Mentoring programs can provide numerous benefits to both mentees and mentors such as career advancement, networking opportunities, and development of coaching skills. However, for a mentoring program to be successful, it is important to establish clear goals, ensure support from senior management, and consider factors such as matching mentors and mentees appropriately and providing training. Both formal and informal mentoring programs can be effective, depending on the organization's culture.

1. Program performance management
So why do you want a mentoring program? Is it for networking? communication?
change? new employees? development? Programs have been designed for many reasons
and some for no reasons other than linking people together. In any case once you have
defined your goals for a program the design of a it becomes clearer. In this article, we
present a few things to consider.
Uses and Benefits
As mentioned above, formal mentoring programs within organizations are generally used
in a framework of development. They may also be designed to include a highly effective
means of managing talent and be useful in succession planning. They are powerful in
aiding the management of change and in communication, specifically, the sharing of
information and knowledge.
Additional ways mentoring programs can been used include:
• Improve productivity and loyalty
• Facilitate teamwork
• Foster creativity and problem solving
• Create "champions" of the organization's visions and values
The benefits to the organization and the individual are numerous. Among other things,
mentoring programs can facilitate greater confidence and transfer of knowledge as well
as quicken career progression for employees. Equally it gives mentors the opportunity to
develop their coaching and people management skills. Below is a sampling of potential
benefits.
Mentees
• Career advice and advancement
• Opportunity to network and raise profile
• Improved self-confidence - especially with new employees/grads
• Learns to understand the "formal" and "informal" structure of the business
• Speeds the induction/orientation process
• Someone to talk with openly
Mentor
• Opportunity to stay "fresh", in touch with what is happening on the "frontlines"
• Act as a role model

2. • Opportunity to develop people management skills as part of their personal
development
• Feel valued
• To contribute to the future of the organization
Organization
• Increased loyalty of employees
• Increased productivity
• Support for and acceleration of organizational change
• framework for successions planning and talent management
Success Factors:
If the program is carefully planned and specific outcomes and business objectives are set
along with consideration for the points below, the chances are high that the organization
and the people involved will experience high rewards. But it cannot be stressed enough
that the "right" systems and practices for your organization need to be put in place or be
ready to roll out, before a mentoring program should be launched. Some things to
consider:
• Mentors possess skills in line with coaching and developing people: good
listening skills, the ability to relate and give feedback, be supportive and non-
judgmental, to be confident
• Goals and objectives of the process are firmly established at the outset of the
program. This will also aid in the evaluation of the program
• Mentoring is recognized, promoted (usually led by example) and valued by senior
management as an important part of the manager's role or of the organizations
culture. It is not, however, mandatory.
• Program have good co-ordination and the time and resources to enable that to
happen - programs can be administratively intense especially in formal programs
during the matching processes
• Good training can make all the difference to help both mentors and mentees to get
the most out of their relationship at the start of the program when objectives are
set and ongoing for support.
• Mentors and mentees need to understand their respective roles and to be
supported to review the relationship and progress made on an ongoing basis
• Evaluation!! Incorporate an evaluation process ideally in the performance
management system to provide information that can be used to make programs
more effective in the future as well as track the benefits.
A few words on informal programs

3. In some instances it may make more sense to launch an informal mentoring program or
indeed run informal alongside formal programs. In either case, informal programs have
most of the same benefits of formal programs, but matching of mentors and mentees
occurs spontaneously without a formal matching process.
It can be said that formal mentoring programs tend to "force" people together based on
limited criteria and information gathered from some sort of questionnaire/application
form. Whereas informal matches tend to be based on personal alignments such as values,
beliefs, and individual needs. In my experience, formal programs are useful for
introducing mentoring to an organization with limited experience of mentoring or
alternatively if very specific goals and objectives need to be achieved and measured.
Informal programs are useful when the organization already has a development oriented
culture. Most of the mentoring relationships that I have been in and continue to be in
have been informal and spontaneous. In either case, given time, a mentoring culture can
develop whereby mentoring becomes spontaneous and self-sustaining.
In addition, I have used online mentoring, mentoring pools and group mentoring as a way
to continue to integrate mentoring into an organization's culture and to provide "just in
time" mentoring.
Some Barriers & Problems:
It is important to bear in mind that mentoring programs can be extremely powerful
developmental tools but they are not a panacea and they will not "fix" problems in the
organization. If there are inherent organizational cultural issues, the program may be
doomed to fail even before it begins. For example, senior managers don't feel there is
value in it and therefore don't support it, or the skills needed to mentor effectively don't
exist within the mentor population and are not provided for.
Mentoring programs are most successful, when careful consideration to the care and
support they require is given. For example, what kind of matching process will you use?
How will you ensure mentors and mentees understand their roles? Is there a need to
evaluate your program?
Some of the factors that can contribute to the failure of a program include:
• Organizational culture does not support it
• Mentors and mentees are expected to participate, choice is not an option
• Poor match of Mentor/Mentee
• People who are not in the mentoring program may feel left out or resentful thus
countering the potential benefits of the program - there are most always more
mentees than mentors
So what next

4. The success of a program is dependent on many factors, not least of which is the
organizational culture into which it is launched. Formal programs can work in some
organizations, but in others, the constraints of a formal program actually inhibit the
success. Likewise informal programs may be more appropriate if the organization's
culture supports it and measurement isn't really needed. Start by understanding what you
want to achieve and then build a program that meets those needs and considers the points
above. But most importantly, just do it. Your employees will thank you for it!
Thanks for reading!
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