As more and more business leaders are learning about the power and benefits of mentoring, they are ready to jump in and start a formal business mentoring program at their company.
While it’s true that the benefits of mentoring programs are significant, it does require an investment of time and other resources. When companies jump into starting a mentoring program without considering if they have what they need, they aren’t likely to fully realize the benefits of mentoring.
If your organization is considering starting a professional mentoring program, make sure the following must-haves are in place before getting started.
Someone on staff with expertise in mentoring
Many organizations start mentoring programs without understanding the level of specialized skill and knowledge that a mentoring program administrator needs to have.
So, they put the responsibility on a capable office manager, executive assistant, project manager, or other professional known for their organization and execution skills. However, when this person doesn’t have a background in human resources, leadership development, learning and development or related fields, the program isn’t likely to be as effective.
For example, one major disadvantage of informal networking is that the task of finding an appropriate mentor falls to each individual mentee. This means that the choices of mentor for a mentee are necessarily limited by the mentee’s network.
In a well-designed formal mentoring program, mentees are carefully paired with a mentor that could be from anywhere in the organization, say in a different business unit or different geographical area. This helps open up the network of the mentees (and the mentors) which can lead to better matched mentor-mentee pairs, enhanced career progression for the mentees, and greater communication across the organization as a whole.
However, a mentoring program administrator without specific expertise around mentoring may not understand the benefits of expanding mentees’ networks, and pair up individuals out of convenience instead. As a result, mentees are often paired up with people they already interact with on a regular basis, and some of the potential benefits of the formal mentoring program aren’t realized.
If your organization doesn’t have a person on staff who has specialized expertise, provide training with courses such as our online mentoring program manager course. The benefits of doing it right will outweigh the expense in the long term.
Proper infrastructure for the mentoring program
Even with a small number of mentor-mentee pairs, the logistics of managing a mentoring program can quickly become unwieldy. This is why having a mentoring software such as Mentoring Complete is critical to successfully administering a mentoring program.
Quality mentoring software will allow mentors and mentee to be match based on profile details and their overall goals, which can make pairing mentors easy and straightforward. A mobile-friendly interface that allows mentors and mentees to schedule meetings helps ensure that pairs will find time to meet.
Regular check-ins built into the system take a lot of the heavy lifting out of monitoring the mentoring program. Additionally, a mentoring software can also make mentor-mentee pairs automatically, using algorithms that consider key aspects of the mentor and mentee to lead to more successful matches.
When the mentoring program administrator isn’t bogged down in the administrative aspects of running the program, they are able to focus more on higher value activities like recruiting for the program, and evaluating the program’s success, strategizing ways to align the program with the overall organizational goals. 
An effective organization-wide communication plan
A successful mentoring program is not a case of “if you build it, they will come.” There are many mentoring programs out there that could have been great, but not enough people signed up to participate in them.
Starting many weeks before the mentoring program’s launch, make sure to start advertising the program. Keep in mind that many people may need to hear about the program several times before they commit to participating.
Post on company message boards, announce the program at meetings, send e-mails, etc. In your communications, focus on the benefits of mentoring for the mentee and the mentor, rather than the benefits to the organization as a whole.
In your communication, be sure to be clear about expectations of the program, including estimated time commitments, so people will know what they are committing to when they choose to participate.
An important part of the communication plan is to have top leadership talk up the program. Nothing will make people want to participate more than hearing an endorsement from top leaders in the organization.
Provide your CEO and other top leaders with talking points, and ask them to talk about the mentoring program at staff meetings, town halls, and other events. Drafting an e-mail for the CEO to send out to key potential mentors and mentees can also be effective.
One of the ways mentoring programs work is by signaling to the rest of the organization, “these people are worth investing in. Take advantage of that with a ringing, public endorsement from the top.
Too many companies jump into mentoring without having the right things in place first. Prepare a detailed communication plan, choose the right mentoring software to provide the proper infrastructure for the program, and make sure there are the right people in the organization with specialized expertise in mentoring.
With these three must-haves, your program is sure to be a success.