Strategies
for Sustaining A Mentoring Program
Barry Sweeny, © 2008
PAGE INDEX:
What's
the Problem?
Why is sustaining a mentoring program a concern?
Doesn't every employee understand the critical need to support
new employees as they enter the challenging career of a professional?
Isn't it self-evident that the mentoring concept is important?
No, it is not self-evident, even to other employees.
No, we can't assume that decision makers, such as a Board or CEO,
understand how critical new employee support is. Yes, proactively
planning how you will sustain your mentoring program over time
is very important. Here are a few reasons why.
1.
MENTORING IS INVISIBLE
Mentoring is fundamentally a private and confidential
relationship in which risk taking and learning in front of each
other is the norm for the mentoring pair. Ideally, the mentoring
relationship is the safe context needed to promote trying new
work strategies, learning, and professional growth. As important
as this confidential relationship is, that very fact makes effective
mentoring an "invisible" phenomena which those outside
of the mentoring process can not see or appreciate.
In some cases, this problem has meant that those
outside of the mentoring process have perceived that little is
happening and, therefore, that mentoring is not happening to an
adequate degree. Sometimes ii is the nature of the private mentoring
relationship itself that causes this perception, and not the effectiveness
or actual value of mentoring at all.
The Solution:
In cases like this there needs to be specific
strategies implemented to capture the very positive results and
powerful examples of professional development that result from
the mentoring. One means of capturing the great experiences mentor
pairs have is to ask that mentor or new employee support groups
describe what has been helpful, why they value mentoring=, or
what their life would be like without mentoring, etc. Capture
these comments on flip chart paper, and then ask if it is OK to
share these comments with the Board or other decision makers,
supervisors, etc. with out names, of course. Because of the group
process in listing these comments, people are usually very willing
to let the list be used to help "market" the mentoring
program and what it provides.
2.
PEOPLE CAN NOT VALUE WHAT THEY HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED
Why would we assume that persons who have never
received the support of a mentor would still value what mentoring
can accomplish? That is not a logical assumption but it
is one that is often made and often left unexamined. If that assumption
were true many supervisors and Board members would be supporters
of new employee induction and mentoring and those programs would
be far more prevalent than they are.
The Solution:
If we want decision makers to really support mentoring,
we need to help them discover the value of mentoring. Strategies
described in section #1 above will help, but until a person experiences
the support of a mentor, their own support of mentoring is superficial
and only theoretical. When cost cuts have to be made those areas
for which there is no deeper, personal understanding of value
will be cut. This ultimately means that we need to provide mentoring
to supervisors, when they are new, and when they are experiencing
change to a new building or new assignment. We need to provide
mentoring to new decision makers.
Anytime a new person or a new responsibility is
assumed a mentoring process should be created and supported. This
extends to when people are ready to retire as well. Someone who
is experienced in the process should be provided to walk with
the new person as they go through the experience. If we want our
employees to succeed, we need to create the conditions for success.
When a new manager or new Board member has benefited from mentoring
they understand personally why providing mentor support to new
employees is an investment that is critical to support.
3. LINK
MENTORING TO OTHER IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES
So often employees are struggling with multiple
innovations which have been presented to them in a fragmented
and unrelated way. If mentoring is perceived as a single initiative
with no relationship to other innovations or organizational goals,
then some day that mentoring program will be "at-risk".
In the competitive world of fast changes, a global ecomon, and
downsizing, the scarce resources, inadequate time, and press on
good people for their time will all create a competition, and
that competition means there will be winners and losers. For all
three reasons mentioned in this paper, mentoring is often the
loser at budget crunch time.
The Solution:
Link mentoring to peer coaching and other professional
development initiatives. Design your mentoring program to be the
first staff development step in a career long process of professional
growth. Design the new employee seminars or staff development
required of new employees in your orientation or induction program
to meet other organizational goals as well as new employee needs.
Examples include getting new employees up to speed with your organization's
on-going strategic initiatives.
Help new employees to understand and succeed with
their assignments by providing a day during orientation week during
which a session is led by a employee who experienced with that
work. The focus should not be on details, but rather should be
the big picture, major concepts and strategies, and on other helpful
ideas. If you want new employees to contribute to a company-wide
efforts focused on improvement goals, decide what you can do to
specifically help new employees to do that. What can be done during
new employee staff development? During mentoring meetings? During
new employee peer support groups?
One other perspective to consider under this category
is the sharing of resources and other opportunities. For example,
If you are planning to provide peer coaching training to a new
group of mentors this fall, why not open it up to experienced
mentors with no current protege assignment? They will benefit
by keeping their skills current. Why not open it up to any experienced
employees who want to improve their collaborative learning? It
will help those who are not mentor program participants to experience
the value of one aspect of mentoring and to interact with person
in the mentoring program about what they have experienced and
come to value.
4. HONOR
AND REINFORCE INFORMAL MENTORING AND SUPPORT TOO
Department heads, supervisors, team leaders, division
managers, specialists, learning center directors, and many, many
others are providing support and informal mentoring continually.
If informal mentoring is not acknowledged, those who informally
provide help can begin to resent formal mentors and the recognition
they receive.
The Solution:
The contributions of others who provide informal
mentoring deserves recognition. Also, informal mentoring must
be acknowledged if the mentoring program would hope to gain the
support of these persons who are not in the formal mentoring program.
