Nine out of 10 workers who have a mentor say they are happy in their work

According to the latest CNBC / SurveyMonkey survey on happiness at work, about half of workers report having a mentor at work and those who do are much more likely to be satisfied with their work.

The badysis of data from nearly 8,000 full-time and part-time workers across the country is one of the most striking findings: Mentoring has a disproportionate impact on the career of a career. a worker according to several measures. More than 9 out of 10 workers (91%) who have a mentor are satisfied with their work, of which more than half (57%) are "very satisfied".

Among those who do not have a mentor, each of these numbers is halved.

The value of mentoring also manifests itself more specifically. Workers with a mentor are more likely than those who are not to say that they are well paid (79% versus 69%) and believe that their contributions are valued by their colleagues (89% vs. 75%) – two key elements of overall happiness at work.

The CNBC / SurveyMonkey Survey on Happiness at Work was conducted by SurveyMonkey from June 21 to 30, 2019 among a national sample of 7,940 workers in the United States, with a margin of error of +/- 1.5 percentage point.

Mentors may be more valuable in providing advice on how to get to work and climb the ladder. Seventy-one percent of employees with a mentor say that their company provides them with excellent or good opportunities to advance their careers, while only 47% of those without a mentor say the same thing. Having someone who knows the ins and outs of an organization – how to draw attention to your work or how to be entrusted with this difficult task – can be of invaluable help to someone. One who is seeking promotion or taking on new responsibilities.

But the benefits of mentoring are not exclusive to the mentee. Happy and more productive workers are valuable to any business because they tend to stay longer. More than 4 out of 10 workers who do not have a mentor said that they had considered quitting their job in the last three months, compared to only 25% of those who did.

Often, the margin between those who have a mentor and those who do not surpbad it between workers who consider themselves as "very well paid" and those who say they are "fair" or even "less well paid". "At all income levels, more workers who have a mentor say they are satisfied with their work than those who do not, so mentoring is free, but in terms of happiness at work, it is like giving workers a better salary.

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The benefits of mentoring are clear, so why does not everyone have a mentor? Businesses often create mentoring programs, but individuals can be left to their own devices whether they want to participate or not. And just being mentored is probably not enough to make a real difference in happiness at work through the above measures.

The data shows that while the benefits of mentoring are valid across all demographic groups, some workers are even more likely than others to have mentors.

For example, women are more likely than men to have a mentor (54% vs. 48%); Asians, Hispanics and African-Americans are more likely than whites to have a mentor (58%, 55%, 53% and 49%, respectively); and younger workers are more likely than older workers to have a mentor (66% of 18-24 year olds compared to 38% of 55-64 year olds, for example).

Recent efforts for greater diversity and greater inclusion in the workforce could help fill these gaps in mentorship. The organization of Sheryl Sandberg, chief executive of Facebook, Lean In, for example, partially defends working women, facilitating the mentoring groups (or "circles") to which women can go for get advice when they need it. Lean In's recent #MentorHer campaign was even more explicit about the organization's goal of creating mentorship opportunities for women – especially male leaders, who have consistently outnumbered women in the past. highest levels of the company scale.

While members of some groups are more likely than others to have mentors, the value of mentoring is consistent across all demographic cuts: Mentoring makes the difference regardless of age, race or age. the bad of a person.

For example, 88% of white men aged 18 to 34 who have a mentor say they are satisfied with their work, compared to 66% who do not have a mentor. Similarly, 95% of non-white women aged 45 to 54 who have a mentor say they are satisfied with their work, compared with 82% who do not.

Looking at the data by demographic characteristics, it is clear that the gain is particularly high for young workers and those at lower levels within organizations. Workers under the age of 45 who have a mentor reported being satisfied with their work by up to 20% more than workers of the same age who do not have mentors. This margin decreases with age.

This is intuitive because the idea of ​​mentoring usually implies that a mentor is an older and more experienced counselor who can share his wisdom with a younger and greener mentee. More experienced workers are more likely to be in the opposite position: sharing their own wisdom rather than benefiting from the guardianship of others. But it's not just young people who benefit from mentoring.

The benefits of mentoring extend to employees well beyond the early stages of their careers. At each stage of the work, from the individual contributor to the vice president, employees who have a mentor are more likely than those who are not satisfied with their work, that their company offers opportunities to advance their careers, that their contributions are appreciated by others, have recently been considered for promotion and have not considered leaving their job in the last three months.

The differences are greatest among lower-level workers, but the margins of more experienced workers are still large.

Of course, there is no single way to measure happiness at work and mentoring can not solve all the problems an employee will encounter at work. But the constant impact of mentoring on the happiness of workers across all demographic groups and all roles within a company is encouraging evidence. Business leaders who wish to improve the lives of their workers may consider other ways to encourage mentoring for employees at all levels.

And they could start with themselves and their peers. Only 31% of the most senior workers – owners, presidents and senior executives who make the most important decisions – report having a mentor at work. They might be better off doing it.

–By Laura Wronski, Senior Researcher at SurveyMonkey and Jon Cohen, Research Director at SurveyMonkey