2021 has brought a ray of hope after a whole year of struggle with Covid-19. Many organizations are thinking of paying back their employees whose relentless efforts kept the work going smoothly. And what better way to show employees that you care than providing them with development opportunities through mentoring.
If you are willing to engage your employees in a mentoring program, here are six resources to help you start the program.
1. You Want to Start a Mentoring Program. Now What?
While many companies realize they need a mentoring program, many of them don’t know where to start from. This guide offers insights on three specific steps of starting a mentoring program: program size, short-term & long-term goals, and determining a budget.
2. Understanding Different Business Mentoring Models.
Mentoring is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every mentoring program is different and so are their goals. It’s important for organizations to understand their specific mentoring needs and mentoring model that will work for them. This guide reviews the most common mentoring models: one-on-one mentoring, group mentoring, resource-based mentoring, training-based mentoring, executive mentoring.
3. How to Create a Pilot Mentoring Program.
When an organization starts thinking about mentoring, they usually want to start with a small program to test the waters and see if it gains any traction. This is a smart approach.
In a pilot mentoring program, usually a mentoring program manager forms a task force of 6-8 people. Members of the task force represent a cross-section of the organization, including potential mentors and mentees, supervisory personnel, and any stakeholders who can bring value to the process. For example, a representative from Human Resources might help tie department goals with the goals of the mentoring program.
This piece of guide explains how to get a pilot program off the ground.
4. Coaching and Mentoring: What’s the Difference?
This is our most popular piece of content, and no wonder. When it comes to employee development, a failure to understand the differences between coaching and mentoring can lead to disappointing results.
Though related, mentoring and coaching are not the same. A mentor may coach, but a coach does not mentor. Mentoring is “relational,” while coaching is “functional.”
If you want a true mentoring program, read this so that you’ll know if your program is starting to look more like a coaching program.
5. Effective Recruitment Strategies for Getting Your Mentoring Program Off the Ground.
You can’t have a mentoring program without participants. However, one of the challenges of starting a mentoring program is that there are often more people who want to be mentored than there are people willing to take on the role of a mentor. As a result, it can be challenging for organizations to recruit mentors.
This resource not only offers ideas for recruiting mentors but also for recruiting mentees!
6. Mentoring Best Practices.
If a company commits to a mentoring program but doesn’t follow best practices, the mentoring program will be ineffective. Time, effort and money will be lost. The basic principles or best practices that derail a mentoring program are:
- Lack of focus
- Program’s goal is not aligned with organizational goals
- Lack of objective
- No training is provided to mentors and mentees
- There is no mentoring program manager to support the program
This guide offers nine essential best practices that all successful mentoring programs embrace.