Improving Mentors Selection: The Key for an Enhanced Local Employees Training Regime
Authors: Okomgboeso Samuel 
Published: October 2018

The objective of this paper is to emphasis the need for an appropriate mentors selection process and to particularly sensitize domestic organizations in the Gulf Region on the need to include leadership traits and skills assessment as an integral part of the process utilized in identifying and selecting coaches and mentors for local talent development using the result of a pilot study on leadership evaluation of coaches. The paper shows that an enhanced and sustainable local talent development cannot be attained without the application of an empirical solution, coupled with a systematic focus on the leadership qualities of those whose primary roles are to develop the younger generation of leaders.

Leadership effectiveness assessment of coaches referred to as immediate supervisors of local employees was conducted by obtaining quantitative and qualitative data gotten from the perception of local and expatriate employees of an organization in the United Arab Emirates. In addition, direct leadership assessment administered on ten expatriate and ten local supervisors also constituted the make-up of the data. A semi-structured survey questionnaires and interviews were administered on participants after obtaining the necessary approvals for the pilot study. The sample populations were made-up of 40 employees who were below the rank of supervisors and 20 employees who were of the supervisors’ cadre. (10 local and 10 expatriates). The questionnaires were designed both in English and Arabic Languages respectively. Questions to ascertain leadership behaviors were given to participants and the answers ranked on a Linkert scale of 1 to 5, where 1 and 5 represents extreme values of strongly disagree and strongly agree respectively. The questionnaires provided the quantitative data, while results from the interview provided the qualitative data. The composition of the participants included, technical, non-technical and human-resource department employees.

The results revealed that leadership traits and skills are not regarded as part of main issues considered during recruitment processes and in-house selection of organizational coaches and mentors tasked with developing local employees. Selection of supervisors either at the recruitment processes or in-house were mainly based on technical competencies and less focus on leadership skills. There were those who possessed the leadership traits, and also those who lacked the traits needed to coach and develop future organizational leaders; especially, in an environment where societal culture has a huge influence on people. To ensure that best organizational habits are passed-on-to subordinates, a continuous evaluation of leadership traits of supervisors at all levels should be instituted. Leadership behavior and technical competency should have an equal weight during the selection of mentors. Finally, this paper advocates for a detailed study to ascertain the correlation between leadership behavior and subordinates performance for an enhanced organizational efficiency and productivity.

This paper will assist organizations enhance their local employee training processes and develop the right tools for recruitment of expatriates utilized for the development of local talents. It will also assist in developing an effective leadership trait assessment process enabling the identification of right persons deserving to occupy leadership positions in the organization.