The positive impact of mentoring on burnout: Organizational research and best practices

Background: Reducing burnout is a priority for many organizations. This paper investigates if mentoring has an impact on employee burnout in a large comprehensive cancer hospital. Methods: Utilizing data from an organizational survey with self-identification of burnout and self-disclosed participation in mentoring relationships, a chi-square test was conducted to analyze the data from 14,500 employees. Results: We found employees participating in a mentoring relationship were significantly less likely to report burnout than employees who were not participating in a mentoring relationship (χ2 (1, 14,500) = 17.204, p < 0.001). This same pattern was found within subsets of employees, examining across gender, ethnicity, generation, and different job classifications. Conclusion: Implementing and promoting mentoring programs should be an organizational strategy to help improve overall work satisfaction and professional fulfillment for mentors and mentees. Best practices and institutional mentoring programs are outlined to exhibit the multitude of opportunities for mentoring within the organization that contribute to a reduction of burnout.