Although coaching and mentoring can overlap, they perform different functions.

Mentoring

Mentoring is the long-term provision of guidance to someone less experienced in order to support their general development at work and involves:

• a reactive approach with the mentor guiding the mentee
• the mentor listening, offering advice and making suggestions that can help the mentee develop
• a broader view of the person - personal issues can be discussed
• an informal and less structured provision - meetings take place as and when the mentee needs guidance

Mentoring is a supportive form of employee training that many experts believe should be independent from other training activities.

Mentoring usually takes place outside the conventional top-down employee-manager relationship. Instead, the mentee sets the agenda based on their own development needs, with the mentor providing guidance to help the mentee achieve their goals.

The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) provides further guidance on the differences between coaching and mentoring.

Try to avoid a situation where an individual is mentored by their immediate manager. This is because combining the management relationship with the more personal and equal nature of the mentoring relationship could damage the former. However, for smaller businesses, it may be more difficult to avoid immediate managers being mentors. In these situations, you could consider external mentors.

Another form of mentoring, business mentoring, focuses more on the overall needs and goals of a business, rather than an individual's personal development. To find out more, see the benefits of business mentoring.

Coaching

Coaching is aimed at developing a person's skills and knowledge in a specific area of work leading to achievement of an objective and is:

• proactive
• generally on a short term basis focusing on performance at work
• based on the coach directing the learner

Mentoring can take several forms including one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring, peer learning alliances and remote mentoring. To get the most from mentoring for your business you may find that a combination of these mentoring types works best.

One-to-one mentoring

One-to-one mentoring consists of usually one but sometimes more than one mentee to each mentor, with each mentoring relationship existing independently.

Group mentoring

Group mentoring or mentoring circles typically consists of a group of several individuals being mentored by one mentor, usually with the ratio of one mentor for every two to three mentees, but no individual mentor being allocated to a mentee.

Advantages of group mentoring

The advantages of group mentoring are:

• efficiency - efficient use of mentors, with a higher ratio of mentees to mentors
• relationships between individuals - the mentees in the group can build a rapport and integrate with colleagues
• feedback - the mentees can receive multiple sources of feedback

However, there are some disadvantages to group mentoring, such as:

• some people do not work well in a group environment
• there may be concerns about confidentiality
• the mentee has less or possibly no one-on-one contact with a mentor and so sometimes their individual needs aren't fully met

Group mentoring has to be more structured than one-to-one mentoring as scheduling is necessary in order to accommodate everyone.

Peer learning alliances

Peer learning alliances or peer-to-peer learning have a different structure to standard peer mentoring in that there is no mentor or mentee.

Instead, both participants have similar levels of experience within the business - preferably in different areas - and each partner guides the other.

The purpose of a peer learning alliance is to:

• share experiences and knowledge
• challenge each other's assumptions
• act as a sounding board
• expand each other's networks
• provide a different point of view

Remote mentoring

If the mentor and mentee do not work in the same location, the mentoring may have to be done over the phone, using video conferencing, via email or social networking. If the needs and aims of the individual are clearly outlined and a structure set in place remote mentoring can work as effectively as face-to-face contact between the individual and their mentor.

A well-structured mentoring programme can benefit both your business and your employees.

Mentoring: business benefits

Some benefits that mentoring can bring to your business are:

• staff development - employees being mentored will develop both in a professional and personal capacity
• business insight - broaden staff's insight into your business
• productivity and performance - increase productivity and improve the individual's performance
• staff retention - help to engage employees, which should lead to better retention levels and lower staff turnover
• knowledge sharing - give the mentor a sense of responsibility and the satisfaction of passing on their knowledge
• stronger relationships - build relationships between employees by encouraging the exchange of information and experience

Benefits of mentoring to the individual

Mentoring can be very beneficial to individuals being mentored including:

• integration - helping the individual integrate more effectively within the organisation
• confidence - increase the individual's confidence
• business awareness - give the mentee a stronger awareness of the culture and objectives of the business
• identify strengths and weaknesses - allow the mentee to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, which can in turn lead to faster learning and personal development

When establishing a mentoring programme in your workplace the first thing you need to do is decide what you want your mentoring programme to achieve.

