corporate transformation, as it helps to involve all employees in the change process, and to boost the organization’s agility and competitiveness.

Reverse mentoring and professional training

Reverse mentoring is part of a broader trend in professional training : social learning.
This collaborative learning approach encourages theexchange of knowledge and the pooling of skills , so that everyone can learn from the experience of others.

” Reverse mentoring, revealing current developments in business and vocational training “.

Reverse mentoring is a concrete example of social learning, as it enables a more experienced employee to learn new skills from a younger employee more at ease with new technologies. This training approach is particularly well suited to the fast-moving world of work, where the skills required can change rapidly.

With the latest health crisis, employees are increasingly looking for ways to upgrade their skills in order to renew and adapt. Companies must therefore innovate in the area of training to respond to these searches and continue to attract and retain talent. In our dedicated article, discover innovative ways to support your employees in their professional development.

By adopting a social learning approach, a company can promote the skills development of all its employees and improve its ability to adapt to change.
Reverse mentoring is therefore much more than just a training method: it’s a catalyst for change within the company, helping to transform the challenges of professional evolution into opportunities for development.

Overview of current reverse mentoring practices in France

Flexible, inexpensive and efficient reverse mentoring programs are steadily expanding within companies. Recently, Danone, Orange, Accenture, IBM, Axa and the SNCF have set up their programs. As diverse as their sectors are, these companies all have the same ambition:

• Support the digital transformation of the company by drawing the attention of the leaders on the subject and by helping them to better understand the phenomenon
• Extend the digital transformation to the entire company by involving the team
• Decompartmentalize the generations to turn the intergenerational gap in its favor

However, if the ambitions are common, each company has adopted its own strategy to deploy a program that makes sense. As an innovation manager from these companies told me:

” Reverse mentoring should never be seen as a corporate directive but as a program that everyone should take ownership of. To each his own reverse mentoring experience “.

Everyone can see that the deployment of reverse mentoring will have a different resonance, whether you work for a major IT group, a service provider or a leading food manufacturer.
Company environment, values andculture determine the methodology of deployment of reverse mentoring.

By way of example, the question of how to select mentors varies from company to company.
While in an ESN, it’s perfectly possible to imagine a matching application between a mentor and a mentee developed in-house, other more industrial companies will need to frame the program using skills evaluation grids. mentors to ensure better casting.

Conclusion on reverse mentoring in companies

By enabling employees to learn from each other and from develop new skills, the Reverse mentoring promotes business adaptability and resilience in the face of rapid market change.
In addition, the reverse mentoring can be integrated into a transformation project as a key element of a comprehensive skills development strategy and corporate culture.

However, the reverse mentoring is above all a matter of context.
Breaking down hierarchical ways of thinking, changing the paradigm according to which experience determines competence, and the advent of an era of “working together” and “teamwork” are all part of this. professional collaboration in networks, lays the foundations for its exploitation.
However, it is necessarily embedded in a corporate culture and context, which means that no single reverse mentoring program is like no other.
On the contrary, every company has its own reverse mentoring which it must appropriate at the right moment.

To take full advantage of the potential of reverse mentoring, it’s important to frame the practice properly and support it with appropriate communication and coaching. SQORUS, a Council specialized in digital transformation, is used to supporting companies of all sizes and in all sectors, thanks to its LAB, which constantly monitors the latest developments in the field. innovations. Do not hesitate to contact us to discuss it.