Over 30 like-minded Employee Engagement enthusiasts met at Hays Human Resources, our generous sponsors, in Central Birmingham to consider Inclusion in the Workplace. In the wake of the referendum result, people are more uncertain about the future. There are examples that discrimination is on the rise. Employee engagement is more important than ever to succeed. Reverse Mentoring Gabrielle Ferguson, Talent Development Partner EMEA, CA Technologies inspired everyone by sharing her journey. Having successfully introduced Reverse Mentoring as an approach to improving diversity in the workplace, Gabi will soon be rolling this out across the business.

1. Engage 4 Success: Employee Engagement – Inclusion in the Workplace
CA Technologies Reverse Mentoring
Program
October 2016
Gabrielle Ferguson, Talent Development Partner EMEA
@gabifergusonx @https://uk.linkedin.com/in/gabiferguson

2. Agenda
CA TECHNOLOGIES, AN INTRODUCTION
REVERSE MENTORING OVERVIEW
ACTIVE LISTENING EXERCISE
MID-POINT REVIEW FEEDBACK
BREAKOUT SESSION
CLOSE
1
2
3
4
5
6

3. CA Technologies: We eliminate the barriers between ideas
and business outcomes
• One of the largest independent software corporations in the world
• Specialising in B2B commercial software in app development, agile
methodology and security software for cloud computing
• We count the majority of the Fortune 500 as our customers
• Just celebrated our 40th birthday as a company 
• 11,500 employees globally

5. What is Mentoring?
“Off-line help by one person to another
in making significant transitions in
knowledge, work or thinking”
David Megginson and David Clutterbuck

6. Reverse Mentoring: What?
Thrive Reverse Mentoring is a reversal of the traditional role of mentor and mentee.
Mentors will be high potential managers, who will coach, support, advise and share their
personal and professional experiences with senior leaders (the mentees)
Mentors will typically be:
- Less senior to their mentees AND
- Have a diverse characteristic that is different to that of the leader they will mentor (e.g.
generation, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation etc.)
Let’s challenge assumptions!

7. Mentors:
• Support the Thrive agenda by sharing personal and professional
experiences as a diverse employee
• Promote diversity in action: there are numerous research studies that
diverse teams produce better business results
• Develop skills in leadership, mentoring, crucial conversations, giving
feedback
• Develop confidence in building relationships with senior leaders
• Raise profile and visibility with senior teams
Reverse Mentoring: Why

8. Mentees:
• Gain an in-depth understanding of what it’s like to work at CA
Technologies as a diverse employee
• Benefit from insights of a diverse perspectives on the current state of CA
at a less senior level and the current working environment
• Gain greater self-awareness through feedback from the mentor
• Start to create a robust pipeline to identify, employ, develop and retain
diverse talent

9.  Reduces unconscious bias and challenges stereotypes/assumptions
 Educate senior managers about the challenges that diverse employees
experience
 Increase commitment among senior managers to Drive Talent Success by
recruiting, retaining, and promoting diverse talent
 Enhance leadership and coaching skills of both mentees and mentors;
 Enables a safe environment for conflict management - strengthening
relationships while in encouraging creativity and promoting effective problem
solving
CA Technologies:

10. Roles/Responsibilities:
Mentors:
Be honest about your own personal experiences and
challenges as a diverse employee
Proactively contact your mentees to schedule
meetings and prepare for discussions
Confidently challenge your mentee
Help the mentee understand how his/her behaviour
impacts others through constructive feedback
Provide mentees with honest feedback and
perceptions
Understand that participation in this program is not a
guarantee of future promotion or career
advancement
Mentees:
Approach the mentoring experience with an open mind and
a willingness to explore their own beliefs and behaviours
Be open to feedback from mentors and be willing to try new
approaches, possibly outside of your comfort zone
Is open about own journey sharing both failures and
successes
Communicate openly and honestly with their mentors
Prioritize time for meetings
Support both the mentor and the program

11. Reverse Mentoring: Success Measurements
 Successful completion of the program from all pairs
 Focus group data on tangible benefits/outcomes due to
participation
 Implementation of lessons learned within your own teams/day
job
 Improvement in diversity stats within team, interview panels
and candidates

12.  1.5 Hour Training with Reverse Mentoring Guidebook
 6 Sessions minimum over 6 months
 Halfway point check-in: September 2016
 Pilot finish and Celebration: December 2016
 Pledge board and blog posts for communication/promotion
 Launch of wider EMEA program, rollout 2017-18
Reverse Mentoring: Next Steps

13. Active Listening
What is it?

14. Step 1. Everyone into Pairs
Step 2. Assign numbers 1 and 2
Step 3. Speakers will speak for 3 minutes
Step 4. Listeners will ask questions for 2
minutes
Step 5. Listeners will summarise and
reflect for 1 minute.

15. Awareness of Body Language
- can be used to demonstrate that you are actually
listening!
• Nodding
• An appropriate facial expression –
mirroring
• Patterned breathing
• Encouraging noises
• Leaning in
• Avoiding barriers!

16. What is a good question?
- open and exploratory, giving your partner the
space to elaborate
• Putting at ease
• Re-establishing rapport
• Checking understanding
• Probing and guiding
questions
• Bringing perspective

17. The power of summarising
- what can this achieve?
• Checks understanding on both sides
• Brings clarity on the issue itself
• Gives another perspective on the issue
• Important to keeping a record – ensures progress
for partnerships

18. MID-POINT REVIEW
Key Topics discussed
- Individuals’ Backgrounds
- Current CA Technologies management team
- Communication challenges with European teams
- The wider diversity/inclusion agenda at CA
- Mentors shared their own personal experiences
Summary:
- All pairs had met monthly for 60 - 120 minutes
- All agreed they had been matched well
- First meeting was focused on rapport building, sharing backgrounds
and journey's including the “off-script” version
- All discussed confidentiality at the start and felt open enough to
share experiences

19. MID-POINT REVIEW: MENTEES
• I’m constantly fighting fires in the UK and from my European bosses. Diversity
just simply isn’t at the forefront compared to hard non-negotiable sales
targets.
• Everytime I’ve moved up in my career I’ve lost the relationships with my peers.
It’s actually quite lonely at the top and you need to be prepared for that.
• It’s actually not easy to go into the passenger seat and have a more balanced
conversation than I’m normally used to.
• I would 100% recommend other senior execs to do this. It’s been great to have
someone completely separate as a sounding board, who has a completely
different perspective.

20. MID-POINT REVIEW: MENTORS
• The feeling of being “classified” as a BAME employee, and a
senior female executive are similar. I was surprised by this, it
was very touching and a strong learning point for both of us
• A little bit of extra explanation can go a long way and stop a
diverse employee feeling victimised.
• “They sent a little Indian girl to fix the problem, let’s see what
she can do” – overheard from a customer CIO

21. BREAK-OUT SESSION:
Half Inclusion Champions
Half Senior Leaders
How would you be convinced to become involved in reverse mentoring?

22. Talent Development Partner EMEA
Gabrielle.Ferguson@CA.com
Gabrielle Ferguson
@gabifergusonx
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/gabiferguson