Formal or informal mentoring?

An informal mentoring programme may aim to induct the mentee into the business, and identify a sympathetic colleague for them to discuss any issues with.

A more formal mentoring programme may aim to encourage the mentee to achieve specific development goals set by themselves or by their line manager.

See more on mentoring: formal and informal programmes.

It may be a good idea to set up a pilot mentoring programme with just a few people participating, to see whether mentoring will work in your business. If successful, it can then be extended.

Guidelines for mentoring programmes

Both the mentor and the mentee should know what their roles are, and the objectives of the mentoring programme should be clear. Draw up guidelines as to how the programme will operate and be monitored.

Mentoring programmes should:

• use mentors who are well-matched to their mentees
• be supported by an objective co-ordinator, such as a human resources practitioner
• make a clear distinction between the roles of line managers and mentors

The International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment (ISMPE) set the standard for mentoring programmes. You may wish to use them to design your programme and/or to achieve the standard after one year of operation.

Training staff to become mentors

Mentoring is more likely to be successful if the individual you choose as the mentor has the necessary mentoring skills.

Identify employees who you think will make good mentors and consider enrolling them on a training programme.

Using mentoring co-ordinators

Ideally, your mentoring programme should be designed by trained co-ordinators.

You can hire consultants to design an effective programme for your business and train your employees in mentoring - however, this can be expensive.

Training providers should be accredited by the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC).

There are also courses to train mentoring coordinators.

Supporting the mentoring relationship

Just training mentors is not enough. They will need support for at least the first year of the mentoring programme in order to help maximise its success.

Useful support methods include:

• having a steering group, who monitor relationships
• bringing mentors together to review their experience and reinforce their skills in the role
• having an online information resource to answer their queries in real time

In informal mentoring programmes, a mentor will induct the mentee into the business and lead the initial meetings, which may be regular and frequent.

As the mentee becomes more confident and experienced in their role, they can ask for guidance from the mentor only when needed.

Formal mentoring programmes may be more structured, with the development of the mentoring relationship set out according to mentoring guidelines.

One approach is for a mentoring supervisor to agree the mentee's developmental objectives, with the mentor helping the mentee to check their overall plan.

Mentoring programme: example structure

1. The mentoring supervisor briefs the mentee and mentor separately on the aims of the mentoring scheme, the behavioural guidelines, and discussions of their expectations and concerns.
2. The mentee and the supervisor identify the mentee's strengths and weaknesses, and the skills they wish to improve, and then set developmental objectives to build on the strengths and address any weaknesses.
3. The supervisor discusses the mentee's objectives with the mentor.
4. The mentor and mentee use the objectives to develop simple goals as part of the mentoring programme. Discussions continue at appropriate intervals.
5. Discussion of the mentee's progress takes place between the mentor and the supervisor.
6. After a predetermined length of time, the mentor and mentee assess whether their mentoring relationship has accomplished its goals. This is reported back to the supervisor who can then evaluate its effectiveness and suggest any further course of action if required.

The mentoring relationship will be more effective if both parties have the same expectations from the beginning. If these are not set out in mentoring guidelines, you should encourage the mentee and mentor to establish their own ground rules in their initial meeting.

Mentoring relationship: setting ground rules

Encourage the mentee to use the initial meeting to establish the attitude and behaviour expected of them, and as a way of gaining an understanding of the business.

To establish the nature of the mentoring relationship, the mentor and mentee should discuss:

• how much time the mentor will have to spend on mentoring
• how much interaction the mentor expects
• how the mentee should ask for guidance
• who the mentee should speak to if the mentor is unavailable

Regarding the work and company structure, you should encourage discussion as to:

• what the most challenging aspects of the job are
• whether the mentor has taken any courses they would recommend
• what type of training the mentee will receive
• how the mentee can expect to advance

Making the best use of the mentor

A well-organised approach to mentoring is preferable. The mentee should have a clear idea of what they want out of each meeting with their mentor, possibly using an agenda.

