To kick off the new year, Flagship is celebrating National Mentoring Month – established by MENTOR and the Harvard T.H. School of Public Health in 2002 to amplify, encourage, and strengthen mentorship within businesses, schools, and other communities.
MENTOR is a non-profit organization created to expand opportunities for young people by leading a youth mentoring movement and serving as an expert on quality mentoring.
As companies of all sizes and industries look for meaningful ways to engage their employees, many – including Flagship – have turned to mentoring. The corporate sector plays a major role in ensuring that younger generations are engaged and prepared for the 21st century workforce.
Research shows that when companies support mentoring, not only do employees mentor more, but even those who do not mentor contribute to the movement by donating their resources, skills, or voice.
MENTOR has also found that employees who work for a company that cares about mentoring are simply happier with their jobs and think highly of their employer.
Mentorship in the Facilities Maintenance Industry
Organizations everywhere are struggling to retain skilled workers, as more young professionals opt to perform knowledge work, and older workers enter retirement.
Without the expertise of skilled workers, facilities would fall into disrepair and become unsafe, unsanitary, unpleasant places to be. This underscores just how important it is to preserve their wisdom.
Mentorship programs are one of the most effective ways to organize, capture, and distribute institutional knowledge – especially in facilities maintenance environments where tacit knowledge is prevalent.
A good mentorship program is mutually beneficial; the mentee learns more about the profession, while the mentor gains new perspectives and teaching skills by working with the mentee.
Most importantly, mentorship programs help junior employees improve their hard and soft skills and prepare them for a future in the changing facilities maintenance industry.
Flagship’s Approach to Mentorship
At Flagship, we recognize the value of mentorship within our organization and across the facilities maintenance industry at large. This year, we are launching the Flagship Academy Ambassador (FAA) program, which uses a “train-the-trainer” framework to transform employees into experts who can provide guidance to other members of the organization.
Ambassadors – both in the field and at the corporate level – will be trained to teach new hires and less-experienced employees about the industry as well as Flagship processes, procedures, and expectations.
FAA relies on the Lominger competency model – a talent management system that assesses 67 competencies focused on basic leadership and talent management.
The program will focus first on teaching personal and interpersonal skills, including communication, listening, and empathy. Flagship has plans to expand the course to focus on other competencies in the future.
Meanwhile, Flagship’s trade school partnership program has grown to include more than 30 partner institutions and reach hundreds of students pursuing careers in facilities maintenance since it was launched in 2022.
Flagship aims to build relationships with students, graduates, alumni, and staff at participating trade schools and match them with career opportunities at client sites across the U.S.
Through initiatives like FAA and the trade school partnership program, Flagship is proving that facilities maintenance jobs are some of the most rewarding available today.
Because the demand for workers is so much greater than the supply, facilities careers typically offer fair pay, good benefits, and long-term stability.
Flagship is proud to provide its employees with meaningful work, opportunities for advancement, mentoring, and more.
Send us an email to find out what our talented employees can do for you.
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