Standards and quality of mentoring programmes – 6 principles of EMCC

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The high effectiveness of mentoring as a development method depends to a great extent on the skills of the Mentor, the attitude and activity of the Mentee, and the relationship built between them and adherence to the rules. However, this quality is also greatly influenced by the organizers of mentoring programs, who, from the recruitment and selection process to monitoring and communication, are able to influence the effectiveness of mentoring processes and ultimately the satisfaction of participants.

From this article, you will learn more aboutquality assessment of a mentoring program – just from the organizers’ point of view. You will learn the 6 most important principles of a good mentoring program, principles that, in addition to defining the standard, are also used in program evaluation and accreditation.

How to organize an effective mentoring program?

A heavy burden of responsibility rests on the shoulders of the organizers of mentoring programs. The programs involve a lot of participants, require them to commit, devote their time, which also involves their often high expectations. It is clear that the effectiveness of the pair processes already depends on the participants themselves, but organizers also have a big influence. Their role is extremely important, especially in such areas as:

• Communicate the program, its rules, responsibilities,
• possible selection of participants, matching them into pairs,
• Preparing participants for mentoring processes, transferring knowledge of mentoring, techniques, ways of behavior,
• Ongoing communication with participants, responding to their challenges, problems,
• proper completion of the program.

Each of these stages requires proper care, and any shortcomings are capable of demotivating participants, causing frustration, misunderstanding, and ultimately leading to significantly lower quality of individual mentoring processes.

I have already written about how to ensure the quality of the mentoring program in previous articles, including an invitation to:

• mentoring program implementation guide.

This article is somewhat of an extension of those earlier materials and looks at the topic of mentoring program quality from a different perspective.

6 principles for running a mentoring program from EMCC (ISMCP)

EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council) is an international organization founded more than 30 years ago with the aim of establishing and promoting high standards for mentoring and coaching.

This organization, among other things, has defined a code of ethical conduct for mentors and coaches, defined what mentoring is and what high standards in mentoring are.

The standards included, among others, the 6 principles of a mentoring program (ISMCP – International Standards for Mentoring and Coaching Programmes).

These principles define what a quality mentoring program is and are used by EMCC for accreditation in three levels of program quality:

• Gold – for meeting 90% of the standards, including at least 80% in each of the 6 categories,
• Silver – for meeting 80% of the standards, including at least 70% in each of the 6 categories,
• Bronze – for meeting 70% of the standards, including at least 60% in each of the 6 categories.

In addition to the accreditation itself, ISMCP standards are taken into account when evaluating programs in the Super M competition just organized by the EMCC.

Merely meeting these standards and, as a result, accreditation of the program, not to mention the Super M award, is confirmation of the high quality of the mentoring program to the industry and potential participants. The winners of these accreditations and awards are eager to communicate them when organizing future editions of their programs.

Mentiway’s support of ISMCP standards

Before I go on to present the aforementioned 6 standards for mentoring programs, I would like to further point out that in designing Mentiway – a platform for delivering mentoring programs – we based our design on the EMCC guidelines and all of the following standards are reflected in the functions of the Mentiway platform.

1. Clarity of purpose

It’s all about properly communicating to participants what mentoring is and inspiring them to think about their motivation and purpose for participating in the mentoring program.

Detailed guidelines for the mentoring program:

• The strategic drivers and goals of the program are clearly defined.
• The intended results and benefits of the program are understood by all stakeholder groups.
• Participants are encouraged and supported in developing their own goal of participating in the program within the overall context of the program.

Mentiway provides the functionality of the information page and recruitment forms, in which a strong emphasis is placed on ensuring that each participant understands what mentoring is and can work out his or her goal of participating in the program.

2. Training and instruction for stakeholders

It’s about preparing participants to start mentoring processes, making sure they know their role and have access to the tools to fulfill their responsibilities.

• Participants understand the concept of mentoring and/or coaching and their roles.
• Participants are aware of the knowledge, skills and behaviors they need to apply in their roles as mentors/coaches and mentees/coached, and have the opportunity to identify skill gaps.
• Learning support is available throughout the participants’ involvement in the program.
• Training and instruction take into account the context and purpose of the program, balancing the need for basic skills and knowledge with the need for flexibility in how and when implementation takes place.

Mentiway provides participants with a knowledge base of dozens of knowledge pills, techniques, and tools that introduce participants to what mentoring is and offer support in guiding mentoring processes as they are implemented.

3. Selection and pairing process

This is the proper selection of participants, pairing them up, but also giving them the opportunity to change pairs or discontinue processes if they are not comfortable with the proposed mentoring pair.

• Mentoring participants understand the methodology and criteria for selection and matching.
• The matching process ensures a fit with the program and provides sufficient learning opportunities for participants, according to the program.
• Both mentors/coaches and mentees/coachees have a say in whether they participate and in their matching relationship.
• There is a process for recognizing and resolving matches that don’t work, and re-matching participants if they wish.

Mentiway provides enrollment forms for the program, in which each participant specifies his or her goal and development areas, and proprietary mechanisms backed by artificial intelligence suggest the best-matched mentoring pairs, with Mentees able to select Mentors from the recommended pairs and confirm their choice after zero meetings.

In addition, Mentiway monitors processes by informing organizers of low scores or participant involvement in individual pairs.

4. Monitoring and evaluation

It’s about overseeing the progress of the mentoring processes and being able to respond if problems are noticed, commitment declines or even if the relationship breaks down.

• Robust measurement and review processes are in place to assess mentoring/coaching relationships, program and organizational/strategic outcomes.
• Measurement and review processes enable timely program changes.
• There is a meaningful cost-benefit and impact analysis appropriate to the organizational and sectoral context.
• Measurement and review processes support mentoring/coaching relationships through support mechanisms, including supervision.

Mentiway provides mechanisms for evaluating the progress of mentoring not only for participants, but also for organizers, who receive a dedicated administrative panel with insight into the progress of the processes, but with participants’ privacy protected.

5. Ensure high ethical standards

It’s making sure program participants agree to adhere to ethical standards as part of their mentoring relationship.

• The roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders are clearly defined and communicated to all key stakeholders.
• The program follows clear guidelines for the behavior and responsibilities of all stakeholders.
• There is a process for identifying and managing conflicts of interest between stakeholders, such as between mentors/coaches or mentees/coaches and the organization.

Each pair at the start of the process at Mentiway is required to sign a mentoring contract, in which great emphasis is placed precisely on ethical issues, proper understanding of roles and responsibilities. In addition, participants have the opportunity to contract their own individual arrangements in each mentoring pair independently.

6 Administration and support

It’s to ensure that participants are in constant contact with the organizers and respond when problems arise.

• Participants receive sufficient support, ongoing professional development and/or supervision throughout the program.
• Participants are supported outside the program as appropriate.
• The program is managed professionally and in accordance with the program’s methodology and processes.
• The program’s methodology and processes are transparent and accessible to all key stakeholders.

The Mentiway platform includes functionality for contact between organizers and participants in both group and individual formats.

These 6 ISMCP standards can be called the foundation on which organizers build their mentoring programs. Meeting them is, in our view, the bare minimum when it comes to the quality of a mentoring program, and in practice, every organizer who uses the Mentiway platform is provided with functionalities that support each standard.

I also invite you to learn more about the benefits provided by the Mentiway mentoring platform.

And once again, I encourage you to read the guide to implementing a mentoring program in any organization.

I also invite you to contact us. As Mentiway, we will be happy to help you organize your mentoring program.