CAREERS & MANAGEMENT 3/2020 Business Spotlight 71Illustration: Minho Jung
Setting up a mentoring programme
Setting up a company mentoring programme re-
quires a significant allocation of time, money and
human resources. The programme needs the full
commitment of senior management, which should
also commit to taking part in the programme. In
larger organizations, it will need at least one full-time
manager to serve as the scheme coordinator. The
programme also needs to be aligned with the over-
all strategy and the human resources policies of the
organization. Objectives need to be clear to all those
involved, not least line managers and people exclud-
ed from the scheme. Running a pilot scheme first can
help iron out problems before a bigger roll-out.
Participants need to understand the roles and pro-
cedures and require training for this. Mentors must
be able to compare notes to help them improve. And
both mentors and mentees need to learn how to start
a relationship and how and when to end it.
The International Standards for Mentoring Pro-
grammes in Employment (ISMPE) provide a useful
framework for this process. They identify six core
standards and provide guidelines on how to ap-
proach each:
⋅ clarity of purpose
⋅ stakeholder training and briefing⋅ processes for selection and matching
⋅ processes for measurement and review
⋅ maintenance of high standards and ethics
⋅ administration and support
Yet, as Clutterbuck warns, there is always the danger
of making mentoring programmes too bureaucratic.
The paradox is that successful mentoring requires a
certain level of informality, which can be smothered
by too much bureaucracy. It is a challenge to all con-
cerned to get the balance right.The benefits of business mentoring
Successful mentoring can have a range of benefits for
the various stakeholders involved.
➻ To the organization. Benefits can include im-
provements in performance, communication, re-
tention, change management, leadership develop-
ment, talent management, innovation, learning and
problem-solving.
➻ To the mentee. The potential benefits are nu-
merous. Mentees can improve their performance,
career opportunities, networks, understanding of or-
ganizational politics as well as their self-confidence.
Mentees can also develop a better sense of who they
are and where they want to take their lives, a sense of
empowerment and a sense of direction.aligned: be ~ with sth.
[E(laInd] , auf etw.
abgestimmt werden
allocation [)ÄlE(keIS&n]
, Zuteilung
bureaucratic
[)bjUErE(krÄtIk]
, [wg. Aussprache]
commit to sth. [kE(mIt tu]
, sich zu etw. verpflichten
core [kO:] , Kern
iron out (a problem)
[)aIEn (aUt] , (ein Pro-
blem) aus dem Weg räumen
maintenance
[(meIntEnEns] , Wahrung
retention [ri(tenS&n]
, Beibehaltung;
hier: Mitarbeiterbindung
roll-out [(rEUl aUt]
, Einführung
scheme [ski:m]
, Programm
smother sth. [(smVDE]
, etw. ersticken;
hier: zunichte machen
stakeholder
[(steIk)hEUldE]
, Interessensvertreter(in);
hier: Beteiligte(r)Your choice: find
the best location