Organizing your own mentoring program

Mentoring as a form of development is becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Both companies and universities are increasingly including mentoring processes in their training offerings for their employees or students.  

We have also noticed this increase in popularity in the area of non-profit organizations, foundations, associations,
which often supplement statutory activities with precisely the organization of broad and open mentoring programs. The Mentiway platform has had the opportunity to support many such programs, often launched for the first time. In this article, we have gathered our experience in this area
and present both the benefits of mentoring and the elements to pay attention to when organizing the first edition of the program.  

Mentoring program as an additional tool for achieving the organization’s mission 

Industry organizations, foundations, associations carry out their mission in a variety of ways tailored to their needs, target groups and their capabilities – with events, training, publications, research, social media activities, etc.  

Mentoring has also begun to feature prominently among these “tools” for several years. According to our estimates there are dozens of open mentoring programs available in Europe, in many cases organized precisely by foundations and associations. 

Implementing a broad, open mentoring program that coincides with an organization’s charter has a number of benefits, and the growing popularity of mentoring is making such programs increasingly easy to carry out. 

Among the advantages of mentoring from this angle, we can include: 

• Create and develop a strong and active community of Mentors and Mentees around the organization. 
• The opportunity to activate this community in terms of building relationships and networking, supporting each other. 
• Reaping the benefits of this community in the form of increased outreach to reach and fulfill the organization’s mission, gaining engaged ambassadors for the organization. 
• Possible financial benefits or at least funding of the mentoring initiative through Mentees’ recruitment fees. 
• And finally, of course, the immense benefits to the participants themselves of mentoring as a form of relationship building and development.
  
  You can read more about the benefits of mentoring here. 

Open mentoring programs organized by companies 

Another potentially interesting trend is the organization of open mentoring programs by commercial organizations. As Mentiway, we have already participated in several such initiatives, in which the program is implemented not by a foundation or non-profit organization, but by a company.  

We have identified several reasons for taking such actions, with this certainly not a closed list: 

• CSR, employer branding, or just a sincere desire to get involved with a nonprofit pursuing a chosen social cause.
• Reaching out to potential candidates for company employees. 
• PR and promotion of the company in the selected area – mainly through social media and word of mouth. 
• Financial benefits, if any, if the program requires Mentees to pay a fee. 
• Improve employee satisfaction, engagement, development and mental health if they participate in such a program. 

First mentoring program 

As you can see, the benefits and purposes of starting a mentoring program can be many. On the other hand, the level of difficulty of organizing such a program turns out to be less than one might first think. 

Over the past 2 years of development of the Mentiway platform, we have already participated in the organization of almost 10 programs, in many cases it was the first edition of the program, and therefore the first steps of the organizers with open mentoring. Not surprisingly, the number of mentoring programs is constantly growing. To our knowledge, there may be as many as dozens of them, for different audiences.

Check out our directory of open mentoring programs.

At the same time, the organization of a mentoring program itself is not rocket science. Many foundations on the occasion of the first such programs are doing very well. 
As mentioned in the introduction, we have been partners in 6 such initiatives to date. Most of the programs have been successful in gathering at least a dozen mentoring pairs each and achieving good feedback from participants. 

Also, the marketing element of such activities can be very beneficial: information hype on linkedin, outreach from a dozen new people in their groups (posts like I am a Mentor / I am a Mentee in the program). 

How to launch your own mentoring program – what should you keep in mind?

However, it is worth keeping in mind a few principles. In order for the implementation of the program to be effective in terms of both outreach and selection of participants, the following will be important: 

• Preparation-awareness is key -organizers need to be fully aware of what mentoring is, the roles of Mentors/Mentees and Mentees, etc. 
  (on our blog you will find articles: Principles of good mentoring, Effective mentoring in a company, How to become a mentor?, Types of a good mentor, Who is a mentor?).
• Communication, target audience and outreach – determining your target audience and personalized communication is the key to reaching potential participants.
  It is also worth using a newsletter and a group on social media where you will heat up the topic.
• Benefits for participants – clearly present the benefits – both those related to the mentoring itself (link to benefits) and those additional to participation in the program, such as participation in training and workshops. 
• Looking for program ambassadors – promotion is a obvious thing, but what may be surprising and not obvious for the first edition of the program is looking for ambassadors – people who will support the promotion. These can be Mentors who will take part in the program and people more loosely associated with the organization who will expand the reach of social media communication. 
• Benefit from the knowledge of the more experienced – exchanging experiences and sharing knowledge, openness and partnership are important values and a common element of mentoring culture. Don’t be afraid to ask and benefit from the knowledge and experience of other program organizers.  

How to take care of the participants during the program?

The course of the mentoring program will depend largely on the reception, feedback and satisfaction of the participants, so in addition to the organizational matters necessary to start the program, do not forget the most important, human aspect of the program. The following list will help you take care of it: 

• Encourage Mentees and Mentors to promote on social media – at Mentiway we provide labels on Linkedin. 
• Official opening of the program and networking – that is, a meeting of participants – preferably offline, so that participants can get to know each other – moderation of networking. 
• Adequate implementation of participants – training and workshops to better prepare participants for the program – at Mentiway we offer a training package and guide new participants through the implementation process. 
• Provide opportunities for Mentors and Mentors to intervisit and supervise – sharing experiences supports and allows Mentors/Mentors to grow. 
• Monitoring the process and maintaining motivation – At Mentiway, we offer mechanisms for maintaining engagement and monitoring, access to basic process information, and the ability to respond.
• Provide for meetings of participants during the program – one of the occasions can become the so-called Midwives – an opportunity to celebrate and exchange experiences. 
• Official end of the program – a summary, again networking, and the vision of the official end affects the maintenance of commitment, which usually  decreases at the end.
   

All of these elements provide a solid foundation for organizing and implementing a mentoring program – including your first one! If you need technological support in implementing your program, contact us!