Mentoring Mentoring is another strategy to improve retention.
Mentors take a greater role than preceptors in developing staff. Precepting usually is associated with orientation of staff, whereas mentoring occurs over a much longer period and involves a bigger investment of personal energy. Mentor- ing is suggested as a strategy to retain new graduates (Butler & Felts, 2006).
A mentor is a wiser and more experienced person who guides, supports, and nurtures a less experienced person. Mentors are usually the same sex as the protégé, eight to fifteen years older, highly placed in the organization, powerful, and willing to share their experiences. They are not threatened by the mentee’s potential for equaling or exceeding them. Mentees are selected by mentors for several reasons: good performance, loyalty to people and the organization, a similar social background or a social acquaintance with each other, appropriate appearance, an opportu- nity to demonstrate the extraordinary, and high visibility.
Mentor–mentee relationships seem to advance through several stages. The initiation stage usually lasts six months to a year, during which the relationship gets started. The mentee stage is that in which the mentee’s work is not yet recognized for its own merit, but rather as a byproduct