Mentoring Checklist: A 6-Step Guide to Starting an Effective Mentoring Program

Virtual mentoring has become a common practice in the post-covid era. Organizations globally are investing in various forms of mentoring programs to nurture their talent and prepare them to be the leaders of tomorrow. In the current business landscape, it is crucial to keep the workforce engaged to increase their productivity and impart to them the skills to deliver better in their job profiles. Organizations that foster good mentoring practices are rewarded with better employee engagement, productivity, a low turnover rate, and better knowledge sharing. The fact that 71% of Fortune 500 companies have a mentoring program signifies the importance of workplace mentoring.

An effective mentoring program requires thoughtful planning, understanding the skill gaps, anticipating future training needs, and implementing feedback of participants to improve the program’s effectiveness. The success of mentoring heavily depends on the planning, evaluation, and implementation of the program objectives. Therefore, organizations need to focus on understanding the business needs and employee expectations to structure the program for overall success. Through the mentoring checklist provided in this article, organizations can quickly get started with a successful mentoring process in the organization. 

Importance of Mentoring Programs

Mentoring in organizations goes a long way towards contributing to the success of the businesses. It helps in creating a collaborative environment to develop and nurture the employees to take on more responsibilities and contribute towards the vision and mission of the organization. By adopting a structured and well-defined program, organizations can create a learning culture that will help with employee retention and attract new talent. The below points highlight the importance of mentoring programs in the organization.

Develop and retain potential talent:

High potential employees, also known as HIPO, are the backbone of the organization as they bring 91% more value to the firm and exert 21% more effort than their peers– according to a report by Gartner. The statistics highlight the importance of investing in potential employees and providing them with opportunities to learn and grow. Research shows that a lack of learning and development opportunities in the workplace is one of the major reasons why employees tend to leave. Implementing a comprehensive and robust mentoring process will support the learning initiatives of HIPO and encourage them to stay committed to the organization.

Foster diversity and inclusion:

Studies have shown that diversity in organizations can help foster creativity, innovation, collaboration, and an increase in business revenue. The remote working model has adversely affected mental wellbeing, and employee engagement, especially in the case of women, minorities, and underrepresented groups. By offering learning opportunities to people in the workplace, organizations can contain the challenges faced by employees. Unlike other tactics used by organizations, mentoring has been found to show effective results by increasing the representation of minorities anywhere from 9% to 24%. Recognizing the value of diversity and inclusion, many large-scale organizations are investing in DEI initiatives and developing mentoring programs specifically designed to increase diversity.

Improve employee engagement:

As per the CNBC workplace happiness survey, around 9 in 10 employees with mentors are happy with their jobs. Not only that, employers with mentors are more productive and committed to their work as compared to their peers with no mentors. They stay longer in the organization and seek ways to productively contribute towards the organizational goals. Mentoring can help in increasing employee engagement and creating a feeling of fulfillment amongst them. Other than higher engagement, the other benefits of workplace mentoring are increased productivity, a low turnover rate, and a reduced risk of making critical mistakes.

Creating a learning environment:

Employees who feel that organizations are investing in their future tend to stick around longer. Structured implementation of mentoring programs can create a learning environment that encourages employees to learn and grow. Additionally, it provides a defined career path for employees that helps them in charting their way to higher management within the organization.

Quantitative performance measurement:

Performance measurement is a critical exercise undertaken by organizations to appraise the performance of potential employees and create a learning path for others. Through quantitative measurement, mentors can provide action points to the participants to measure their performance and help them perform as per the benchmark standard. Mentoring offers equal opportunities for employees to learn and build the skills required to perform better in their job profiles. 

Recruit the right talent:

Recruitment is an expensive affair, and organizations burn a lot of money trying to find the right talent in the market. A report by Gallup found that career growth and development opportunities are rated as the number one criteria for 87% of millennials to stay in organizations. It is a natural propensity of candidates to work in an organization that offers them opportunities to learn and grow. By creating a learning culture, organizations can not only retain their hardworking employees but also attract the right talent.

Creating a framework for success for MSMEs and startups:

Not only large-scale organizations, but MSMEs and startups are also utilizing mentoring programs to foster innovation and creativity amongst employees. By offering learning and development opportunities, these programs help instill a framework of success in the organization and keep employees committed to their work.

Mentoring Checklist – The 6-Step Guide

Mentoring programs are being shaped by the rapidly changing global business environment, a highly competitive market, and changing employee expectations. Organizations planning to create a mentoring program for their employees can check out the various aspects discussed in the below mentoring checklist. 

Mentoring Checklist 1: Program Design

The first phase in developing a mentorship program involves answering a set of questions that determine the need, feasibility, and approach of the program. Every organization works on a certain business model, and by carefully assessing the business and employee needs, they can create a customized program that delivers as per the expectations. This phase requires the involvement of higher management, leaders, and business partners to evaluate the parameters and create a scope of activities to be implemented. Successful program implementation will involve the following steps:

• Assessing the needs of mentoring: Need assessment requires finding the gaps between current performance and the desired outcomes. Employees’ performance, future needs, and project deliverables are also considered while assessing the mentoring requirements. The task is usually accomplished by sending out a survey or questionnaire, conducting personal interviews, looking into past performance, and manager reviews. The responses captured are evaluated to understand the mentoring needs.
• Goals and objectives: Organizations develop program goals and objectives based on the needs assessment to aid in evaluating the program’s success. Usually, the program goals are to increase knowledge sharing, education and learning, key talent development, and boost engagement.
• Employee expectations: The ultimate goal of mentoring programs is to help increase employee engagement, collaboration, and productivity in the workplace. For that to happen, it is important to take cognizance of employee expectations and inculcate them while strategizing the program.
• Types of mentoring programs: There are various types of mentoring programs that organizations can undertake for their employees. Based on the requirements, management can choose from the following programs: career development, diversity and inclusion, reverse mentoring, HIPO mentoring, and manager and leadership development.

