The Mentorship Program at T&F was created in 2010 based on employee feedback requesting guidance and support from experienced employees. The program is informal with 1:1 mentoring relationships lasting 6-12 months between employees in different divisions. Over 70 matches have been made in 5 years with only 2 not working out. Benefits include 20% of participants being promoted, 10% transferring, and under 5% turnover. The program increased employee engagement and led to improved productivity and cost savings.

1. The Mentorship Program at T&F
John Odike
Sr VP Human Resources
October 2016

2. My purpose today
To have a conversation with you about:
• The Mentoring program at Taylor & Francis
• The impact to our business

3. What is Mentoring
“The act of helping someone to understand more fully the environment
they find themselves in, to assist and support them in advancing their
career and life in general, and learn from their every day experiences”
It can also be defined as “the transfer and transmission of experience,
viewpoints and expertise from one person to another”

4. The T&F Mentoring Program Story
• In early 2010 the HR team at T&F conducted focus groups to debrief with
employees on a recently concluded survey and one of the main recurring
themes was the lack of a mentorship program.
• Employees felt that there was a vacuum in the organization in terms of
resources for those of them who wanted to grow into different areas of the
business. They needed guidance and they felt experienced employees in the
business were the right resource to fill that vacuum.
• The HR team met with the business leaders and got their support to roll out
a Mentorship program which has been quite the success story.

5. The T&F Mentoring Program
Program
Design
Attract
Participants
Connect
Mentors and
Mentees
Guide the
Program
Measure of
program
success
We made a conscious decision to make the program
loose and fun for participants, the format is 1:1 with a
6 month to1 year time line. Mentor and Mentee are
from different divisions
We actively recruit mentors that meet the traditional
mentor profile and also advertise for volunteers. For
the mentees we market the program on it’s merits at
the beginning of the year and we usually get an
impressive response
We have the participants complete a profile form that
highlights what they hope to gain from the program. Using
that we match them with mentors that we believe will meet
their needs. Of the close to 70 matches we have done in 5
years we have had all but 2 that did not work.
We have a formal structure in place to guide the
participants, designed number of meetings during
the program, provide help resources and
checkpoint reporting. At the end we have a
process to help them with closure and follow ups
At the end of each year we measure
the success of the program through
objectives like promotions, retention,
learnings by mentors and mentees .
We also measure the networking
activity

6. Benefits of the program to T&F
Post Mentoring Program Pre Mentoring Program
Participants and alumni are more actively engaged in their
jobs. These employees work with passion and feel a
profound connection to the company. People that are
actively engaged help move the organization forward. 10%
of the participant
54% of employees in the program shared that they were not
engaged employees prior to the program. These employees had
essentially “checked out,” sleepwalking through their workday and
putting time – but not passion.
20% of the participants have been promoted, 10% of them
have transferred to other divisions where their skills are
better suited and turnover in this population is less than
5%.
17% of the employees were actively disengaged. These employees
were busy acting out their unhappiness, undermining what their
engaged co-workers were trying to accomplish.
84% of highly engaged employees believe they can
positively impact the quality of their organization’s
products, 68% of highly engaged employees believe
they can positively impact costs in their job or unit.
Given these data, it is not difficult to understand that T&F has gotten positive returns from this program as improved employee engagement can not
only make a real difference, it can set the great organizations apart from the merely good ones.

7. Questions
?