Mentoring for developing employees’ professional practices: An educationalist’s perspective

This literature review provides a perspective for mentoring employees’ professional practices. Five mentoring factors have been identified from the literature that may have applications for induction and recruitment of employees (mentees). These mentoring factors (namely, personal attributes, system requirements, professional knowledge, modelling, and feedback) may have associated attributes and practices to facilitate the development of professional practices. Mentoring can aid critical and creative thinking by facilitating possible solutions to problems and promoting the analyses of situations from different perspectives. Although there are some negative aspects to mentoring, mentors can act as agents of change but need to be current and active with professional knowledge in order to adequately assist their employees.