The mentee should:

• keep to scheduled meetings
• seek to resolve problems themselves, but entrust the mentor with any concerns they have
• be prepared to accept constructive criticism
• prepare questions in advance

The mentor should:

• allocate sufficient, uninterrupted time where discussion can go beyond any immediate issue
• ensure the mentee feels comfortable instigating meetings
• listen carefully to the mentee's ideas and concerns and try to offer a new perspective
• identify strengths and weaknesses - and recommend ways to further their development
• assist the mentee to set goals
• be fair when giving feedback on performance

What makes a good mentor?

• Good communication skills - the mentor will share information with the mentee and should encourage the mentee to develop their own views and opinions.
• Skills and experience - to develop and provide guidance to the mentee. The mentor should be able to clarify the mentee's ideas and help them plan to achieve their goals.
• Good interpersonal skills - the mentor should help the mentee expand their network of contacts by developing networking skills.

Your business should issue guidelines on the structure and objectives of any mentoring programme, including how it will be monitored. See set up a mentoring programme.

Both mentor and mentee must be sure of their function in the mentoring relationship. The guidelines should make a clear distinction between the mentor's responsibilities and those of the line manager.

The business should also provide training as to what does and does not fall within the remit of a mentor - for example how to deal with issues of confidentiality and how to respond when discussion leads into issues outside of the working environment.

How long should the mentoring relationship last?

The aim of mentoring is to help the mentee move forward in their career and life goals.

In a structured mentoring programme, the relationship will come to an end in accordance with the development plan.

Where the mentoring scheme is more informal, the relationship will come to a natural end when the mentee feels that they have achieved their goals.

It's worth having procedures in place to deal with situations where mentees wish to end their mentoring relationship prematurely if a mentoring relationship doesn't work out. See mentoring: resolving problems.

Contact between mentor and mentee

How often the mentor and mentee meet is ultimately their decision.

However, regular meetings should be arranged to ensure an effective, continuous relationship.

Whether your mentoring programme is structured formally or is more informal, you should ensure you monitor, record and evaluate it in order for your business to get the most from mentoring.

Monitoring informal mentoring programmes

You can monitor an informal mentoring scheme, by getting the mentor to:

• record each meeting, what it involved and the main objectives of the activity
• record a summary of discussion and action points

Monitoring formal mentoring programmes

In more formal mentoring programmes, you can monitor the programme by:

• training the mentors
• considering how to match mentors to mentees
• issuing guidelines as to what mentoring involves
• understanding when mentoring would be effective
• setting up contractual arrangements where necessary
• developing a system to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme

It is good practice to measure the progress of the mentoring relationship:

• at the beginning to establish expectations
• after six months to assess how well the relationship is working
• after 12 months to measure outcomes

Evaluating a mentoring programme

It is important to evaluate your mentoring programme to ensure that it is achieving its aims. You should do this by assessing the mentors as well as the programme itself.

To evaluate the programme, you could ask all participants to give feedback on the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship.

The formats for the feedback could include:

• a simple questionnaire where the participants answer specific questions about the programme
• a written report from each participant
• an interview of each of the participants

You can evaluate the mentor in the same way. However, also consider including specific mentoring criteria as development goals for mentors.

Mentoring relationships may not work out for several reasons. For example:

• time - the mentor may become involved in other projects, thus taking up time set aside for mentoring
• personality clash - there could be a clash of personalities, when the mentor and mentee fail to agree on the objectives of their relationship
• goals - the mentee could become frustrated that their goals are not being achieved

How to resolve problems with a mentoring relationship

You should devise a procedure for dealing with a failing mentoring relationship that creates the minimum amount of disruption to work or bad feeling from either party. Mentors and mentees should be made aware from the beginning of the programme that they should inform you if problems develop.

Methods of resolving issues include:

• encouraging the pair to resolve their differences by setting up a meeting where they can discuss their issues - and with a mediator present if necessary
• setting up separate support groups for mentors and mentees
• if the pair cannot resolve their differences, don't force them to work together and instead find a new mentor for the mentee

If you find that a mentor proves to be incompatible with two or more mentees, you might need to reassess their suitability for such a role. Equally, mentees who are not compatible with more than one mentor may have wider problems that should be addressed.

