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Given the rapid pace of change in business and technology, IT managers and staffers often need guidance. That’s where mentors can help.

Whether it’s a long-time CIO seeking advice on how technology can better meet the specific business goals of an organization, or a recent college graduate looking for career advice, mentors can provide the answers that could have a huge impact on individual choices and organizational strategies. Mentors can even help spur innovation , by enlightening IT workers about business process issues and businesspeople about the latest technology advances.

Mentors, typically more-experienced business or technology professionals, can serve as teachers, trusted advisors or counselors to others with less experience. With the frequent advances in technology and the growing need for business skills among IT managers and staff, organizations should consider making mentoring a standard component of their human capital management efforts.

“I think CIOs, managers, directors and staffers in IT organizations have a tendency to be very technically focused, and sometimes they don’t stick their heads up to look out and about” at the world outside of IT, says Mike Gorsage, managing director in the IT performance improvement practice at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. “We encourage them to seek out mentors, either unofficially or officially, from outside IT.”

Providing business mentors for people in technology jobs can give them a different perspective and another view of the business, as well as a sense of how business perceives IT, Gorsage says. Mentors can show people how they can become more valuable to the organization by helping it achieve its goals, he says.

Another good reason to provide mentoring to technology workers is that it might help retain them at a time when skills can be hard to come by. “You want to give them as broad an overview as you can,” Gorsage says. “There are fewer people getting IT degrees since the [Internet] bubble burst. Now we need to bring good technical folks in but also give them a sense of business acumen. The more versed you are in business, the better you’re able to serve your constituents.”

While mentoring programs can be formal, where individuals are assigned a specific coach by the organization, mentoring can also be spontaneous and something driven by a person who feels a need for guidance. “A mentor is very often someone of your personal choosing,” Gorsage says. “And it can be someone from inside or outside the business.”

For organizations that want to set up a mentoring program, Gorsage says it’s important to build in feedback mechanisms to ensure that the program is working. For example, coaches and coachees should be reviewed on a regular basis to see how well the mentoring sessions are working, and whether the person being mentored is achieving individual and organizational goals as a result.

People who provide mentoring should be compensated accordingly, Gorsage says. But it should also be made clear that mentoring is considered part of the job requirement for people in certain jobs.

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