Mentoring isn’t a new concept. Older, experienced workers take young people under their wings, offering advice, guidance and the benefit of their years of hard-earned experience in an effort to help the young employees rise on the ladder of success.

Leave it to Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, to turn this concept on its head. A few years ago, Welch ordered several hundred of his top executives to seek out mentoring relationships within the company, but in reverse of the typical way mentoring works. Welch wanted GE’s top execs to learn from the company’s newest employees.

What did GE’s upper management have to learn from people fresh on the payroll? Plenty. Welch knew that the youngest people in his organization had grown up using the Internet — in fact, they didn’t know life without it. GE’s youngest employees were far more tech-savvy than their more experienced managers. He wanted those older employees to benefit from that expertise.

The experiment was a success, and the term “reverse mentoring” officially slid into the corporate lexicon. It’s simply the process of passing ideas, expertise and experience up the corporate ladder, instead of the other way around.

Young people just entering the workforce bring with them a much different skills set than their older managers and supervisors. Younger workers have a fresh perspective on their jobs and on the company as a whole. They have gigabytes of computer and technology-based expertise, but that’s not all.

One particularly useful way for young employees to mentor their seasoned managers and supervisors is in the area of workplace perception. Often, a new employee is able to see things clearly without the filter of years of experience, which can sometimes cloud the truth.

It’s easy for senior employees, owners and mangers to become a bit removed from what’s happening on the front lines of their businesses. It’s the young people, the counter workers, the servers, the desk clerks, that really see and hear how the company, its policies, procedures and products, are perceived by the public. The fact that a vice president worked on the front lines 20 years ago doesn’t make him or her an expert in what’s happening now.

The challenging issue in reverse mentoring, however, is the ego factor. Many senior employees don’t much like the idea of learning a thing or two from newcomers, despite the value of that knowledge exchange to the organization as a whole.

Successful reverse mentoring requires some careful planning. Here are some key factors to making sure mentoring works in reverse.

• Hire future leaders.
Young employees aren’t often asked to pass on their knowledge to older, more experienced managers and supervisors — it’s an intimidating prospect. To gain the most from your new employees, make sure you’re hiring people who will be comfortable taking a leading role from time to time.

• Survey new employees after three months on the job.
Surveying new employees will glean insight about the workplace, the culture, communication, customers and other factors. The fresh perspective is invaluable, and the anonymous aspect of a survey encourages people to speak freely?eliminating the “ego” factor from the equation. Older employees can benefit from younger insights without one-on-one mentoring.

• Set up a regular “View from the Front Lines” meeting.
This can occur within departments or it can be company-wide. Allow new employees who interact the most with customers to brief their deskbound managers and supervisors on what’s really happening.

• Set goals.
 Be clear about the goals & expectations of how such an approach will make a difference. Send a memo detailing how the younger employees’ expertise will be tapped to help the company.

• Training is essential.
Because of the reversed circumstances, the young mentors may also need
help to build confidence and put into practice a role that contradicts the typical business hierarchy.

With those factors in place, the experienced veterans in your organization can start learning new tricks from the talented recruits?and your whole company will benefit from it.

Charlie Wonderlic is the President and CEO of Wonderlic Inc., a premiere provider of employee recruitment, selection, development and retention solutions. For more information, visit Wonderlic’s website visit www.wonderlic.com.