Don't Leave Your Mentors Alone!

People often ask me how much time to allocate to following up mentors and mentorees. It’s a tough question but an important one. Mentors and mentorees must feel supported by program coordinators and often need reassurance, if not actual assistance, to do a good job.

I recently did a follow-up telephone survey of mentors, part way through a mentoring program. I tracked my time and did the math. I emailed them all to let them know I’d be calling and what the questions I’d be asking were. I called thirty-six mentors. I spoke to thirty-three, using a set of six questions and entered their answers in a spreadsheet for later analysis. I rang many of them twice, some three times and left messages and a few returned my calls. I set aside specific blocks of time on different days over a couple of weeks. All the mentors are volunteers and highly committed to the program and dedicated to the outcomes. I was extremely pleased to get a 90% response rate. This only happens when you have highly motivated respondents.

I can now tell you that the exercise took nine hours, spread across five days and three weeks, roughly fifteen minutes per person.

What we have as a result is very good qualitative data, some hard data giving statistics on progress made, useful feedback to make the program even better and information about critical areas of support needed for the mentoring to produce even better outcomes.

Probably the most significant outcome however, was how happy the mentors were to speak with me. All were doing well – theirs is a well-supported program and most are experienced mentors – most were happy with their progress to date and only a few needed any assistance. You see, mentors are people like you and me. They need to feel someone cares or at least is interested in what they are doing. Following up like this shows their work is appreciated.

You don’t want to hound participants in a mentoring program but they need to know you’re there. Emails alone don’t cut it and sending out surveys may be necessary at times but it certainly lacks the personal touch. Investing in this telephone survey has strengthened the mentoring program and let the mentors know they are valued.

Factor in a support program for your mentors if you want to keep them engaged! That’s how mentoring works.