In order to give the mentor clear feedback about what they might do differently and what they did well, you should try to find out from the mentee why they wanted to end the relationship.

Although coaching and mentoring can overlap, they perform different functions.

Mentoring

Mentoring is the long-term provision of guidance to someone less experienced in order to support their general development at work and involves:

• a reactive approach with the mentor guiding the mentee
• the mentor listening, offering advice and making suggestions that can help the mentee develop
• a broader view of the person - personal issues can be discussed
• an informal and less structured provision - meetings take place as and when the mentee needs guidance

Mentoring is a supportive form of employee training that many experts believe should be independent from other training activities.

Mentoring usually takes place outside the conventional top-down employee-manager relationship. Instead, the mentee sets the agenda based on their own development needs, with the mentor providing guidance to help the mentee achieve their goals.

The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) provides further guidance on the differences between coaching and mentoring.

Try to avoid a situation where an individual is mentored by their immediate manager. This is because combining the management relationship with the more personal and equal nature of the mentoring relationship could damage the former. However, for smaller businesses, it may be more difficult to avoid immediate managers being mentors. In these situations, you could consider external mentors.

Another form of mentoring, business mentoring, focuses more on the overall needs and goals of a business, rather than an individual's personal development. To find out more, see the benefits of business mentoring.

Coaching

Coaching is aimed at developing a person's skills and knowledge in a specific area of work leading to achievement of an objective and is:

• proactive
• generally on a short term basis focusing on performance at work
• based on the coach directing the learner

Mentoring can take several forms including one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring, peer learning alliances and remote mentoring. To get the most from mentoring for your business you may find that a combination of these mentoring types works best.

One-to-one mentoring

One-to-one mentoring consists of usually one but sometimes more than one mentee to each mentor, with each mentoring relationship existing independently.

Group mentoring

Group mentoring or mentoring circles typically consists of a group of several individuals being mentored by one mentor, usually with the ratio of one mentor for every two to three mentees, but no individual mentor being allocated to a mentee.

Advantages of group mentoring

The advantages of group mentoring are:

• efficiency - efficient use of mentors, with a higher ratio of mentees to mentors
• relationships between individuals - the mentees in the group can build a rapport and integrate with colleagues
• feedback - the mentees can receive multiple sources of feedback

However, there are some disadvantages to group mentoring, such as:

• some people do not work well in a group environment
• there may be concerns about confidentiality
• the mentee has less or possibly no one-on-one contact with a mentor and so sometimes their individual needs aren't fully met

Group mentoring has to be more structured than one-to-one mentoring as scheduling is necessary in order to accommodate everyone.

Peer learning alliances

Peer learning alliances or peer-to-peer learning have a different structure to standard peer mentoring in that there is no mentor or mentee.

Instead, both participants have similar levels of experience within the business - preferably in different areas - and each partner guides the other.

The purpose of a peer learning alliance is to:

• share experiences and knowledge
• challenge each other's assumptions
• act as a sounding board
• expand each other's networks
• provide a different point of view

Remote mentoring

If the mentor and mentee do not work in the same location, the mentoring may have to be done over the phone, using video conferencing, via email or social networking. If the needs and aims of the individual are clearly outlined and a structure set in place remote mentoring can work as effectively as face-to-face contact between the individual and their mentor.

A well-structured mentoring programme can benefit both your business and your employees.

Mentoring: business benefits

Some benefits that mentoring can bring to your business are:

• staff development - employees being mentored will develop both in a professional and personal capacity
• business insight - broaden staff's insight into your business
• productivity and performance - increase productivity and improve the individual's performance
• staff retention - help to engage employees, which should lead to better retention levels and lower staff turnover
• knowledge sharing - give the mentor a sense of responsibility and the satisfaction of passing on their knowledge
• stronger relationships - build relationships between employees by encouraging the exchange of information and experience

Benefits of mentoring to the individual

Mentoring can be very beneficial to individuals being mentored including:

• integration - helping the individual integrate more effectively within the organisation
• confidence - increase the individual's confidence
• business awareness - give the mentee a stronger awareness of the culture and objectives of the business
• identify strengths and weaknesses - allow the mentee to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, which can in turn lead to faster learning and personal development

When establishing a mentoring programme in your workplace the first thing you need to do is decide what you want your mentoring programme to achieve.

