Editorial

The Vast Power of Mentoring

The many benefits of mentoring have long been understood by those who partake in that important practice. Any time adults can use their knowledge, experience, and compassion to help guide young people through the challenges they’re facing — and will encounter in the years to come — good things usually happen.
But MassMutual is taking this time-honored tradition a big step further with a new and somewhat unique mentoring model that we believe has vast potential to become a blueprint for other companies to follow, as well as a method for keeping more of this region’s young talent in the 413 area code.
As explained in the story beginning on page 6, this model, part of the company’s broad Career Pathways program, takes a traditional mentoring initiative and adds an important career element to it. The initiative pairs young people from high schools literally across the street from MassMutual with successful professionals who can provide needed assistance with challenges ranging from the SATs to nailing an interview for a part-time summer job. Moreover, it introduces them one of the region’s largest employers — and a host of career opportunities.
The philosophy behind this program is fairly simple, but the implications are far-reaching. MassMutual employees donate their time, energy, and experience to the task of keeping talented young people on the right path through the challenging last three years of high school, and, in doing so, they are possibly grooming employees for the immediate future, a time when companies large and small will face the daunting task of replacing retiring Baby Boomers.
It looks good on paper — even if it’s not officially down on paper yet — and we’re confident it will look good in reality, although we really won’t know that for some time.
For now, all the signs are quite positive, and it appears that MassMutual has fashioned a program — carried out in conjunction with Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Springfield School System — that will likely have many long-term benefits for the company and the region as a whole. This is an initiative worth emulating for those who have the resources and inclination to do so.
Start with the mentoring component. As we said at the top, this is an all-important exercise in this region, especially in urban centers where young people may not have many — or any — adults in their lives who act as effective role models and push them to reach higher, graduate from high school, and attend college. Many companies in this region encourage their employees to act as mentors and provide them with the time and flexibility needed to carry out those duties, and we applaud them for their efforts.
The MassMutual model adds a career-development component that could be of great benefit to this region at a time when we keep hearing two phrases — ‘skills gap’ and ‘brain drain.’ The first is used by companies that are having a difficult time finding qualified employees to fill open positions, and the second is used by economic-development leaders as they lament the number of area college graduates who leave this area to pursue a career in their chosen field.
Through this kind of career-pathways mentoring, employers can introduce young people to their companies and future jobs, motivate them to do the hard work that’s needed to attain those careers, and perhaps help build a workforce for the future.
MassMutual’s mentoring program recently won an award from the Mass. Mentoring Partnership for its success — and its vast potential. If all goes as expected, there will be even greater rewards down the line.