How to Expand to a Global Mentoring Program     

As a growing organization you may have multiple mentoring programs in different locations. You might find it difficult to manage them simultaneously. You may want to consider expanding to a global mentoring program to take advantage of the many benefits. If implemented correctly, managing a global program can become much simpler than managing multiple programs. Expanding to one global program can bring in additional benefits such as: 

1. Mentees can choose from a larger pool of mentors that may fit their specific mentoring goals more accurately. 
2. Managing the program will take less hours when global. Less administrators will be needed and can be directed toward other tasks for time and production efficiency. 
3. Your IT costs will reduce by having one platform, rather than different platforms for each region. For example, you can cut out the multiple licenses for separate programs for the users. 
4. Mentoring will be seen as part of your company culture globally and will strengthen it. 
5. Encourages employees to collaborate and network in different regions, widening every participant's professional network. 

How do you expand to a global mentoring program? 

After considering expanding your current regional program to reap the benefits, you will be looking for the next steps. We recommend following a defined path to ensure there is cohesiveness throughout the newly expanded version of your program.  

1. Decide what languages are needed, to ensure inclusion for everyone. 
2. Define your regions for the program and identify key stakeholders in each region who will be your champions. 
3. Agree globally on your company data fields that will work for all employees. 
4. Standardize employee data integration for each region 
5. Marketing your program will be key, create a global marketing plan that can be localized 
6. Agree on a matching algorithm that will allow participants to work together. For example, make sure mentors and mentees are matched in time zones that overlap working hours. 

Challenges of Moving to a Global Mentoring Program 

Global mentoring programs are larger and require different management than a smaller scale program. You might suspect many challenges could arise, and you’re not wrong. However, we know the common pitfalls you may run into when starting your global mentoring program and their solutions. 

Multiple expectations and confusion of program goals and individual roles :

Poor communication about your mentoring program often results in negative participant feedback due to unmet expectations. Employees misunderstand their roles within the program and become disengaged leading to mediocre program performance. 

Greater number of mismatched mentors and mentees :

It is not uncommon for large programs to receive large amounts of mismatched participants. Mentees will not achieve their goals and the program can lose brand credibility in the eyes of the participants. 

Failure to track development objectives for a larger pool: 

When matched participants are widely dispersed, administrators can struggle keeping track of them and can negatively allocate their time and resources. This can lead to a failure in demonstrating program success to top management and stakeholders. The ultimate goal is to not halt any program improvements that need to be made. 

Insala’s mentoring software solution has the features you need for your global mentoring program succeed and avoid these common pitfalls. Request a demo with one of our experts to learn more about what Insala’s software solutions can do for your organization.