Mentoring Checklist 2: Mentoring Models

Based on what an organization wants to accomplish from the program, they can choose the one that suits their strategic goals and the business dynamic. The mentoring models have developed over the years and can be customized as per the business needs. Below are the five business models to choose from.

• One-on-One Mentoring: It is known as the traditional form of mentoring, where a senior resource is paired with a junior resource for career guidance and growth. The mentor and mentee matching is usually done by a program manager. In this model, a mentor shares his knowledge and experience to guide the mentee towards his/her performance goals. 
• Resource-based Mentoring: Resource-based mentoring runs on similar lines as one-on-one mentoring, with the only difference being that the matching is not done by the program manager. Instead, the mentee selects a mentor from the list of mentors and asks him/her to volunteer for assistance.
• Group Mentoring: As the name suggests, a group of mentees is assigned to a mentor, and they meet once or twice a month to discuss issues and concerns of the mentees. It serves as a platform for mentees to learn from each other and grasp the skills offered by the mentor. The model is particularly useful in organizations with a shortage of mentors. 
• Virtual Mentoring: Also known as e-mentoring, it is one of the most widely used models at the time of pandemic and social distancing. The biggest advantage of this model is anytime and anywhere mentoring. Mentors and mentees are not limited by geography and can connect as per their mutual convenience. The models require the use of various tools for effective communication and program delivery.
• Reverse Mentoring: Also known as upward mentoring, it involves assigning a junior person as the mentor to a senior person. Reverse mentoring serves the dual purpose of providing technical expertise and knowledge from a senior management person to a junior employee and enabling senior leaders to stay in touch with the organization. 

Senior managers usually have to make strategic decisions based on technical changes in the business environment, and by keeping in touch with the junior employees, they can brush up on their technical skills and stay abreast of the latest advancements. Companies like General Electric, Ogilvy & Mather, and Cisco Systems are embracing reverse mentoring models for their effectiveness. 

Checklist 3: Criteria for Mentor-Mentee Matching:

Many organizations encounter a lot of dropouts from their mentoring programs, and the prominent reason behind that is the wrong mentor-mentee match. For implementing a successful mentoring program, it is important to understand how mentor-mentee relationships work and how technology can help in providing a suitable match. Tools like Mentoring Complete offer precision matching capabilities that are based on advanced algorithms with a 90% success rate. Hence, by carefully employing a robust mentoring tool, organizations can create matches that help to fulfill the program objectives.

Checklist 4: Developing resources for mentoring

Training documents, preparatory exercises, activities for mentor-mentee pairs, case studies, e-books, and technical environments for practice constitute mentoring resources. A mentor has to use various resources to guide the mentees and ensure active participation from them during the sessions. As creating these mentoring resources is a tedious task, organizations can use their internal resources/training documents or they can use tools like Mentoring University that offer mentoring sessions through audio skits, interactive quizzes, and dynamic tutorials to keep the participants engaged in the topic. 

Mentoring Checklist 5: Provide Mentorship Training

Mentors are the driving force behind a training program. They help impart mentees with the desired skills, experience, and knowledge required to perform better in their job profiles. Many mentoring programs cannot deliver results because mentors are not aligned with the goals of the delivery. Hence, it is important to train the mentors before they take ownership of the program. This can be done by involving mentors in the planning and goal-setting process and by making them understand the desired outcomes of the mentoring program. 

Checklist 6: Measuring program success and ROI

The success of a mentoring program depends on the achievement of short-term and long-term objectives, which are determined at the program design level. As the saying goes, “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” The quantitative metrics not only help in understanding the effectiveness of the program but also highlight the required improvements. To measure the ROI, a program manager has to determine the following short-term and long-term metrics:

Short-term metrics

This metric can be calculated just after the mentoring program concludes.

• The number of participants: The number of participants registered for the program, including participants from the underrepresented groups, women, and minorities.
• Participants completing the entire program: It is a crucial metric that helps to understand the engagement level of participants and the effectiveness of mentor-mentee matches.
• Program assessments: Number of participants completing the assessments and creating action plans to monitor progress.

Long-term metrics

The metrics require program managers to monitor participants’ performance for a longer period. 

• Employee Retention: A mentoring program should support retention and help in reducing employee turnover. By calculating the turnover rate of participants versus non-participants, a program manager can calculate the ROI of the program.
• Employee engagement and productivity: By asking the following questions from the participants, a program manager can understand the effect of a mentoring program on employee engagement and productivity.
  • Are you able to perform better in your job roles after going through the training program?
  • How well do you connect with your colleagues?
  • Did the program impart you with better managerial and leadership skills?

Organizations throughout the world have realized the importance of mentoring programs and they are reaping the benefits of high productivity and engagement in the workplace. The 6-step mentoring checklist shared in this article will help you in planning and implementing a successful mentoring process in the organization.