What can be done? At staff meetings state the value of those who
help out whether formal mentors or not. Mentors should openly
state that they do not feel they have all of the answers and that
they value the contributions many others make to the support of
new employees. Reinforce the desired norms by saying "That
is the kind of professionals we are."
When there are formal recognition ceremonies for
mentors, someone important needs to repeat that same message about
the value of informal mentoring and the professionalism shown
by all staff members who support and assist each other. Organization-wide
conferences and trainings are another time when the whole staff
are together and ought (occasionally) to hear the same message.
Stating the message during contract negotiations is a powerful
reinforcement of the kind of professionalism desired from the
union too.
5. PROVIDE
SUPPORT TO MENTORS AND PROTEGES
Programs need to be sustained in the mind of each
individual program participant and well as in the mind of company
decision makers. It is true that decision makers can kill or keep
a whole program in one swoop, but dissatisfaction in the minds
of program participants can kill a program just as surely. Even
though it may take a little longer, your program can die.
"Support" means that people have the
tools, equipment, strategies, understanding, and skills they need
to succeed at the job they are asked to perform. When people do
not have what they perceive they rightly need to do the work expected,
they will sometimes persist but sometimes give up really trying
and just do the minimum.
The Solution:
Provide people with the things they need to do
the job, or do not ask them to do it. Provide initial and on-going
training and support. Provide it in both group settings, such
as in a mentor peer support group, and individually, such as through
the support of a Mentor Program Coordinator or Lead Mentor who
can assume the role of a "Mentor of Mentors".
The mentoring pair need time to plan, to create
materials, solve problems, to plan, etc. This time is critical
so that mentors may model the thinking, analysis, problem solving,
and decision making strategies that excellent employees use. When
new employees can experience and discuss these strategies, their
professional thinking skills are increased and their professional
growth is accelerated. Even if mentors have no formal coaching
role in your program, the mentoring pair need time to accomplish
this work. I recommend a 1/2 day every other month be provided
the pair for observation of each other and coaching conferences
before and after.
If the role of mentor includes coaching, provide
even more time. The observation of excellent staff at work by
both mentor and protege is critical if they are to improve their
own work, and the conference time after the observation is vital
as well. If coaching is added to mentoring, I recommend a 1/2
day each month (except December) be provided to the mentoring
pair to accomplish this purpose.
6. FIND
AND ACCESS GRANTS AND ON-GOING ORGANIZATION RESOURCES
If you only rely on grants to fund your program,
the money is only temporary, and you risk creating an attitude
in the organization that mentoring is a "frill" or a
nicety that can only be afforded when we can find the money. If
you use only organization resources to support your program, you
may be unable to grow the program and incorporate better program
practices, better training, increased stipends or formal recognition,
etc. as your program evaluation suggests you need.
The Solution
Do your "homework". Research the needs
of beginning employees and the potential impact on retention of
new employees and improvement of work performance that can be
related to mentoring. Look into both the literature and into your
local setting to define the needs. Find out your own organization's
employee retention rate. How many new employees leave after the
first year, second year, etc.? Find out your own organization's
investment in new employees, considering costs of recruitment,
orientation, training, manager time, etc. Calculate the "return
on investment" that can be gained by an quality induction
and mentoring program that cuts employee attrition in half, by
3/4, or to zero. Then check with other organizations' programs
to see what they have been able to show for results and to what
they attribute the results.
Seek organization funding as the "core"
resource to support your program. If you have done your homework
this may be sufficient to get you started with the program or
program changes you seek. However, as you seek organization funds,
frame your proposal as an experiment and state clearly what you
expect to accomplish and in how much time. If you have done your
homework, you will not over or under commit. Agree to be held
accountable for results. Agree to (and ask for the time to) assess
the effectiveness of the program.
If the organization will not fund the program
you need, use grant funding to initiate a new program entirely,
or to begin new components to your existing program. Write a time
line into the grant proposals you submit, describing how long
the grant is sought for and what the organization will do to assume
a greater share of the support once the "pilot"can be
assessed to demonstrate the results attained. Then make sure that
this is OK with the organization. Your basic approach is "I'm
going to use grant funding to assume the risks and prove the value
and benefits to the organization. Once the value is demonstrated
to the organization , the organization should assume the bulk
of the support for the program."
7. Plan
and Conduct a Comprehensive Program Assessment
Isn't it true that the time we need to provide
quality work is in direct competition with the very time we need
to do to improve that works!? In other words, we are so busy doing
our induction and mentoring program that we don't have the time
to evaluate the program for ways to improve what we are doing.
As true as this is, this situation may become a fatal flaw. If
we do not collect and use data about what we do to improve what
we do, we may not be allowed to continue doing it. After all,
what decision maker would allow a program to continue that can
not demonstrate that it is accomplishing what it is intended to
accomplish? Add to this problem that most of us do not count program
assessment and evaluation as one of our strengths.
The Solution:
Sorry, there is no easy solution. Just as we are
really struggling to more conduct effective staff assessment,
and organization improvement processes, so we must struggle and
learn how to conduct and use better program assessment. Simply
stated, you must be able to demonstrate the impact of your program
if you expect decision makers to continue to support your work.
Also, do not wait for them to ask for the data, prepare the processes
and data and report on results before they ask for it. There are
four aspects of this task:
