Mentoring through values and traditions

On February 22 the Mentor District Forum was held in Simferopol, where representatives of the Unitile Group of Companies headed by the HR Director Tatyana Fedchenko took part. The forum brought together several hundred mentors from enterprises, students of leading regional universities, representatives of regional business associations, development institutions, federal and regional authorities and many others.

— "Today, the trend for mentoring is actively supported at the federal and regional levels. And I'm glad that mentorship is now gaining momentum. Whatever the technology is, no matter how far the virtual reality has penetrated into our lives, real knowledge and skills are transferred from person to person. Even the coolest "IT specialist" was not taught by artificial intelligence, but by a human teacher who developed his personality, allowed all his gifts and talents to be revealed," - Tatyana Fedchenko is sure.

— "By the way, the practice of mentoring was very common in the Soviet time.

— And this was one of many positive things that we have almost lost in our time. When I say "we", I mean the whole society. The tradition of mentoring has never been interrupted at the enterprises of the Group of Companies."

— "It turns out that the wise King Solomon was right when he said that there is nothing new under the sun, everything is well forgotten old?"

— "Although he was great, he was still a man, and therefore he is right and not right at the same time. Of course, the old proven types of mentoring will not disappear. But today they gain value only in conjunction with new, innovative solutions that are born by time. Look how the world around us has changed, how the avalanche of information impacts the person, numerous information channels, which could not be described even by a fiction writer thirty years ago, have appeared. People of a really new formation and a new digital epoch - generation "Y", "Z", "millenniums" come to the enterprises.

— "Gadget generations..."

— "Generations that are accustomed to another format of communication and relationships. More focused on the game component, visualization, digitalization. In addition, the former mentorship was limited mainly to the transfer of professional experience "behind the machine from eight a.m to five p.m" and rarely went beyond the gate of the plant. Now numerous digital technologies, applications, intranet allow for the possibility to communicate constantly online, ask for advice not only concerning "how to easier insert cotter pin A into socket C", but also to ask a personal question. After all, a mentor is, first and foremost, an example of a man to become. This is a huge degree of trust and sympathy between people. You cannot invite even the best, but, let's say, not a very sociable employee to director's office and order: from now on you are a good mentor."

— "You did not just participate in the forum, did you?"

— "I acted as a speaker and moderated one of the discussion panels. I want to note two very positive moments. Currently, the so-called "horizontal mentoring" grows in importance. And we did not just coincide with this trend, but we are even a little ahead of it. At our enterprises, the knowledge exchange between various divisions is already quite well organized and is being tightly conducted. And this year we are starting a similar exchange of expertise with industrial enterprises of other industries. The Production Directorate has already prepared a schedule of trips (till the end of the year) to plants in the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar Territory. We will share solutions in the field of work arrangement, management decision-making and discuss the social and cultural issues."

— "And the second one?"

— "Unitile has combined two important components in the concept and practice of mentoring. We have rich traditions — our factories have been existing over 60 years and there are people among us who dedicated to them forty years of their labor experience. In other words, people who actually founded the modern ceramic industry in the country. But we do not just instill, develop and pass traditions, we do it through values. Main of which is the leadership. After all, a mentor is always a leader, who is ahead. But he will only become a great teacher when he instills leadership, desire to go forward, develop, be better than his apprentice. It is worth mentioning that this combination of "professional technique" and the values of corporate culture caused great interest and surprise on part of the participants. We were asked many questions."

— "This year, you intend to bring mentoring beyond the plants and enter "the world" with it."

— "The youth world, to be more specific. We are completing negotiations with the Ministry of Education of the region resulting in the assignment of several orphanages and boarding schools (to us), over which we will take patronage. In the broadest sense, and professionally, we will work with teenagers from graduation classes, helping them to choose the profession, find themselves. We will conduct occupational testing and vocational guidance, the so-called "profession sessions" with the participation of representatives of all services — production specialists, financiers, lawyers and suppliers. But, most importantly, if one of the youngsters decides to choose our profession and become a ceramist, we will support him\her during the whole training period up to the subsequent employment."