Formal or informal mentoring?

An informal mentoring programme may aim to induct the mentee into the business, and identify a sympathetic colleague for them to discuss any issues with.

A more formal mentoring programme may aim to encourage the mentee to achieve specific development goals set by themselves or by their line manager.

See more on mentoring: formal and informal programmes.

It may be a good idea to set up a pilot mentoring programme with just a few people participating, to see whether mentoring will work in your business. If successful, it can then be extended.

Guidelines for mentoring programmes

Both the mentor and the mentee should know what their roles are, and the objectives of the mentoring programme should be clear. Draw up guidelines as to how the programme will operate and be monitored.

Mentoring programmes should:

• use mentors who are well-matched to their mentees
• be supported by an objective co-ordinator, such as a human resources practitioner
• make a clear distinction between the roles of line managers and mentors

The International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment (ISMPE) set the standard for mentoring programmes. You may wish to use them to design your programme and/or to achieve the standard after one year of operation.

Training staff to become mentors

Mentoring is more likely to be successful if the individual you choose as the mentor has the necessary mentoring skills.

Identify employees who you think will make good mentors and consider enrolling them on a training programme.

Using mentoring co-ordinators

Ideally, your mentoring programme should be designed by trained co-ordinators.

You can hire consultants to design an effective programme for your business and train your employees in mentoring - however, this can be expensive.

Training providers should be accredited by the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC).

There are also courses to train mentoring coordinators.

Supporting the mentoring relationship

Just training mentors is not enough. They will need support for at least the first year of the mentoring programme in order to help maximise its success.

Useful support methods include:

• having a steering group, who monitor relationships
• bringing mentors together to review their experience and reinforce their skills in the role
• having an online information resource to answer their queries in real time

In informal mentoring programmes, a mentor will induct the mentee into the business and lead the initial meetings, which may be regular and frequent.

As the mentee becomes more confident and experienced in their role, they can ask for guidance from the mentor only when needed.

Formal mentoring programmes may be more structured, with the development of the mentoring relationship set out according to mentoring guidelines.

One approach is for a mentoring supervisor to agree the mentee's developmental objectives, with the mentor helping the mentee to check their overall plan.

Mentoring programme: example structure

1. The mentoring supervisor briefs the mentee and mentor separately on the aims of the mentoring scheme, the behavioural guidelines, and discussions of their expectations and concerns.
2. The mentee and the supervisor identify the mentee's strengths and weaknesses, and the skills they wish to improve, and then set developmental objectives to build on the strengths and address any weaknesses.
3. The supervisor discusses the mentee's objectives with the mentor.
4. The mentor and mentee use the objectives to develop simple goals as part of the mentoring programme. Discussions continue at appropriate intervals.
5. Discussion of the mentee's progress takes place between the mentor and the supervisor.
6. After a predetermined length of time, the mentor and mentee assess whether their mentoring relationship has accomplished its goals. This is reported back to the supervisor who can then evaluate its effectiveness and suggest any further course of action if required.

The mentoring relationship will be more effective if both parties have the same expectations from the beginning. If these are not set out in mentoring guidelines, you should encourage the mentee and mentor to establish their own ground rules in their initial meeting.

Mentoring relationship: setting ground rules

Encourage the mentee to use the initial meeting to establish the attitude and behaviour expected of them, and as a way of gaining an understanding of the business.

To establish the nature of the mentoring relationship, the mentor and mentee should discuss:

• how much time the mentor will have to spend on mentoring
• how much interaction the mentor expects
• how the mentee should ask for guidance
• who the mentee should speak to if the mentor is unavailable

Regarding the work and company structure, you should encourage discussion as to:

• what the most challenging aspects of the job are
• whether the mentor has taken any courses they would recommend
• what type of training the mentee will receive
• how the mentee can expect to advance

Making the best use of the mentor

A well-organised approach to mentoring is preferable. The mentee should have a clear idea of what they want out of each meeting with their mentor, possibly using an agenda.

