How to Create, Manage, and Measure an

Impactful Mentoring Program

The complete guide

Table of Contents

1 Why Mentoring Matters Page 3 6 Designing Your Program Page 9

Mentoring types

2 What Is a Mentoring Program? Page 4 Program structure: formal versus informal mentoring

Mentoring program planning: A handy checklist

3 When To Use Mentoring Page 4

7 What Makes a Great Mentor? Page 13

4 Benefits for All Involved Page 5 8 What Makes a Great Mentee? Page 13

5 Setting the Foundations of Your Page 6

9 Measuring Success Page 16
Mentoring Program

10 How Hivebrite Helps Page 17

 The benefits of mentoring are infinite.

For years, it has been praised as an effective way for individuals to advance personally and professionally.
Successful mentoring programs drive greater engagement and satisfaction, improve retention rates, increase diversity, and more.

An impactful mentoring program requires time, planning, and commitment. This guide will cover how to design a successful mentoring
program and the essential questions you need to answer before you begin!

Quick Fact

Approximately 70% of Fortune 500 companies offer mentoring programs

to their employees.1

1 From The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123301451869117603 3

What Is a Mentoring Program?

In a nutshell, a mentoring program connects people with specific skills, knowledge, and
experience (mentors) with individuals (mentees) who need or want the same skills to
advance in work, skill level, or academic performance.

When To Use Mentoring

Mentoring can be used for a wide variety of situations and at different points
in a person’s career:
A university could create a mentoring program to prepare students to enter the

workplace

An organization could build a mentoring program to induct and train newcomers

A company could create a mentoring program to support and guide employees

working towards a promotion

 Benefits for All Involved

An impactful mentoring program requires significant investment, but it is well worth

the effort as it creates a win-win-win situation for everyone.

The mentor
Opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills

Exposure to fresh ways of thinking

An added sense of purpose and responsibility for career

Strengthen ability to actively listen

The mentee
Opportunity to reflect on their own goal

Exposure to new ideas and ways of thinking

Advice on developing strengths and overcoming weaknesses

A broader professional network

An opportunity to develop specific skills

Guidance on professional development

Valuable insight into the next stage of university career The organization
Guidance on goals and help establishing a sense of direction
Develop a culture of personal and professional growth
A crash course in current company culture
Improve student employability

Improve employee promotability

Improve newcomer onboarding

Engage, retain, and develop top performers

And more... 5
Setting the Foundations of Your Mentoring Program

The first step to mentoring success is establishing what you want your mentoring program to achieve.

Examples:

Improve employee retention

Improve student employability

Improve an uneven gender balance in the leadership team and create a more inclusive workplace

Once you have locked in the goal of your program, identify who your target audience is. What are their development needs and
what would motivate them to participate? This step is crucial to attract people to join the program and deliver value.

Examples:

A mentee might sign up to develop a specific skill, build confidence, or explore professional development opportunities

A mentor might sign up to improve leadership skills, to make a meaningful difference in someone else’s career, or to be
exposed to fresh ways of thinking

Finally, establish a solid set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that will enable you to evaluate the program’s success. Justifying
resources is vital for organizations in any industry. You need to justify the time and effort invested in your mentoring program by
demonstrating the impact it has had on your goal(s).

Examples:

If your goal is to improve employee retention, your KPIs could be employee retention rate, employee engagement, and
employee satisfaction.
Designing Your Program

Once you’ve set the goals and how you will measure success, you can design your program.

Whatever the design, you must clearly define the parameters of the mentoring program (what’s in and out of bounds) and
expectations around giving and receiving feedback. What each party wants from the experience and how they wish to be held
accountable also needs to be clear.

