Free mentoring programs devalue the mentor and don't guarantee the full scope of training for a mentee, an ex-broker and the founder of an
MFAA and
FBAA approved mentoring program has argued.
Karen Hambleton-O’Grady, principal mentor and founder of fee-for-service mentoring and professional development company, Simply Mentoring, told
Australian Broker that free mentoring programs lack the structured approach that fee-for-service programs offer.
Hambleton-O’Grady’s comments come after the chief executive of
Outsource Financial, Tanya Sale, told
Australian Broker in a video interview that fee-for-service mentoring programs are delivering no outcomes for the cost new brokers have to pay.
However, according to Hambleton-O’Grady, free mentoring programs are not viable in the modern mortgage broking industry.
“Once upon a time somebody would take you into their business and they would mentor you but mostly it was because the people that would come into your business would have some lending experience working at a particular lender and the mentoring they needed was small,” she told
Australian Broker.
“Whereas now we are attracting people who have never worked in a bank or maybe have never even walked into a bank given the technology today. They are genuinely interested in the sale of mortgages. We are attracting sales people to the industry, because we are in sales and not finance, so those people need a full mentoring package.
“A busy broker cannot spend the time with someone who has very little knowledge base. It needs to be a structured approach.”
Free mentoring actually ends up devaluing the mentor, says Hambleton-O’Grady.
“I think [free mentoring] devalues the broker who is delivering it. Everyone should have a value on their time and if you don’t have a value on your time then all you will end up with is time-takers. People will be taking your time and not be giving anything back to you.”
Hambleton-O’Grady also argues that free mentoring programs delivered by brokers who are not a part of a structured mentoring program can also devalue the mentee.
“If [a mentee] joins a brand or a group whose speciality is one particular type of lending – residential, construction, commercial, etc – and [they] are being trained by them, then [they] are only going to be trained in one area,” Hambleton-O’Grady told
Australian Broker.
“[They] are not going to get that full scope of training.”