The mentee should:

• keep to scheduled meetings
• seek to resolve problems themselves, but entrust the mentor with any concerns they have
• be prepared to accept constructive criticism
• prepare questions in advance

The mentor should:

• allocate sufficient, uninterrupted time where discussion can go beyond any immediate issue
• ensure the mentee feels comfortable instigating meetings
• listen carefully to the mentee's ideas and concerns and try to offer a new perspective
• identify strengths and weaknesses - and recommend ways to further their development
• assist the mentee to set goals
• be fair when giving feedback on performance

What makes a good mentor?

• Good communication skills - the mentor will share information with the mentee and should encourage the mentee to develop their own views and opinions.
• Skills and experience - to develop and provide guidance to the mentee. The mentor should be able to clarify the mentee's ideas and help them plan to achieve their goals.
• Good interpersonal skills - the mentor should help the mentee expand their network of contacts by developing networking skills.

Your business should issue guidelines on the structure and objectives of any mentoring programme, including how it will be monitored. See set up a mentoring programme.

Both mentor and mentee must be sure of their function in the mentoring relationship. The guidelines should make a clear distinction between the mentor's responsibilities and those of the line manager.

The business should also provide training as to what does and does not fall within the remit of a mentor - for example how to deal with issues of confidentiality and how to respond when discussion leads into issues outside of the working environment.

How long should the mentoring relationship last?

The aim of mentoring is to help the mentee move forward in their career and life goals.

In a structured mentoring programme, the relationship will come to an end in accordance with the development plan.

Where the mentoring scheme is more informal, the relationship will come to a natural end when the mentee feels that they have achieved their goals.

It's worth having procedures in place to deal with situations where mentees wish to end their mentoring relationship prematurely if a mentoring relationship doesn't work out. See mentoring: resolving problems.

Contact between mentor and mentee

How often the mentor and mentee meet is ultimately their decision.

However, regular meetings should be arranged to ensure an effective, continuous relationship.

Whether your mentoring programme is structured formally or is more informal, you should ensure you monitor, record and evaluate it in order for your business to get the most from mentoring.

Monitoring informal mentoring programmes

You can monitor an informal mentoring scheme, by getting the mentor to:

• record each meeting, what it involved and the main objectives of the activity
• record a summary of discussion and action points

Monitoring formal mentoring programmes

In more formal mentoring programmes, you can monitor the programme by:

• training the mentors
• considering how to match mentors to mentees
• issuing guidelines as to what mentoring involves
• understanding when mentoring would be effective
• setting up contractual arrangements where necessary
• developing a system to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme

It is good practice to measure the progress of the mentoring relationship:

• at the beginning to establish expectations
• after six months to assess how well the relationship is working
• after 12 months to measure outcomes

Evaluating a mentoring programme

It is important to evaluate your mentoring programme to ensure that it is achieving its aims. You should do this by assessing the mentors as well as the programme itself.

To evaluate the programme, you could ask all participants to give feedback on the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship.

The formats for the feedback could include:

• a simple questionnaire where the participants answer specific questions about the programme
• a written report from each participant
• an interview of each of the participants

You can evaluate the mentor in the same way. However, also consider including specific mentoring criteria as development goals for mentors.

Mentoring relationships may not work out for several reasons. For example:

• time - the mentor may become involved in other projects, thus taking up time set aside for mentoring
• personality clash - there could be a clash of personalities, when the mentor and mentee fail to agree on the objectives of their relationship
• goals - the mentee could become frustrated that their goals are not being achieved

How to resolve problems with a mentoring relationship

You should devise a procedure for dealing with a failing mentoring relationship that creates the minimum amount of disruption to work or bad feeling from either party. Mentors and mentees should be made aware from the beginning of the programme that they should inform you if problems develop.

Methods of resolving issues include:

• encouraging the pair to resolve their differences by setting up a meeting where they can discuss their issues - and with a mediator present if necessary
• setting up separate support groups for mentors and mentees
• if the pair cannot resolve their differences, don't force them to work together and instead find a new mentor for the mentee

If you find that a mentor proves to be incompatible with two or more mentees, you might need to reassess their suitability for such a role. Equally, mentees who are not compatible with more than one mentor may have wider problems that should be addressed.

