Here at Saragossa, all of our Regional Directors are home grown, each of them has had their own personal and professional mentors as they have progressed through the company.
Professional Mentors
In addition to our Head of Performance & Development we have direct and indirect mentors in each of our offices. Team Leads are there to support, lead, and teach our consultants in a way to succeed. The offices are organised in a way that allows Team Leads to be close to their consultants so that they can be provide constant feedback allowing the consultants to become more efficient and therefore more successful.
We also have our Regional Directors who sit on the sales floor alongside the consultants, providing further feedback and assistance if anyone of any level needs it.
Personal Mentors
When you start in any job, it can be hard to visualise the route that takes you from rookie to expert given how many steps there are in between. How many of us have said “I can’t do that because I haven’t got the experience” and look to more experienced individuals to take the lead and guide you through?
Our buddy system is a way of turning natural subconsciousness instinct into a deliberate process. Every new starter will be allocated a buddy which is someone, outside of their immediate team that they can talk to about anything, personal or professional. Their buddy can be someone who has been in the company 6 months or 10 years, just someone who can provide advice when needed.
We also have the lovely office manager who is also a mental health first aider trained to talk through any wellbeing issues that our consultants may be suffering from. Anyone who has worked in Sales will tell you it’s not an easy job. They’ll do it so often it’s one of the biggest clichés in the industry. So, we must provide an outlet for people to talk through issues that are outside of the formal structure, someone with no agenda or personal stake in their output who can sometimes provide a different perspective to a line manager, peer, or L&D.
Independent Mentors
There has been a lot of dialogue recently of people seeking mentors external to their place of employment. Having someone external can bring objectivity, diverse perspective, and specialised expertise to a mentoring relationship. We support our team who seek out this external support and encourage this proactive approach. At Saragossa we have a strong network of mentors internally, this combined with any external support places our team with the best opportunity for development and growth.
Overview
Human is one of our three values, and the mentoring programme is one of the things at its core. Our ethos is to respect and value people’s differences, to help everyone achieve more at work as well as in their personal lives so that they feel proud of the part they play in our success.
As our mentors invest their time and knowledge, they contribute to a positive cycle of empowerment that can uplift individuals and the culture in our offices.
We are proud of our mentors throughout the company and look forward to seeing the current mentees succeed and eventually become mentors!