The Role of HR in Team Development
One of the primary roles of the HR department is performance management. Performance evaluation is designed to continually improve the performance of units and individuals with the ultimate goal of delivering organizational objectives. The fundamental principle of performance management is to align individual goals with pre-determined company objectives (Wickramasinghe & Dolamulla, 2016). Successful strategy implementation requires an individual’s goals to align with corporate-level objectives. To that end, the HR department may help an employee align with the team’s objectives. The HR department takes a recruit through the organization’s strategic goals and values to achieve this.
Also, the HR department gets employees committed to their tasks by helping them achieve personal growth. Traditionally, employees would only perform the roles they were hired for, as organizations outsourced external resources to perform novel or complex tasks. However, that has changed, with most organizations training employees to perform complex tasks. For instance, there has been an increase in e-learning resources to improve employees’ capabilities. These resources include online videos, databases, and social networking sites (Wickramasinghe & Dolamulla, 2016). By providing these resources, the organization’s HR department aligns employees’ capabilities with organizational needs.
Role of a Mentor
Mentorship is generally characterized as a relationship between a more knowledgeable and a less knowledgeable person. A mentor offers the mentee guidance, counselling, sponsorship, professional networking, modelling, and instructions (Ojedokun, 2011). The human resource department uses formal and informal mentoring to develop employees to improve the organization’s competitive advantage.
How to Work Together with the Mentor
Exposure and Visibility
A mentor can help a mentee attain exposure and visibility. This happens when the mentor links a protégé with a manager who provides potential learning opportunities. In addition, mentors open doors for protégés’ career growth and potential leadership development.
Coaching
A mentor may also improve a protégé through coaching. Coaching requires a one-on-one interaction between an employee and their mentor. A coaching exercise aims to offer the new hire the practical skills required to perform their new jobs (Ojedokun, 2011). For instance, when most law firms hire new lawyers, they subject them to a simulation miming a court proceeding. While at it, a senior lawyer offers insights into how the new lawyers can improve their presentation and convince a judge. Primarily, coaching revolves around practical skills.
Reflection
I have previously worked with a virtual mentor to improve my ability to work in teams. The mentor mainly focused on communication, connection, and productivity. An essential factor in a team’s success is establishing a relationship from the outset (Aquino et al., 2022). This includes bonding and establishing connections to foster trust. Once team members build mutual trust, they approach tasks with a new sense of commitment and cohesiveness.
Another way to foster teamwork is through embracing peer mentorship. Peer mentorship is meant to leverage the overall strengths of a team to benefit individual members (Aquino et al., 2022). As a team evolves, members’ capabilities will manifest. Once that happens, there is no need to rely on hierarchical mentorship. Instead, peers share experiences and knowledge among themselves. Once peer mentorship starts in an organization, mentors can step back from more active leadership roles and become facilitators. Peer mentorship fosters teamwork, which will help the organization achieve its objectives.
References
Aquino, J. F., Riss, R. R., Multerer, S. M., Mogilner, L. N., & Turner, T. L. (2022). A step-by-step guide for mentors to facilitate team building and communication in virtual teams. Medical Education Online, 27(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2022.2094529
Ojedokun, O. (2011, January). (PDF) Mentoring: A Factor for Organizational Management. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305815524_Mentoring_A_Factor_for_Organizational_Management
Wickramasinghe, V., & Dolamulla, S. (2016). The Effects of HRM Practices on Teamwork and Career Growth in Offshore Outsourcing Firms. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 36(2), 46–60. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.21769
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Question
Your friend is starting a new position within your place of employment and has a couple of questions. She wants to know what to expect and how your organization uses teamwork to build positive relationships. In this assignment, you will give your friend some ideas of what to expect by outlining the following aspects of your workplace:
Explain the role of the human resource department and how they can help you.
Define the role of a mentor.
Describe how you can work with a mentor to overcome challenges in the new position.
Describe a mentor from your life and how you used teamwork to solve problems.