In order to give the mentor clear feedback about what they might do differently and what they did well, you should try to find out from the mentee why they wanted to end the relationship.

Although coaching and mentoring can overlap, they perform different functions.

Mentoring

Mentoring is the long-term provision of guidance to someone less experienced in order to support their general development at work and involves:

• a reactive approach with the mentor guiding the mentee
• the mentor listening, offering advice and making suggestions that can help the mentee develop
• a broader view of the person - personal issues can be discussed
• an informal and less structured provision - meetings take place as and when the mentee needs guidance

Mentoring is a supportive form of employee training that many experts believe should be independent from other training activities.

Mentoring usually takes place outside the conventional top-down employee-manager relationship. Instead, the mentee sets the agenda based on their own development needs, with the mentor providing guidance to help the mentee achieve their goals.

The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) provides further guidance on the differences between coaching and mentoring.

Try to avoid a situation where an individual is mentored by their immediate manager. This is because combining the management relationship with the more personal and equal nature of the mentoring relationship could damage the former. However, for smaller businesses, it may be more difficult to avoid immediate managers being mentors. In these situations, you could consider external mentors.

Another form of mentoring, business mentoring, focuses more on the overall needs and goals of a business, rather than an individual's personal development. To find out more, see the benefits of business mentoring.

Coaching

Coaching is aimed at developing a person's skills and knowledge in a specific area of work leading to achievement of an objective and is:

• proactive
• generally on a short term basis focusing on performance at work
• based on the coach directing the learner

Mentoring can take several forms including one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring, peer learning alliances and remote mentoring. To get the most from mentoring for your business you may find that a combination of these mentoring types works best.

One-to-one mentoring

One-to-one mentoring consists of usually one but sometimes more than one mentee to each mentor, with each mentoring relationship existing independently.

Group mentoring

Group mentoring or mentoring circles typically consists of a group of several individuals being mentored by one mentor, usually with the ratio of one mentor for every two to three mentees, but no individual mentor being allocated to a mentee.

Advantages of group mentoring

The advantages of group mentoring are:

• efficiency - efficient use of mentors, with a higher ratio of mentees to mentors
• relationships between individuals - the mentees in the group can build a rapport and integrate with colleagues
• feedback - the mentees can receive multiple sources of feedback

However, there are some disadvantages to group mentoring, such as:

• some people do not work well in a group environment
• there may be concerns about confidentiality
• the mentee has less or possibly no one-on-one contact with a mentor and so sometimes their individual needs aren't fully met

Group mentoring has to be more structured than one-to-one mentoring as scheduling is necessary in order to accommodate everyone.

Peer learning alliances

Peer learning alliances or peer-to-peer learning have a different structure to standard peer mentoring in that there is no mentor or mentee.

Instead, both participants have similar levels of experience within the business - preferably in different areas - and each partner guides the other.

The purpose of a peer learning alliance is to:

• share experiences and knowledge
• challenge each other's assumptions
• act as a sounding board
• expand each other's networks
• provide a different point of view

Remote mentoring

If the mentor and mentee do not work in the same location, the mentoring may have to be done over the phone, using video conferencing, via email or social networking. If the needs and aims of the individual are clearly outlined and a structure set in place remote mentoring can work as effectively as face-to-face contact between the individual and their mentor.

A well-structured mentoring programme can benefit both your business and your employees.

Mentoring: business benefits

Some benefits that mentoring can bring to your business are:

• staff development - employees being mentored will develop both in a professional and personal capacity
• business insight - broaden staff's insight into your business
• productivity and performance - increase productivity and improve the individual's performance
• staff retention - help to engage employees, which should lead to better retention levels and lower staff turnover
• knowledge sharing - give the mentor a sense of responsibility and the satisfaction of passing on their knowledge
• stronger relationships - build relationships between employees by encouraging the exchange of information and experience

Benefits of mentoring to the individual

Mentoring can be very beneficial to individuals being mentored including:

• integration - helping the individual integrate more effectively within the organisation
• confidence - increase the individual's confidence
• business awareness - give the mentee a stronger awareness of the culture and objectives of the business
• identify strengths and weaknesses - allow the mentee to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, which can in turn lead to faster learning and personal development

When establishing a mentoring programme in your workplace the first thing you need to do is decide what you want your mentoring programme to achieve.

