Planning Your Mentoring Program

Your mentoring program has the capacity to deliver significant benefits to participants and your organization. However, not all mentoring programs deliver the desired outcomes. A mentoring program that doesn't achieve it's full potential is a concern. A mentoring program that fails, or one that "fizzles out" may leave staff cyncial and management wary of human resources initiatives.

Planning your mentoring program is essential to ensure that:

• Objectives are achieved;
• People have an effective and enjoyable mentoring experience; and
• The organization obtains a satisfactory return on investment.

This post outlines:

• Critical success factors for your mentoring program;
• The mentoring program planning process; and
• Managing monitoring and coordinating your program.

Critical Success Factors

A Successful Mentoring Program:

• States clear objectives that are linked to the strategic goals of the organisation;
• Supports other integrated, ongoing strategies to develop employees' professional competencies;
• Has an individual or team to coordinate the program, monitor and report progress and evaluate results;
• Develops a communication strategy to inform all employees (not just participants) about the program;
• Clearly defines mentor and mentoree roles and responsibilities and provides written guidelines on mentoring;
• Specifies selection criteria for mentors and mentorees;
• Uses a suitable method for matching and introducing mentoring partners;
• Develops knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable participants to become effective mentoring partners;
• Facilitates the negotiation of agreements between mentoring partners so that individual objectives, expectations and requirements are clear;
• Fosters the ability of participants to benefit from formal and informal networking and mentoring opportunities;
• Involves supervisors of participants;
• Provide models and a structure for the mentoring process;
• Provides resource material for ongoing personal, professional and career development;
• Produces demonstrable results which are evaluated; and
• Recognises and rewards the contributions of participants in the program.

The Planning Process

A facilitated workshop with a group of stakeholders and potential participants is an effective way to begin the planning process. The group can develop a framework for the mentoring program that includes realistic objectives, activities to be included in the program, communication and evaluation strategies. The all-important issue of resources and budget for the program, including the cost/benefit of using an external consultant for program delivery must also be addressed.

A timeline and action plan for the preparation, launch, duration and conclusion of the program needs to be prepared. Three months is a typical lead-time to allow preparation and promotion of the mentoring program.

Managing, Monitoring and Coordinating The Program

An in-house program coordinator or team is needed. Even if you use external resources in the delivery of your mentoring program, a person within the organization responsibe for coordination is vital. The program coordinator may do or delegate the administrative aspects of the program but their communication role is vital. The coordinator implements the strategies to promote the program, evaluates and reports results. The program coordinator is a central touch point for participants, to ensure ongoing engagement, to monitor progress and to provide support. The program coordinator needs appropriate resources and support to perform their role.

The saying: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well" is very applicable to planning mentoring programs! Invest in planning your mentoring program to ensure its success.