Mentoring types

There are different types of mentoring programs. Depending on your mentoring program’s goal(s), some styles might be more
impactful than others.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common types of mentoring:

One on One Peer

In this traditional type of mentoring, a more experienced individual
is paired with a more junior individual to give them support,
advice, and guidance. This type of mentoring concentrates on
individual skill-building and relationship-building.
Peer mentoring is a relationship between people who are at the
same career stage or have a similar age. The exchange is usually
mutual, with each person sharing skills and knowledge from their
area of expertise. Peer mentoring builds a formal support system
and consequently offers psychosocial benefits for participants.

7
Group
Group mentoring involves one mentor and several mentees meeting
in a group rather than in pairs. This approach is helpful if your
organization is short on mentors. Plus, it improves team collaboration
skills and promotes a more inclusive environment.
Team
In this mentoring type, a group of mentors and mentees carry out
mentoring sessions as a team. This creates an opportunity for different
people with different profiles to come together and learn from each
other. This mentoring type can also help create a more inclusive
environment.

Reverse
Reverse mentoring pairs more seasoned employees with younger
team members, who can teach them about various topics of strategic
and cultural relevance, such as new technology, including social
media. Reverse mentoring encourages knowledge sharing throughout
the organization.
Program structure: formal versus informal mentoring
Do you want your mentoring program to be highly
structured and formalized, or more organic and informal?
Formal mentoring is structured and based on specific
objectives. Mentors and mentees tend to be matched up
by the organization running the program.
The official mentoring relationship lasts for a specified
amount of time and is formally ended—although
participants can then decide to continue their mentoring
relationship informally if they wish. Typically, participants
must commit to a certain number and frequency of
meetings and response times.
This structured and organized approach provides
accountability. It can also be easier to manage and tie back
to organizational objectives than informal mentoring. But
exchanges can feel forced.
Combining elements of both mentoring approaches can be effective. This way, your program is structured to help participants
reach their goals, but it is also flexible so that you can cater to varying individual needs, specific goals, and different learning styles.
Informal mentoring is more flexible. Here, the mentee
proactively contacts a mentor who has offered their time
and expertise to those needing it. This mentoring style
tends to be driven by the mentee and what they want to
learn.
There are not necessarily the same commitments regarding
the number, frequency of sessions, or mentorship duration.
In some cases, the mentee may contact the mentee for help
with a short term project or specific information.
Informal mentoring can feel more natural; however, it runs
the risk of going off track and disintegrating if it doesn’t
have a minimum structure.
The overall setup of your mentoring program principally
relies on the scale, structure, and culture of your
organization. If your organization’s culture is highly
corporate, a more formal and tightly organized mentoring
program may better attract your intended audience. If
your organization would prefer to begin with a more casual
approach, an informal self-serve mentoring style could be
best. Please keep in mind these structures are dynamic and
may evolve over time.
9
 Mentoring program planning: A handy checklist

Taking time to prepare a plan is critical for ensuring a successful mentoring program. Here is a checklist of essential considerations to
plan and prepare your program:

The program

Participation Mentoring structure

What type of mentoring is best for your program’s goal(s)?
Enrollment
Is the program open to everyone? Onboarding and training
Do people have to apply, or will it be based on How will you onboard the participants?
invitation-only? What training and support materials will you provide?
Will there be a pilot session if this is a new program?
Spaces
Will you limit the number of participants? Program manager
Who should participants turn to for questions, help, and
Sign-up process guidance?
What is the sign-up process?
Matching
Will participants fill out a registration form? Will there be an
interview? Will the mentees choose the mentor? Or will the program
manager be responsible for matching?
Choosing participants
Duration
How will you choose the people who participate in the
program? Will the connection last weeks, months, indefinitely, or be a
single session?

Commitment
How many sessions must the participants commit to, if any?
 Program Promotion

Promotion materials
What do you need to create to promote your program?
I.e., email banner, posters, a dedicated landing page... Evaluation
Promotion channels
Feedback
Where will you promote the program?
I.e., Intranet, blog, website, email… How will participants give feedback and how often?

