Building Your Mentor Pool Building Your Mentor Pool
How to find, screen and keep the mentors your program needs.
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
Why people mentor
People mentor for different reasons
Interviews with 20 mentors found five kinds of motive.
- For themselves from rewards to enjoyment
- For the mentee helping them grow
- For the relationship the bond itself
- For the organisation its future
- Without deciding it just happens
What holds mentors back
Newcomers expect more cost than gain
Among 275 executives, those who had never mentored expected more costs and fewer benefits.
- Never mentored more costs, fewer benefits
- Mentored before fewer costs, more benefits
What mentors gain
Mentors gain too, so tell them
Across 18 studies, mentors were more satisfied and committed than non-mentors.
- Career advice their own career success
- Personal support commitment to the organisation
- Role modelling their own job performance
Recruiting mentors honestly
Show the role as it really is
The standard asks recruiters to show benefits, supports and challenges alike.
- What the role involves meetings, goals, notes
- The time it takes hours a month, months in all
- The support they get training, a contact person
- What is hard busy weeks, stalled pairs
- What they gain skills, satisfaction
Mentors who recruit mentors
Ask your mentors to bring peers
Give mentors what they need to invite people they know who fit.
Screening mentor applicants
Screen every mentor the same way
Set acceptance criteria first, then apply the same steps to everyone.
- Criteria who fits, who does not
- Application in writing
- Interview face to face
- References people who know them
Agreeing on the time commitment
Put the time commitment in writing
The youth mentoring standard asks for this in writing, or the program's own minimum.
Mentor commitment and program design
Build commitment and understanding
Program design worked through mentor commitment and understanding of the program.
- Program design matching, training, rules
- Mentor commitment they want to do it well
- Program understanding they know what is asked
- A program that works as mentors and mentees see it
Keeping mentors engaged
Support mentors all year long
Train, help, report back and thank mentors while the match runs.
- Training after matching at least once a year
- Help when stuck staff, guides, experienced mentors
- Mentee progress show them their impact
- Thanks every year, before the close
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- Janssen, S., van Vuuren, M. & de Jong, M. D. T. (2014) Motives to mentor: Self-focused, protégé-focused, relationship-focused, organization-focused, and unfocused motives Journal of Vocational Behavior, 85(3), 266-275
- Ragins, B. R. & Scandura, T. A. (1999) Burden or blessing? Expected costs and benefits of being a mentor Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20(4), 493-509
- Ghosh, R. & Reio, T. G. (2013) Career benefits associated with mentoring for mentors: A meta-analysis Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(1), 106-116
- Allen, T. D., Eby, L. T. & Lentz, E. (2006) The relationship between formal mentoring program characteristics and perceived program effectiveness Personnel Psychology, 59(1), 125-153
- MENTOR, The National Mentoring Partnership (2015) Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, Fourth Edition MENTOR, Boston
Recruit for fit, then keep them
Tell mentors the truth about the role and support them all year.