AstraZeneca Launches Reverse Mentoring Program for Middle East and Africa

AstraZeneca brings together employees from different cultures and generations through its 180 Degrees Middle East and Africa Reverse Mentoring programme.

The fourth round of the "180 Degrees Reverse Mentoring" programme, which AstraZeneca implements for its employees and was designed by Evrim Kuran Danışmanlık, has started in the Middle East and Africa Region. In the six-month programme, young mentors selected from AstraZeneca's employees will mentor senior executives.

First implemented at AstraZeneca Turkey in 2016 and successfully applied since then, the 180 Degrees Reverse Mentoring programme was selected as one of the best practices in AstraZeneca's Middle East and Africa Region, after which it began to be implemented in AstraZeneca's organizations in the Middle East and Africa regions from 2021 onwards.

Since the first round held in 2021, 139 mentees and 477 mentors have participated in the programme. This year, mentees and mentors from NEMAG (Near East Maghreb), Egypt, Gulf countries and North Africa also joined, in addition to Turkey. Training for the 128 mentors and 40 mentees participating in this fourth round was provided by Evrim Kuran, Founder of Evrim Kuran Danışmanlık, which conducts research on generations, organizational attractiveness, and work on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The programme consists of 4 sessions with three main agenda items: "psychological safety", "creating a diverse and inclusive business climate for innovative ideas" and "digital competencies for artificial intelligence literacy", while the 4th agenda item was designed as optional. Teams can choose from topics including "trust in leadership", "redefining career", "radical transformation in the employee-employer relationship", "agility chain" and "work-life balance".

"It helps us adapt faster to a changing world"

AstraZeneca Turkey Human Resources Director Feyza Aysan, who stated that reverse mentoring is part of AstraZeneca's people-centred work culture, said: "Our young mentors contribute to our faster adaptation to a changing world with their different approaches and perspectives. Young people mentoring managers not only ensures knowledge transfer between generations, but also strengthens institutional empathy and understanding. This initiative, which places diversity and inclusion at its core, contributes to our employees' personal and professional development while enabling them to accelerate their career journeys at AstraZeneca. For us, it is a great honour to be part of this transformation process that shapes the leaders of the future."

"Young employees provide mentoring to experienced managers" 

Evrim Kuran, Founder of Evrim Kuran Danışmanlık, spoke as follows about the "180 Degrees MEA Reverse Mentoring" programme they specially designed for AstraZeneca: "In reverse mentoring programmes, we turn conventional mentoring on its head. We have been running reverse mentoring programmes with AstraZeneca for many years, in which new generation employees convey their insights to experienced managers from the older generation about the new world of consumption, new generation communication and new ways of working. We enjoy measuring the benefits that these programmes bring to both young mentors, experienced mentees and AstraZeneca, and moving forward together."