Implementing a mentorship program in the workplace can be a powerful way to offer career guidance enabling your company to meet its defined operational goals.

It improves employee satisfaction, retention and recruitment, but it can also, be used to:

The program fosters networking opportunities and exposure beyond the high potential employee’s day to day scope (such as different levels of leadership, departments, and perspectives on the organization), in addition to helping to foster cross-functional thinking, engagement, and retention.

Employees will usually be assigned a mentor for 2 years with regular, structured meetings and subsequent informal communication points, positioned to benefit both the employee and the mentor in gaining new perspectives.

The mentor acts as a trusted counselor, or guide, who assists the mentee in setting and achieving goals for developing career direction and skills.

By participating in a mentorship program, mentors develop valuable skills that can further their personal and professional development.  The relationship between mentor and mentee requires honest, openness, commitment, and effort by both individuals.

In a mentoring relationship, mentor and mentee:

This program is a tool for leaders to create developmental opportunities for high potential employees through 1:1 career conversations. The program can then be evaluated for consideration of a broader roll-out.

Criteria

It is often said that the most important work of a manager is the development of his or her employees. When articulating the mentoring objectives, the mentoring team needs to use goal formatting and link the SMART goals to the company’s defined business objectives.

Through the partnerships with the People Operations team, mentees and mentors will be selected based on the opportunity, qualification process and criteria.

Communication

Communication is important, and the program’s progress and metrics for success should be reported at every step, from the needs assessment stage to debrief.  Ongoing communication will also help identify interested mentors and mentees!

The program should be introduced to employees at all levels.

Tools

The mentorship program requires planning, structure, management buy-in and follow-through.

Evaluation

Upon completion of the program, there will be many people within the organization who have are interested in the mentoring program’s effectiveness. By analyzing the different metrics, the success of the program will be adequately assessed.

Mentorship Program Guide For Mentors And Mentee’s

You may find it useful to be mentored (or coached) at different stages of your career – perhaps when you are new to a company; perhaps in transition between jobs in a company; or when wanting to progress or change a direction.

But what is mentoring?

A Mentorship Program provides opportunities for mentors and mentees, to experience, share and learn from each other’s gifts and talents.

The way mentoring works will depend on the mentee’s individual objectives, although it is possible that all the points mentioned above will play a part in your mentoring at some stage.

What will happen is based on the mentee’s individual objectives, and the first step in the process is for you and your mentor to set out and agree upon expectations, objectives, and all mentoring aspects.

Mentoring is NOT:

The mentor’s role:

A mentoring session is a time in which a mentee has permission to concentrate on and talk about him/herself. This list summarizes what can normally be expected of a mentor whose role is to support a mentee’s personal and career development:

The mentee’s role:

Within the company mentorship program and mentoring relationship, a mentee is expected to be:

Although a mentor can suggest growth opportunities and career guidance, the mentee is ultimately responsible for his or her own career development.

How often and for how long to meet

Where to meet

The Mentoring Process & Expectations

The mentor is responsible for holding the process and the mentee for working on the content. This is a flexible definition and it depends on how you have agreed to work together.

What is important! Is that you work to establish a relationship that is based on mutual respect.

What should the Mentor do?

If this is the first time that you have been a mentor, it might be helpful to talk about what you might expect with someone who has more experience!

What should the Mentee do?

The first meeting…

It is worth thinking about these aspects in preparation for the first meeting, so as to be clear about expectations.

Discuss these questions first!

Mentee

Mentor

Both

Lastly, throughout the mentorship program it is possible that issues will arise, it is important that you remain open in these circumstances and consider whether it would be appropriate to review and revise the mentoring agreement together, or finalize the program. Whether this happens, or when te process comes to its natural end, ensure that the relationships are reviewed.

Celebrate the progress and achievements made!

Mentorship Agreement

Every mentoring relationship is different. From when and where you meet to what you talk about, YOU decide with your mentor what will work best for your mentoring relationship.

This will help you get you started on your way to a great relationship!

Optional activities that we will do together:

Some questions for you (the mentee):

This will help your new mentor align her/his mentoring style.

Some initial questions for you both:

Confidentiality

We agree to keep everything that is said within the mentoring relationship confidential.

_______________________________                      ___________________________

Mentee Signature                                                       Date:

_______________________________                      ___________________________

Mentor Signature                                                        Date:

Mentee keeps the original, a copy goes to mentor.

Other articles that you may like to look at before designing your program:

The information provided in this guide is intended for illustrative purposes only and should not be construed as advice for the application to any specific factual or legal circumstance.

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