What Does It Take To Start a Mentoring Program? To be effective, a mentoring program requires training for potential mentors, careful matching of mentors and children. Mentor Scout - How To Start A Corporate Mentoring Program. The following are some tips to start a successful corporate mentoring program in your organization. Plan Mentoring Program Objectives. Plan your workplace mentoring around your organization's HR strategic goals and outline the objectives for each mentoring program initiative. Find Your Executive Champion. Look for an executive outside of the human resources and training department who will support and sponsor your mentoring program. Look for someone who attributes his or her success to having had a great mentor. Your champion should be willing and able to encourage participation, energize the program, participate in mentoring activities and help fund the program. Determine An Appropriate Budget. Create a budget which may be used for items such as communication materials, mentor training, mentorship kick- off and ongoing events, online mentoring software, mentor incentives and expense reimbursements. Identify The Employees To Participate In The Mentoring Programs. A program may be as small as 5. It's not unusual for a large company to have multiple mentoring initiatives running concurrently. Find tips on planning and organizing a successful girls mentoring program. Get helpful advice on the do's and don'ts to avoid costly mistakes.Employees may participate in more than one mentoring program if they match and can benefit from the objectives of the program. Determine Mentoring Program Structure. Define the level of formality and the program rules for each of your mentoring programs. Programs may run from very informal with no rules to very formal mentoring programs with signed participant contracts. Program rules should include: Length of mentorship (somewhere between 9 months and 1. Required or suggested number of mentor- mentee meetings and mentorship activities. Maximum allowable job levels between mentor and mentee (generally no more than 2 levels)Maximum number of mentees per mentor. Eligibility to participate. Plan Your Mentor Matching Strategy And Tactics. Allow for self- matching or some involvement by the mentees in the selection of his or her mentor. For programs with more than 1. Mentor Scout may be helpful. Find Your Mentors. Conduct a . Publicize. Publicize the mentoring program through multiple communication channels. Launch The Mentoring Program. Kick- off your mentoring program with pizazz. Hold a luncheon or afternoon snack- filled meeting to discuss the roles and responsibilities of mentors and mentees and share past successful mentoring stories. Create Mentoring Communication. Communicate frequently with mentor program participants. To keep your program energized, continue to communicate with your participants throughout the life of the program. Offer ideas for mentoring activities, additional training through webinars, podcasts and white papers posted on a mentoring program website. Continue to share new mentoring success stories. Develop and Track Mentoring Program Metrics. Monitor, track and measure the results of the program against the program objectives. Are you meeting participation goals? Is the employee retention rate of program participants better than non- participants? Are those participating in the mentoring program being successfully promoted at higher rates than non- participants? What percentage of goals set during the mentorships have been achieved? Do your mentors have the appropriate skills and experience for your mentees development needs? Success! Clearly communicate the success of the mentoring program to senior leaders inside and outside of HR. Make your executive champion (and yourself) look good. Best Practices In Workplace Mentoring Programs. A workplace mentoring program can be a boon to any business. Junior employees are given the opportunity to learn from higher- ups, while senior staff can help mold the future of the company by imparting words of wisdom. According to the . A well- run and successful mentoring program takes time, dedication from both mentors and mentees and buy- in from the entire company. Whether you are considering starting a workplace mentorship program or currently have one that could use some improvement, here are some tips from experts on helping your mentorship program become the best it can be. The Insight. A workplace mentoring program can be a great asset to an organization . If you are starting a program or want to improve upon one you already have, consider these tips: Do you really have the time for an effective program? Consider using technology to help make it more organized. Get the right people involved. Know your program’s goals and measure them. Find the time. When considering starting or continuing a workplace mentoring program, one of the first questions to ask is do you have the time for it, says Dr. Allen, professor at the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida, and author of. Designing Workplace Mentoring Programs: An Evidence- Based Approach.“Many times when organizations decide to implement a mentoring program, they don’t realize the time that it takes to do this properly,” she explains. It often gets added to a person who already has many other responsibilities.”Having a well- organized mentorship program can be crucial for successful time management. For this reason, some organizations may elect to implement an online mentorship management tool. In a recent article, I discuss in depth how online mentoring tools can help companies manage their workplace mentoring program. An online mentoring tool is a crucial part of the workplace mentoring program at Nestl. According to Melisa Baumann, director of organization development, they use a web- based program to facilitate the matching of mentors to mentees at the beginning of each program cycle. After employees fill out their profiles, Baumann says the system identifies potential mentors for the mentees. The mentees can then read more about each potential mentor and send an invitation to the one they feel is their best match. Baumann says the online tool gives the mentoring program administrator the ability to monitor where participants are in the matching process. For instance, Allen says she sees companies struggle with recruiting and maintaining a pool of committed and effective mentors. When selecting employees to become mentors, she says to consider both the motivation and ability of the individuals, as well as the overall objectives of the program.“If your objective is to really develop high- potential employees, then you look for someone who has a previous history and background of being excellent at helping develop high- potential employees,” Allen explains. She also suggests using a tool such as the “Readiness to Mentor” tool in her book to screen mentor candidates to gauge their level of commitment to the program. For AT& T, adopting a . According to Julie Bugala, vice president of talent management, nearly all AT& T senior managers and officers serve as mentors. She says senior leadership takes part in formal and informal mentoring through both traditional one- on- one mentoring programs, as well as mentoring circles.“Employees have access to leaders and resources they may not normally have in their daily jobs,” Bugala explains. This process continues in the training each mentee receives prior to being matched with a mentor.“We really try to be strategic about this,” Baumann says. According to Kim Wise, CEO of mentoring software provider Mentor Resources, setting achievable goals that mentors and mentees are working towards is one of the signs of a successful mentoring partnership. She says starting a program just because it sounds good, without knowing what you want to accomplish, will not work. Those expectations are discussed during the training program and used in the matching process. Nestl. We can really gauge whether or not this mentoring is helping us to do that or not.”New formats emerging. Looking to the future of workplace mentoring programs, Allen believes different types of programs will begin to emerge. One such idea is a “mentoring up” program where a junior employees takes on the role of mentor for someone at the executive level.“Often the objective of that kind of program is to help executives in the organization understand what the issues are of junior employees, women or minorities,” she says.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2017
Categories |