Influencers Tracking progress

Could influential people in the organization help promote How will you track progress throughout the program?
the program?
KPIs
Program ambassadors What are your performance KPIs?
Are there participants willing to share testimonials on the
program to help promote it?

11
Mentor and Mentee Training

Successful mentoring programs train mentors and mentees on their roles and expectations, effective communication strategies, and
relationship-building techniques.

At the very least, participants should be trained on:

How available they should be

What information is confidential

When they should contact someone in the organization for help or guidance

How to evaluate the meetings and the program

Creating resources to help and guide participants, such as templates to support productive sessions and track goals, is a must.
You could also include tips for getting the most out of the relationship and jump-starting conversions.
It is also a good idea to create an online support space for mentors to ask one another questions and share ideas.

Top tip

Steward your mentors so they become mentors for life.

Steward your mentees hoping that the experience will make them more likely
to become mentors themselves one day.
What Makes a Great Mentor?

The mentor is responsible for providing the tools, guidance,

support, and feedback the mentee needs to thrive.

Great mentors are not only leaders in their fields. They’re

enthusiastic people who take pleasure in helping others achieve
their goals. They can actively listen and provide targeted
feedback—drawing on both personal experience and failures.

A great mentor values lifelong learning and is curious. The

relationship is more likely to flourish if all parties are open to
growing.

Your pool of mentor talent should be as diverse as possible—

representing different ages, ethnicities, economic backgrounds,
genders, and so on.

Good mentors demonstrate strong communication and leadership

skills. However, if they don’t quite tick this box, you could consider
some form of mentor training to develop their communication and
leadership skills.

Make sure that each mentor has enough availability to participate.

You need someone that has the time and energy to commit to the
program. A mentor, even with the best intentions, that is short on
time won’t benefit anyone.

13
What Makes a Great Mentee?

Mentees are also crucial to the success of the mentoring program.

You want people who are motivated to be part of the program

to expand their skills. They need to have an eagerness to learn—
especially from the person selected as their mentor. They need to
be curious and open to trying new ideas and approaches.

Mentees must be clear and realistic about the results they want to
achieve with the program. In addition, they need to be proactive
in achieving these goals, for example, by asking the appropriate
questions and bringing up relevant discussion topics with the
mentor.

The mentee must be willing and available to meet regularly and

be respectful of the mentor’s time. Accountability and gratitude
are both crucial elements for a successful mentoring partnership.
Measuring Success

You must measure the success of the program in relation to both the participants and the organization.

Look at the KPIs you identified to measure the success of the mentoring program. Ask participants and stakeholders how well the
mentoring program met their goals and the goals of the organization.

Remember to improve your mentoring program continually. Use surveys, check-ins, or other feedback tools to gather insights from
participants. Be prepared to make tweaks and changes to ensure the best experience and outcomes for everyone involved.

Finally, be sure to celebrate success stories! Give kudos to impactful mentors. Give shoutouts for mentees’ achievements.

Quick Fact

92% of small business owners agree that mentors have a direct impact on the
growth and survival of their business and 89% of small business owners who
didn’t have a mentor wish that they did.2

2 https://www.kabbage.com/resource-center/grow/data-shows-mentors-are-vital-to-small-business-success/ 15
How Hivebrite Helps

Choosing the right software can make a massive difference to the experience of your mentors and mentees.
Hivebrite is a comprehensive and flexible community engagement platform. It empowers institutions of all sizes and sectors to
launch, manage, and grow fully branded private communities.

With Hivebrite’s Mentoring Module, you can:

Select and build your community of mentors based on custom questions and criteria

Create a mentor directory

Enable mentees to search for mentors based on skill, role, and more

Enable mentees to send mentorship requests directly to mentors

Enable mentors to accept or deny mentorship requests

Set up automated communications

Enhance the mentoring structure with additional community tools

Create dedicated online spaces on the community platform for mentors and mentees to exchange

Promote your mentoring program to your community

And more

Schedule a demo today to discover more about Hivebrite’s platform and Mentoring Module