A mentor is a person that has knowledge, skills and experience that provides guidance to a new employee known as a mentee that requires the relevant amount of experience, development and skills. A mentor can be an employee from the same organisation or an external expert. Mentorship programmes within the workplace are generally utilised during a new employee’s onboarding and development phase. This arrangement increases the employee’s productivity, focus and overall motivation. Creating an effective mentorship programme requires the following:

Define the goals of the mentorship programme: It is crucial to identify what goals needs to be achieved during and at the end of the mentorship programme. This may include leadership development, communication skills, assertiveness, practical experience and confidence to name a few. Deciding on the overall goals to be attained at the end of the programme ensures that the outcomes achieved are measured against these goals as a benchmark.

Planning the mentorship programme: The key to a successful mentorship programme is to ensure that it is planned out in terms of how it will work, who will be the mentor/s, duration of the mentorship programme, will the programme be individually or group focussed, timeframes, will the programme operate utilising technological platforms or is a face to face presence required. A timetable specifying each aspect must be designed.

Pairing mentors to mentees: A key step to successfully pairing a mentor to a mentee is determining the strengths and weaknesses of the mentee and what is required to be developed. The organisation may identify key mentors to be paired with mentees or allow mentees to choose their own mentors within their scope of work. Mentors may have the relevant knowledge, skills and experience however ongoing training and development would be required to ensure that the best knowledge and skills are imparted to the mentee.

Measuring the success of the mentorship programme: Using a mentee/employee survey, information will be gathered to measure the success of the mentorship programme. Improvements in skills and overall work performance are also analysed.  Examining the success of the programme in terms of the goals achieved is crucial during and after the mentorship programme as there is a large amount of time and money spent on such an investment.

Source: https://www.employeeconnect.com/blog/top-steps-to-create-the-best-mentorship-programs-at-work

Dr. Prishana Datadin | Human Resources Manager