Hartford Business Journal

16 Hartford Business Journal • November 28, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com from page 1 retains a vital role in the workplace, more companies are finding their younger staff have valuable lessons to share, too. And both parties — older mentees and younger mentors — are benefiting, learning something new about tech- nology, communication and each other. "I thought it was a good opportunity to net- work and connect with someone that I would not normally interact with on my day-to-day function and to meet someone new," said Shei- la Ginés, 34, a regulatory affairs specialist at Henkel Corp., who mentored a lawyer on digital tools. "We tried to make it more personal and what you can use on a day-to-day basis and its applicability and its advantages — so it was nice to be able to show that to someone who wasn't as exposed to it." That included teaching her mentee how to set up a video conference, something normal- ly done by an assistant who was gone that day. Henkel, a global company that makes adhesives, and laundry, home and beauty- care products and has its North American headquarters in Rocky Hill, earlier this year teamed 160 digitally talented mentors with 220 senior-manager mentees in 17 countries in one-to-one sessions (with some mentors helping more than one mentee) to expose managers to how their younger staff use digi- tal tools. Afterward, 82 percent of mentors and 96 percent of mentees rated the reverse- mentoring experience good or very good and 80 percent of mentees wanted to continue the program on a regular basis. UnitedHealthcare's commercial markets business launched reverse mentoring in the second quarter among 12 pairs of mentors and mentees and interest was significant, said Pete Church, vice president of human capital. "This has taken off exponentially," Church said from his Hartford office. "The demand for time and attention to explain what it is and how we're operationalizing it has really caught me off guard, quite candidly. There's a tremendous level of interest in the approach, there's interest in the kind of structure we've applied to it and we're actively and aggres- sively looking at ways we can not only scale it for ourselves to manage within our business for 2017, but also provide a play- book … or franchise it to other parts of the organization." Positive benefits Reverse mentoring can build trust and loyalty in mentors while helping the mentees, said Lois Zachary, president of Leadership Development Services LLC and director of its Center for Mentoring Excellence in Phoe- nix, and author of multiple mentoring books, including "The Mentor's Guide." "In exchange for helping someone else, they get face time with an executive, they build a relationship they might not otherwise have had," she said. "And it does build that kind of loyalty to the company because they feel heard and valued." And for older mentees, reverse mentor- ing is not just about learning about technol- ogy, she said. "Reverse mentoring comes when you want to learn about a culture that's different than your own," Zachary said. Zachary sees more companies doing more mentoring in general as people acknowledge it as a leadership competency. Companies are creating mentoring cultures to sustain their mentoring programs and using it to advance strategic objectives, she said. Connecticut roots Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, is credited with champion- ing reverse mentoring in 1999. Hearing about GE's initiative, The Hart- ford tried it several years ago, with senior leaders realizing they needed to be more flu- ent on social media and digital technologies to reach new customers and also to better understand the workplace needs of its Mil- lennial staff, according to a 2013 report by the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, which in 2012 studied the impetus and early results of The Hartford's reverse mentoring. The initiative resonated with employees of all ages, and mentors and mentees "report- ed having 'aha' moments and eye-opening ideas that led them to embark on new activi- ties or conduct business in new ways," the report said. The Hartford was unable to arrange an interview for this story. Mike Bott, 43, vice president-finance and treasurer at Henkel, said his 20-something mentor's use of digital technology confirmed how encompassing the technology was in his mentor's daily life. "It gave me some things to think about in terms of how widespread it is and not only how we can use it within our team here, but also what it might do to shape Henkel's busi- ness in the future," Bott said. Internally, he was able to see how the com- pany could leverage its digital tools to make projects and global interactions more efficient. The process also opened his eyes to how customers might be doing business and how Henkel's teams internally will need to be able to support that. Another Henkel mentor, regulatory affairs specialist Rebecca Coons, 27, mentored a couple different executives, giving them a snapshot of her digital reliance in daily life and, by exten- sion, the lives of others her age. She tried to open their minds to online marketing opportu- nities for Henkel products on YouTube, Face- book or Instagram, for example. "Instagram may seem like nothing, but Tide has Instagram, why can't we?" she said. "Hashtag Loctite, they used our glue to make something. That triggers somebody else. Where can we stick our brand?" Facebook isn't just funny cat videos, Coons said, referencing serious articles on topics like climate change that her friends post. "With all of it, I think it's how you utilize it and getting through the noise and actually focusing on how you want to use it for the company," she said. The reverse mentoring initiative supports Henkel's corporate, digital culture, said com- pany spokeswoman Delker Vardilos. Digitalization is one of the focus areas of Henkel's new strategy being unveiled for the next four years, so reverse mentoring is expect- ed to be a key piece of that overall plan, she said. Digitalization is the way everything is going, "just in terms of getting the brands out there," Vardilos said. Digital platforms will be increasingly important tools for engaging with consum- ers and capturing growth opportunities, she added. John Preysner Jr., vice president and cor- porate attorney at Henkel, 61, saw the impor- tance of LinkedIn to his mentor's engagement with the broader world and how his mentor avoided trivial online time-wasters. "It was more really seeing how effective, serious and well done this tool is and how it can be very effective, serious and well done, not only for him in his branding but for us as a company because all of a sudden, we're get- ting eyeballs on our products through the use of LinkedIn," Preysner said. Preysner saw how someone looking for information on noncompete agreements, for example, would have people join the discussion and what a powerful business tool that was. Millennial workers reflect customers At UnitedHealthcare, the company real- izes that to better address the needs of its diverse and changing membership, it has to better understand the diversity of its younger employees, how they live, work and commu- nicate, Church said. The objective is for one to help the other, starting inside the office and ultimately benefiting members outside. "I think one of the things that has allowed this to be successful has been the support of the senior leadership about knowing we need to try new things, we need to innovate to innovate," Church said. Benefits have included learning new com- munication tactics and deeper exposure to talent within the organization that typically doesn't surface during traditional annual review processes, he said. UnitedHealthcare has tapped its emerging leaders to be mentors, allowing them to inter- act with one another in a way they typically wouldn't inside such a large organization, Church said. "They form their own cohort group, they've begun to engage and interact with each other, they've had the experience of now walking in and shepherding meetings as if they are the C-suite leader, facing off against leaders that are three, four, sometimes five layers above them inside of an organization," he said. "It's a heck of a social experiment, but more impor- tantly than that it's a tremendous learning opportunity for both sides. It's adding value both at the individual and team level." n Younger workers offer digital lessons Pete Church, vice president of human capital, UnitedHealthcare Lois Zachary, president, Leadership Development Services LLC Mike Bott, vice president- finance and treasurer, Henkel Corp. Sheila Ginés, a regulatory affairs specialist at Henkel Corp. in Rocky Hill, helped mentor a lawyer at the company, teaching digital tools, including video conferencing. H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S

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