INFORMAL MENTORING PROGRAM MENTORING Mentors are guides They

INFORMAL MENTORING PROGRAM

MENTORING ‘Mentors are guides. They lead us along the journey of our lives. We trust them because they have been there before. They embody our hopes; cast light on the way ahead and point out unexpected delights along the way. ’ ‘Mentoring is dynamic, reciprocal relationship between an advanced career incumbent (mentor) and a less experienced professional (mentee) aimed at promoting the development and fulfillment of both. ’ Mentoring Relations: A Definition to Advance Research and Practice Charles Healy, Alice Welchert, 1997

SAMPLE PROGRAM PLANNING: OBJECTIVES Planning the Mentoring Program Ø Plan your workplace mentoring around your Program’s strategic goals and outline the objectives the mentoring program initiative. Ø Mentoring Programs might support the following: • Management development for high potential employees • New hire employee orientation and speed to productivity • Employee engagement for positions with traditionally high employee turnover • Knowledge transfer and succession planning • Workplace diversity initiatives • Leadership development • Work life balance

SAMPLE PROGRAM PLANNING: FIND A CHAMPION Find a Champion: Ø Look for a leader outside of the human resources and training department who will support and sponsor your mentoring program. Ø Look for someone who attributes his or her success to having had a great mentor. Ø Your champion should be willing and able to encourage participation, energize the program, participate in mentoring activities and help fund the program. Determine an Appropriate Budget: Create a budget which may be used for items such as: § § communication materials mentor training mentorship kick-off and ongoing events, mentor incentives and expense reimbursements.

SAMPLE PROGRAM PLANNING: IDENTIFY PARTICIPANTS Identify the Employees to Participate in the Mentoring Program Ø A program may be as small as 50 participants for a very specialized mentoring program or as large as the entire Program for a general mentor program. Ø You can have multiple mentoring initiatives running concurrently. Ø Employees may participate in more than one mentoring program if they match and can benefit from the objectives of the program.

DETERMINE MENTORING PROGRAM STRUCTURE Define the level of formality and the program rules for each of your mentoring programs. Programs may run from very informal with no rules to very formal mentoring programs with signed participant contracts. Program rules should include: Ø Length of mentorship (somewhere between 6 months and 12 months) Ø Required or suggested number of mentor-mentee meetings and mentorship activities Ø Maximum allowable job levels between mentor and mentee (generally no more than 2 levels) Ø Maximum number of mentees per mentor Ø Eligibility to participate

PROGRAM PLANNING Plan the Mentor Matching Strategy and Tactics Ø Allow for self-matching or some involvement by the mentee in the selection of his or her mentor. Find Mentors Ø Conduct a "Call for Mentors, " which may range from nominations by senior managers formal specialty programs to selfidentification for general programs. Publicize Ø Publicize the mentoring program through multiple communication channels: (Emails; Program Newsletter; Share Point; etc. )

LAUNCHING THE PROGRAM Launch the Mentoring Program Ø Kick-off your mentoring program with a luncheon meeting to discuss the roles and responsibilities of mentors and mentees and share past successful mentoring stories. Create Mentoring Communication Ø Communicate frequently with mentor program participants. Ø To keep your program energized, continue to communicate with your participants throughout the life of the program. Ø Offer ideas for mentoring activities, additional training through webinars, and sharing successful mentoring stories.

PROGRAM METRICS Develop and Track Mentoring Program Metrics Monitor, track and measure the results of the program against the program objectives. § Are you meeting participation goals? § Are those participating in the mentoring program being successfully promoted at higher rates than non-participants? § What percentage of goals set during the mentorships has been achieved? § Do your mentors have the appropriate skills and experience for your mentees development needs? Communicate Success Clearly communicate the success of the mentoring program to your senior leaders inside and outside of your program.

WELCOME LETTER Sample Letter of Welcome [We would like to welcome you to [Program Name] Informal Mentoring Program. This initiative was developed to provide our individual contributors, supervisors, and managers with guidance from our more senior leaders on issues of professional development, problem-solving and teaching. The program has several goals, including: • • • To increase the level of professional satisfaction for mentees To cultivate professional relationships among colleagues (Importance of feedback) To expand the awareness and practice of mentoring in the organization Thank you for your interest and involvement in this exciting initiative. We are confident it will prove beneficial to all who participate and to [Program Name].

QUESTIONS CONTACT INFO: Randy Nicholson, Director of Learning & Development randy. nicholson@vectrus. com Nina Ghandour, Manager, Leadership Development nina. ghandour@vectrus. com

GOOD LUCK!