Organizations are facing rapid change in markets and the technological landscape, and can struggle to recruit, retain and develop their people. As employee tenure waivers at around five years and advanced skills are in increasing demand, it’s a true “war on talent” for companies.
Employers of choice consistently use a particular weapon in the human capital arsenal: mentoring. Mentoring helps early career individuals gain the soft skills that they need to progress, can help retain and engage employees nearing retirement, and can even help increase diversity in leadership roles.
If your organization is hoping to unlock the benefits of mentoring, consider the following tips for starting a mentorship program.
Get support from the top.
A mentoring program is likely to flop if the right people at the top of the organization aren’t supportive of the program. Identify executive sponsors before launching the program, and get them involved in the planning.
The higher profile, the better: part of what makes a mentoring program worthwhile is the implicit message from top leadership that the mentees are worth investing in.
Identify the stakeholders, and get their buy-in.
For each mentoring program, there are multiple stakeholders. Beyond the mentors and mentees, there are Human Resources staff, executive sponsors, and the managers of the mentors and mentees themselves. All of their perspectives should be taken into consideration, and their concerns must be validated if the program is going to have the support it needs.
For example, if a manager of a mentee is concerned about a big project and doesn’t want the mentee involved in a mentoring program at the time, the manager could sabotage the mentee’s efforts to remain fully involved in the program.
Get agreement on the goals of the mentoring program.
There are several reasons why an organization might embark on a mentoring program. Is it to increase diversity in the executive level? Is it to retain employees near the end of their career? Is it to prepare employees for new challenges by helping them build soft skills?
Whatever the program’s aims, it’s important to be clear on what the mentoring program should achieve and to get all stakeholders in agreement before planning the program’s details.
For example, if a mentoring program’s goal is to increase retention for individuals close to retirement, it’s likely more important to focus on institutional knowledge and relationship-building to help these employees leave a legacy, rather than skill-building on the part of the mentee.
Choose a qualified person to manage the mentoring program.
Too often, mentoring programs are administered by individuals that don’t have any relevant training or knowledge, such as an administrative assistant. However, many tasks involved with administering a mentorship program require sound professional judgment and relevant knowledge, like pairing mentors and mentees. If the organization doesn’t have someone internal who is qualified, it can be cost effective to hire a consultant to manage the program.
Utilize an online mentoring software system.
If your organization intends on having a mentoring program of any size, it makes sense to use a web-based mentoring platform to administer the program. Online mentoring software helps program administrators monitor the activity between mentors and mentees, and some can even help match mentoring pairs.
Because mentoring software can cut down the time it takes to administer a mentoring program, it can actually be less expensive than managing a mentoring program the “old-fashioned” way on paper.
Provide a mentoring plan template.
A mentoring plan is a formal agreement between the mentor and the mentee that provides guidelines for the mentoring relationship. A mentoring plan takes some of the guesswork out of the relationship and helps get both the mentor and mentee on the same page.
Since mentors and mentees may be unfamiliar with creating a mentoring plan, mentoring program administrators can provide them with a mentoring plan template for the pair to complete together. The mentoring plan might outline things such as where and how often to meet, what the goals for each participant are, and how long the mentoring relationship is expected to last. A mentoring plan might include a “code of conduct” to spell out expectations for behavior in the program.
Gather feedback and measure the success of the program.
Participants should have ample opportunities to provide feedback on their experience in the mentoring program. By gathering feedback early on, a program administrator can potentially make changes in order to improve the participants’ experience.
For example, a program administrator might reassign mentor pairs partway through the program when a particular mentor and mentee aren’t developing a rapport. Qualitative feedback on the participants’ experience can also be used to improve the program for future cohorts.
Finally, depending on the goals of the mentoring program, there might be specific outcomes and metrics that the program should track. For example, if a goal of the program is to increase retention, the program should monitor retention rates of mentoring program participants and compare them to the retention rates of people who weren’t included in the program.
There are many benefits to starting a mentoring program. Make sure your company gets the program off to the right start by following these tips.
Ready to start your mentoring program?
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