What’s in it for me?

Find out how Reuters employed a ‘Reverse mentoring’ approach in the diversity arena to develop its senior managers. Reverse mentoring involves the matching of senior, often Board-level, members of staff with more junior staff from a different, often minority, background. The approach:

• Suited the organisational culture which favours experiential learning rather than ‘stand up’ training
• Provided the senior global management with an insight into the issues faced by more junior staff from under-represented groups 
• Offered talented staff the opportunity to see how senior management operated and share personal and professional experiences

Case study summary

An important part of Reuter's continuing success in a highly competitive market is its reputation as a highly trusted brand with reputation for independence, integrity and freedom from bias. It is important that its employment practices represent this to clients and the workforce. As part of its diversity strategy it planned and executed an incremental, global approach to diversity with key initiatives aimed at engaging the senior management in diversity issues.

‘Reverse mentoring’ was one of the early initiatives and was used to develop awareness of senior managers by exposing them to the experiences, on a one-to-one basis, of staff members from another minority group. Managers were paired with talented members of staff at more junior operational levels. The approach taken at Reuters was successful because it matched the organisational culture. This case study will demonstrate how the initiative and approach:

• Provided the senior global management with an insight into the issues faced by more junior staff from under-represented groups
• Offered talented staff the opportunity to see how senior management operated and share their personal and professional experiences