Launch a Successful Mentoring Program in 12 Weeks

Mentoring programs can provide many benefits for an organization and the program’s individual participants. These benefits vary depending on the type of program implemented, but if you want to see any benefits at all there is always one thing that must happen. Your organization must have a plan to launch a successful mentoring program. We have seen many mentoring programs fail because there was no plan in place to facilitate the program’s launch. While some programs take less time to launch and others may take more time, we suggest setting aside 12 weeks to launch your mentoring program.

Here are the steps you can take to get your mentoring program started…

Week 1: Meet with stakeholders to understand what objectives your organization has for the mentoring program and how these will be measured. We have seen typical objectives include improving leadership development, enabling career development, and assisting in onboarding employees in a new role. 

Week 2: Define what requirements will be necessary for mentors and mentees to be part of the mentoring program and how they will enroll as a participant.

Week 3: Create a marketing plan. It is important to market your mentoring program to potential participants to ensure there is an adequate number of participants and that everyone has a clear understanding of the program.

Week 4: Define how participants will be matched. This should include the type of matching that will take place as well as what tool will be used for the actual matching process. Also, be sure that your matching questions align with and support your business objectives.

Week 5: Set up enrollment for your participants. Using online mentoring software can help to reduce administrative burden and provide a streamlined user experience.

Week 6: Communicate with your potential mentors and mentees to share the objectives of the program and the expectations for both roles. The communication strategy should be defined in your marketing plan. We recommend maintaining communication through email. Other forms of channels of communication include events and sharing company news through newsletters.

Week 7: Enroll and train your mentors. Be sure that you have an adequate number of mentors enrolled before you start enrolling mentees. The training provided will ensure that the mentor has a clear understanding of the objectives of their role.

Week 8 – 9: Enroll and train your mentees. Be sure to enroll mentees after you have met your recruitment goal for mentors. There will be more mentees interested in joining the program and their training should be very clear. This step could take up to 2 weeks. Training can be completed using webinars, videos, or in-person training. 

Week 10 – 11: Begin the matching process. Depending on the type of matching process that you choose, this could take up to 2 weeks. Don’t forget that implementing a mentor matching tool will make this process easier and more successful.

Week 12: Prepare for ongoing evaluation. Continuing to evaluate your program will allow you to successfully manage the program and make changes if your objectives are not being met.

At Insala, we don’t simply provide you with the tools that you need for your mentoring program, we also share our experience and knowledge to help you through the steps necessary to make it successful. To learn more about how Insala can help launch your mentoring program, request a demo.