2007 Fall rush is over at the University of Texas and all of the sororities and fraternities have given bids to their pledges. There are a lot of excited young men and women at UT right now! But with that excitement comes a little nervousness on the part of the new members. They are wondering what to expect and following are just a few of the concerns they may have:

What are the rules?
What happens if I break a rule?
Will I get along with my pledge sisters/brothers?
Will I impress my new sorority sisters/fraternity brothers?
What if I have trouble making my grades?
Will I be elected to an officer role at some point?
What are the unwritten rules or expectations that I haven't figured out yet?

To prepare each new member (called "pledges") for sisterhood and to help her transition smoothly into the group sororities (fraternities too, but this article just describes the sorority pledge process) assign every pledge a "Pledge Mom." Pledge Moms are mentors, friends, and a support system as college freshmen transition into college and into sorority life.

Pledge Moms sometimes request assignment to a particular girl with whom they connected during the rush process. Other times, the sorority matches active members with pledges based upon common interests/backgrounds. In any case, by the end of the pledge's first week as a new member she has attended pledge orientation and has started to spend time with her Pledge Mom.

It might interest you to know that sororities have a very low attrition rate. Why? Largely because of the required mentoring that Pledge Moms offer. Certainly sororities can be fun to join but there are a lot of rules and high expectations regarding academic performance and personal conduct. So, it might be easy for some girls to say, "Hey, I would rather be a free agent so I can do what I want when I want and not have to worry about getting a certain GPA." But that seldom happens because sororities do such a great job of integrating new members into the fold and making them feel like family.

Keeping members is good business because each member pays dues and if members drop out it reduces the amount of money on hand to pay for the house, to sponsor programs, and to pay the "House Mother" who is paid to live in the house as a chaperon.

What can corporate America learn from the sorority pledging system?

The natural concerns that new sorority (or fraternity) members have are similar to concerns that new employees often have. Understanding and accepting that those concerns are normal for new employees is the first step. The second step is to come up with a plan to ensure that new employees can integrate comfortably into their new work environment. Partnering new employees with veterans helps newbies to feel welcome and part of the team. New employees need someone to turn to who can candidly fill them in on the informal and unwritten rules that are present and important in all organizations.

Smart employers offer new employees a mentor. On the other hand when employers don't offer a formal mentoring program, the smart employees seek out mentors to help them navigate the company, make decisions about their careers, and to understand the politics unique to their employer. Throughout my career I have been fortunate to find some wonderful mentors who have helped me by listening, offering advice, and, occasionally, interceding on my behalf. Finding a mentor who can offer good advice and who has some political clout is especially desirable in a large corporate environment.

There is a large well known employer in Austin that is advertising for a Manager of Winning Culture and Inclusion. As I read the job description it occurred to me that a really good mentoring program might help this company. Maybe they have one already but it doesn't seem that difficult to make all employees feel included if they are partnered with a good mentor. If sororities can mentor so effectively why can't corporate America?

It's very expensive to recruit, hire, and train new employees so it makes sense to hire wisely and partner each new employee with a mentor. Mentors can extend the amount of time an employee stays with a company and can reduce the amount of time it takes for a new employee to become productive. In other words mentor programs are cost effective. Once again, the Greek system is implementing a program that corporate America would do well to emulate on a larger scale than is currently in evidence.

Find a mentor and you will find the road to success is a little less bumpy.