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Mentor Program
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Mentor Program
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I am looking into what it would take to possible develop a mentor program for my company, about 450 employees. I am hoping this will be a good way to help newer associates develop and also set up a ca
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Mentor Program

posted at 1/3/2007 5:16 AM EST
Posts: 8
First: 1/3/2007
Last: 1/27/2011
I am looking into what it would take to possible develop a mentor program for my company, about 450 employees. I am hoping this will be a good way to help newer associates develop and also set up a career path. I was wondering if any one has advice on what it would tak eto set this up, and also opinions, can this be benificail or just a waste of time and resources.

Mentor Program

posted at 1/4/2007 1:20 AM EST
Posts: 31
First: 8/8/2006
Last: 7/9/2008
How big of a program are you considering? If you have 450 EE's, do you want everyone to be in it? That is essentially 225 mentors for the other 225 mentee's (yeah, its a word now). I personally believe a mentor program is worth the time putting it together, just as long as the program actually achieves a goal or objective. It is a great way to transfer knowledge from senior level EE's to newer hires, and it is also a great way for the new hires to feel a sense of acceptance in an overbearing atmosphere.

Mentor Program

posted at 1/4/2007 7:30 PM EST
Posts: 71
First: 12/6/2006
Last: 3/16/2011
Hi
As Jack Welch says its the 10:80:10 - so focus on the group that will make a difference. The top 10% will need one approach, the main 60% will need another and as for the bottom 10% - well that is a business decision.

There are some excellent low cost mentoring resources available at

http://www.learningresourcesunlimited.com

Mike Morrison
www.rapidbi.com - OD tools for business

Mentor Program

posted at 1/16/2007 1:24 AM EST
Posts: 175
First: 8/27/2002
Last: 5/4/2007
Developing people is the single most important task a manager has and mentoring is a great tool to facilitate the process. You will need to focus on who you want to develop through mentoring - functional groups, minorities, high pots, others. Then make sure you pay attention to who becomes a mentor and who becomes a mentee. It is also useful to develop some guidelines for both groups. I have a few slides on our process if that would be helpful, send me an email.

Good luck. David (The DJC Group)

Mentor Program

posted at 1/29/2007 9:54 AM EST
Posts: 11
First: 12/20/2006
Last: 10/15/2009
I've only done this on a smaller scale (60 people) but what I thought made a difference was clear guidelines as to what I expected both the mentors and mentees to do, agreeing on how often they should meet and to asking them to report back to me at regular intervals. This reporting back doesn't have to be too complicated, you could just ask the mentee to send you an update quarterly on how many times they've met. If the numbers are decreasing, you may step in and ask them what's going on.
You might include outcomes on goals they've set out, but that might be too much in a lot of cases. Good luck, I also think it's a very good way to help employees overcome obstacles they otherwise wouldn't even try.

Thomas Vinkler
http://www.trainingspotting.com
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