How to start a Mentoring Program

Before you get started, this article is about a 5-10 minute read, the resources below might take about 10-20 minutes to get through and there is the option to engage in a workshop with Art of Mentoring for 60-90 minutes. That’s not a lot of time and at the end of it all we promise you will have everything you need to kickstart the best mentoring program your organisation has ever seen.

Starting a mentoring program isn’t rocket science but there’s
certainly an art to it. In this article we’ll explore the different learnings that we’ve gained over the past 20 years, hundreds of programs and weave in the methodologies of the International Standards of Mentoring and Coaching Programmes (ISMCP). At Art of Mentoring, we set a minimum benchmark of 80% satisfaction rates for matched pairs and most programs are much higher, so we’d like to help you achieve that too.

Depending on where you are in your mentoring program design journey, you may need different tools so here is a table of useful tools for you for the various stages of your journey:

• Ripple Effect (5-10 minute read) – covers the methodologies of mentoring from program design, matching, measuring and effectively implementing a high impact mentoring program

•Mentoring Program Business Plan Template (5-10 minutes preparation) – a template to build your very own mentoring program business plan submission

• Readiness Test (2-3 minutes) – check to see if you have mastered the basics to get a good program off the ground

• Kickstart Strategy Session (60-90 minutes) – schedule some time with an Art of Mentoring program designer who can help you build out your program and bring together your stakeholders

We break mentoring programs down into seven stages.

1. Pre-Evaluation & Research
2. Getting Ready
3. Design
4. Recruiting
5. Matching
6. Training & Support
7. Evaluation

Preparing your association or company for the mentoring program is simple if you have the right tools, have clearly defined a purpose and have stakeholders on-board.

a. Stakeholders
Make sure you have the support of your manager or executive team before pressing ahead with the design processes. There’s nothing worse than doing all that work to then try and convince them it’s worth something.

b. Purpose
Define a clear purpose for the mentoring program. Is it to empower women in the workforce, hand over knowledge from an aging workforce, increase employee/member retention by offering career development or perhaps reverse or reciprocal mentoring with the younger generation?

c. Goals and Objectives
With a clear purpose should come some real criteria to measure success. What does success look like? What would the feedback of a mentee or a mentor be to deem the program successful? How can you measure the outcomes?

d. Resources
Make 100% sure that you have the necessary functions to run a mentoring program. A mentoring program that is unsuccessful can be more damaging to your reputation than if it wasn’t there at all. Evaluate the amount of time and budget required to run a program like this.

Not sure if you’re ready? Take our Mentoring Program Readiness Self-Assessment to find out.

It’s also a great time to think about mentoring software if you haven’t already. Take a look at our mentoring platform to see how this can be an effective way to streamline the administration.

This is the fun part but also sometimes the part of the process that can allow the program to fall over so it’s important to design the marketing and recruiting process with the utmost care. If you already have an email database of employees or members then your job is significantly easier but you will want to have some type of application form (more often online these days) and a marketing
message attempting to on-board both mentees and mentors to the cause.

The application form should cover essentials such as name,
age and location but also selection criteria that you would have defined during the design phase. Only include in the application the information you need for matching – it can be tempting to ask lots of questions for which answers won’t necessarily help the matching process. A long application is boring and yield poor quality information. We generally suggest no more than 5 matching criteria.

Accompany your form with Terms and Conditions. This way you can make sure that the mentor or mentee agrees to the terms of the program and is aware of your expectations of them (also a good idea to relay payment details, etc. if a fee is involved).

Try to outline what you think the mentor or mentee will get from joining the program and integrate that into your marketing message. For example, “Mentees will be matched with experienced mentors who can help guide their mentee to a career they yearn for.” Or “Mentors will be matched with young eager mentees who want to learn and succeed. Giving back feels good but it can also give a fresh perspective.” Mentors get more from their participation than many realise, so don’t forget to include ‘what’s in it for the mentor’ in your marketing.

Nothing beats previous participant testimonials to convince people to join a mentoring program, so make sure you collect feedback and use these stories in your marketing materials. Written testimonials are great, but video clips are even better. Or invite past participants to share their experience at an information session for new program
participants.

So, now you have excited mentoring program participants, how will they be paired? It can be tempting to go the ‘self-serve’ route (i.e. mentees choose their own mentors from a directory) because this is easiest and least work intensive for the organisers. However, it is important to differentiate between the different ways of matching. Here’s our outline below…

Your mentoring program represents your brand or your
organisation’s support structure. Failure to deliver a successful relationship most of the time will have a very real impact on your member’s/employee’s impression of your brand. If there is an admin or a participation fee, being out of pocket could exacerbate disappointment due to relationship failure (offer money back guarantees for failed mentoring relationships).

In terms of training a common trap in mentoring program design is to overlook mentor and mentee training. Professor David Clutterbuck’s research has found that only about 1 in 3 mentoring relationships actually work if there is no training, whereas 2 in 3 will work if the mentor is trained. When you train both the mentor and mentee you get a 90%+ success rate. Make sure your mentors understand what their role actually is as a mentor and what expectations there are of them from the mentee and your organisation. They may be great managers, but not have the listening and communication skills that will make them masterful mentors. A balance of instruction and role playing of
mentoring scenarios is usually appreciated by first-time mentors.

Mentees need guidance in how to prepare for their mentoring experience and how to get the most out of the time they have with a mentor. We find that mentees are often unclear about their own goals for the program and need some guidance to help them focus.

In terms of support getting the balance is difficult and depends on the industry or workplace. Some groups may want less support in the form of materials and process; others may need to be guided through the whole process. A pilot program can help you determine

your group’s preferences. It is advisable however to have key milestones and touch points that make sure that the relationship has started, hasn’t fallen over and wraps up neatly. These can take place as an email, telephone call or an event.

Check out our ready made Online Mentoring Training Course for Mentors and Mentees and our Mentoring Program Manager’s Training too.

We’re in the home straight now. The program has been running for a few months so you can just sit back and wait for the accolades at the end, right? Hmm… maybe not….