How Indeed Leverages the Personal Power of Mentorship

Indeed’s main purpose, somebody once said, is to help people find jobs.

Indeedians (that’s what they call employees at Indeed) live out this philosophy every day. But there is a bit of irony here, because if that is Indeed’s goal, then what is the company doing internally to help people grow and advance in their careers with Indeed?

As it turns out, Indeed is very focused on this — probably as focused as they are on helping people find jobs. But one area that Indeed really zeroes in on when it comes to their own employees is mentorship, and specifically, the personal power of mentorship and what it can do to help Indeedians as they navigate their own unique career paths.

Shreya Nidadavolu, a Career and Team Growth Specialist at Indeed, talked about this last Fall at the FuelX New York conference. She started with some background about Indeed, a company that was founded in 2004 and has grown into a recruitment and hiring platform available in 28 different languages.

“The jobs on our platform,” she said, “represent 60 different countries, so we are very global. … A lot of what that means is making sure that our employee development is also resonating globally … because again, we are a global platform driving a global mission.”

Employee driven but manager supported

Despite the global-driven philosophy, the end goal is deceptively simple.

“We focus on a number of different areas that all ultimately tie back to the talent lifecycle,” Sherya said, “and, understanding exactly what skills and competencies Indeedians are trying to grow in their own careers.”

It may sound simple, but Indeed’s approach when it comes to helping Indeedians with their career path is layered, complex, and starts with career conversations.

“We want to make sure that our tools and resources help employees be the owners of their career conversation and their development,” Sherya noted, “but it also helps our managers be that first line of support for them. … I like to say that employee development at Indeed is ‘employee driven but manager supported.’”

She added, “As we rolled out this system, Fuel50 was one of the first things we rolled out as part of career development at Indeed. And our employees said, ‘OK, the platform’s great. I feel empowered.”

Making it a two-way conversation

Beyond that, it’s the strong focus on mentorship that separates Indeed from what many other companies are doing with career development — and Shreya Nidadavolu made a strong case for Indeed’s approach. She said:

“Mentorship is something that I’m really excited about because it really creates peer-to-peer learning, and for us there was definitely a huge “ask” for it, letting our data tell us that employees were interested in finding a mentor or maybe even becoming a mentor. This is a great jumping off point or steppingstone for people that might consider moving into management, but maybe they don’t know that yet.

We have everything from career conversation starters to what does a sample employee profile look like. … Our people can access a number of resources and then just move forward from there. Managers can then access their employees and their development plan. We’re really making that into a two-way conversation and something that’s ingrained into our culture.

Whether it is an employee fresh out of college who’s coming to the workforce with university experience, or someone who is so tenured in their industry that they feel like they’ve exhausted all of their skills and are looking for something new to learn, you’ve got an opportunity for a mentor and mentee in both of those categories — and also everything in between.

We made this system very simple. You can either find a mentor or be a mentor. Everything is connected to the exercises for us. So as (Indeedians) go in to take their skills-based exercises, it will automatically show potential and suggested mentors, and it will show who could be a good fit based on those skills. Then a mentee can go and do the searches that they want, and hopefully, walk away with a meaningful relationship.

We also wanted this to show again that anyone can be a mentor or mentee. So, as we built this program (we saw that) it’s not just the system, it’s the culture around it and the human-to-human connection that helps drive more meaningful relationships. It really gives employees more personal guidance from a coach as to what they want to do with their career.

The other thing is this: It really just shows we care — because we do.”

A good thought for National Mentoring Month

Last January, entrepreneur Rhett Powers wrote in Forbes about how powerful and productive mentorship relationships can be.

He said that his mentors have “helped me make better decisions, mainly because I can ask them hard questions and know that I’m getting honest feedback that’s based on experience. My mentors have challenged my thinking, and they’ve also served as great professional contacts, introducing me to others who could help me and opening up … opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise found.”

January is National Mentoring Month, and that’s a good thing for businesses everywhere. But at Indeed, mentoring is a critical activity that not only builds the company culture, but also helps drive better retention and employee satisfaction by showing Indeedians that their leadership is committed to helping grow their careers — every single month of the year.

FuelX Career Experience Conference

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