Is There Support for Mentoring in Your Organisation?

Jane wants to conduct and employee survey to determine where the need for mentoring is greatest and if there is sufficient support for a mentoring program in her organisation.

Here are my thoughts:

Surveys and focus groups will gather important and useful information and generate support for mentoring. I recommend that you ensure that participants in the data gathering get a summary of the results and the intended actions that arise from their input.

To make mentoring a success in your organisation however, you’ll need more. You’ll need to ensure:

1.     Potential mentors and mentorees make informed decisions about participation. They have realistic expectations and understand the requirements of their role;

2.     Their managers are see good reasons to support mentoring (as Doreen said, many people see mentoring as time away from other demands). Managers can derail mentoring if they are not on board; and, most importantly,

3.     Senior managers understand the strategic value to the organisation and why mentoring is a mission-critical initiative. They must provide visible evidence of real commitment.

So, I recommend that you analyse the strategic objectives of your organisation. Think about its goals and challenges and determine where mentoring can make a valuable contribution. Mentoring benefits individuals but it also adds value to the organisation. You need to be able to clearly demonstrate how, communicate this at all levels and keep selling the message to maintain support for mentoring.