In celebration of the UK’s Black History Month, Taboola’s employee resource groups (ERGs) TaboolaInCulture and Taboola Black are running multiple initiatives in the UK, such as a“Proud to be Black in Tech”fireside chat between UK and US industry leaders June Sarpong OBE, TV Presenter, Diversity Expert & Award-winning Author (UK), and Jasmine McElroy, DEI Strategy Expert (US), alongside a video series spotlighting multicultural leaders within Taboola. We invite you to register for the webinarhere.
However, we wanted to take our initiative a step further by creating an internal mentorship programme called MyMentor, focused on providing support and career guidance for our staff members from multicultural backgrounds through 1-to-1 mentoring from senior colleagues at Taboola.
Devising this programme began with a brainstorming session with our ERG members on what they would like to gain from a mentor. From there, we created a framework with guidelines on the mentor/mentee relationship.
We also found this initiative to be a great opportunity to offer reverse mentoring, which is the principle of bringing together junior employees from diverse backgrounds with senior executives. The mentee acts as a mentor to the more senior person to help them be more aware and have a greater understanding of how privilege, bias and systemic barriers can affect career opportunities and day-to-day experiences.
Mentoring has numerous benefits to both the individual and the organisation,71% of Fortune 500companies have mentoring programs, resulting in:
- Increased retention–94% of employeessaid they would stay at a company longer if they were offered opportunities to learn and grow.
- Increased productivity–67% of businesses由于导师报告增加生产力ing.
- Positive impact on profits–55% of businessesfelt that mentoring had a positive impact on their profits.
- Increased diversity– Mentoring programs boosted minority representation at the management level from9% to 24%.
- Increased retention–Top reasons for millennialswanting to quit their jobs are ‘Not enough opportunities to advance’ at 35% and ‘Lack of learning and development opportunities’ at 28%.
Organisations like Taboola that support employee-beneficial initiatives and provide a platform for minority staff members build a stronger culture that’s more connected, engaged, and filled with people who want to grow within the organisation and make a difference.