Mentorship & Networking

A mentorship program pairs employees with established knowledge, skill
sets, and experience with another colleague or team who is looking to learn from some of the competencies that they have mastered. Traditionally, mentors are typically employees with years of experience under their belts, while mentees may be just starting out, considering taking their careers in another direction or looking to deepen their knowledge on a subject
that their mentor has expertise in. A structured mentorship program
will give employees the opportunity to participate, either as a mentor
who will share their skills and expertise or as a mentee who will learn
from the colleagues they are paired with.

The most impactful mentorship programs tend to have one thing in common: they’re all built around a shared vision and a set of goals that outline what participants are looking to achieve. Generally, when it comes to structuring a mentorship program, goal setting is the first step that leaders should take. The overarching objective is generally performance-related; for example, some initiatives may prioritize getting new hires up to speed efficiently, while other mentorship programs may be designed to guide recent graduates who are entering the workforce for the first time. Once you’ve established the goals for your mentorship scheme, you’ll need to outline how the
program will work. Consider questions such as “how many mentees
and mentors will we have in the program?”, “how long will mentorships
last?”, and “how will we track the success of the initiative?”. After you
have a structure in place, you can begin to identify which employees
will benefit most from joining the program and start matching mentees
to mentors.

Ultimately, the success of your mentorship program will be determined by what your employees get out of it. The most impactful mentorships are mutually beneficial; the mentor has a chance to hone their leadership skills (and in some cases, learn emerging ideas from someone who is new to the field and approaching it with fresh eyes), while the mentee can pick up some of the skills and competencies that their mentor has mastered. Matching is one of the most pivotal parts of the mentoring process. If an employee is paired with a mentor who isn’t a good fit for their learning style and the goals they are hoping to achieve, neither party will get much out of the program. In the past, program leaders have been tasked with manually matching mentees to mentors, which leaves plenty of room for human error and potential
biases. However, in recent years, companies have begun leveraging
AI-powered talent marketplaces to improve the matching process.
These platforms have advanced organizational mapping which ensures
that candidates are paired based on their career paths and professional trajectories, regardless of where they currently sit in the business.  Another key for successful mentorship programs is proper planning and training. Before your initiative starts, both mentees and mentors should receive guidance on what they can do to get the most out of the program, the expectations they should meet, and how to collaborate with the team member that they are paired with.

Mentorship programs can be a win-win that benefits both employees and your business. When executed well, employees will have the opportunity
to network with peers they may not normally have a chance to collaborate with, deepen their expertise and expand their skill sets, and hone their leadership skills. When it comes to business benefits, a mentorship program can enhance engagement and increase performance by giving employees
the chance to learn from their peers in a structured setting. Additionally, mentorships can help employers reduce turnover by demonstrating that
they are invested in their workforce’s growth and that they’re
equipping them with the tools and opportunities they need to
take their careers to the next level. Mentorships can also help
break down silos, especially when the programs are cross-
functional, allowing employees to network and learn from
colleagues with whom they may not normally have a chance
to collaborate during a typical day.

Creating a mentorship program at work isn’t a one-step process. First,
you may need to gain support from leaders across the organization and
then come together to identify goals for the program. Once you have objectives in place, you’ll need to decide how the initiative will work logistically: how it will be structured, who will participate, and what you’re looking to achieve. With this in mind, you can begin the matching process. Rather than attempting to manually pair people based on your assumptions or inferences about their career tracks and professional ambitions, it’s more efficient and impactful to harness AI to do the matching for you. A talent marketplace will be able to pair people based on their skills, experiences,
and future goals, regardless of where they sit in the organization.
These platforms also take human bias out of the equation, so you
can feel confident that everyone is getting equal access to the benefits
that come with participating in a mentorship program. Finally, you
should continuously ask your mentorship participants for feedback
about the initiative, which will allow you to refine it on an ongoing
basis to ensure people get the most out of it. And don’t forget to
spread the word about the scheme and build buzz around it, so that
everyone feels motivated to get involved.