Formal or informal mentoring?

An informal mentoring programme may aim to induct the mentee into the business, and identify a sympathetic colleague for them to discuss any issues with.

A more formal mentoring programme may aim to encourage the mentee to achieve specific development goals set by themselves or by their line manager.

See more on mentoring: formal and informal programmes.

It may be a good idea to set up a pilot mentoring programme with just a few people participating, to see whether mentoring will work in your business. If successful, it can then be extended.

Guidelines for mentoring programmes

Both the mentor and the mentee should know what their roles are, and the objectives of the mentoring programme should be clear. Draw up guidelines as to how the programme will operate and be monitored.

Mentoring programmes should:

• use mentors who are well-matched to their mentees
• be supported by an objective co-ordinator, such as a human resources practitioner
• make a clear distinction between the roles of line managers and mentors

The International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment (ISMPE) set the standard for mentoring programmes. You may wish to use them to design your programme and/or to achieve the standard after one year of operation.

Training staff to become mentors

Mentoring is more likely to be successful if the individual you choose as the mentor has the necessary mentoring skills.

Identify employees who you think will make good mentors and consider enrolling them on a training programme.

Using mentoring co-ordinators

Ideally, your mentoring programme should be designed by trained co-ordinators.

You can hire consultants to design an effective programme for your business and train your employees in mentoring - however, this can be expensive.

Training providers should be accredited by the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC).

There are also courses to train mentoring coordinators.

Supporting the mentoring relationship

Just training mentors is not enough. They will need support for at least the first year of the mentoring programme in order to help maximise its success.

Useful support methods include:

• having a steering group, who monitor relationships
• bringing mentors together to review their experience and reinforce their skills in the role
• having an online information resource to answer their queries in real time

In informal mentoring programmes, a mentor will induct the mentee into the business and lead the initial meetings, which may be regular and frequent.

As the mentee becomes more confident and experienced in their role, they can ask for guidance from the mentor only when needed.

Formal mentoring programmes may be more structured, with the development of the mentoring relationship set out according to mentoring guidelines.

One approach is for a mentoring supervisor to agree the mentee's developmental objectives, with the mentor helping the mentee to check their overall plan.

Mentoring programme: example structure

1. The mentoring supervisor briefs the mentee and mentor separately on the aims of the mentoring scheme, the behavioural guidelines, and discussions of their expectations and concerns.
2. The mentee and the supervisor identify the mentee's strengths and weaknesses, and the skills they wish to improve, and then set developmental objectives to build on the strengths and address any weaknesses.
3. The supervisor discusses the mentee's objectives with the mentor.
4. The mentor and mentee use the objectives to develop simple goals as part of the mentoring programme. Discussions continue at appropriate intervals.
5. Discussion of the mentee's progress takes place between the mentor and the supervisor.
6. After a predetermined length of time, the mentor and mentee assess whether their mentoring relationship has accomplished its goals. This is reported back to the supervisor who can then evaluate its effectiveness and suggest any further course of action if required.

The mentoring relationship will be more effective if both parties have the same expectations from the beginning. If these are not set out in mentoring guidelines, you should encourage the mentee and mentor to establish their own ground rules in their initial meeting.

Mentoring relationship: setting ground rules

Encourage the mentee to use the initial meeting to establish the attitude and behaviour expected of them, and as a way of gaining an understanding of the business.

To establish the nature of the mentoring relationship, the mentor and mentee should discuss:

• how much time the mentor will have to spend on mentoring
• how much interaction the mentor expects
• how the mentee should ask for guidance
• who the mentee should speak to if the mentor is unavailable

Regarding the work and company structure, you should encourage discussion as to:

• what the most challenging aspects of the job are
• whether the mentor has taken any courses they would recommend
• what type of training the mentee will receive
• how the mentee can expect to advance

Making the best use of the mentor

A well-organised approach to mentoring is preferable. The mentee should have a clear idea of what they want out of each meeting with their mentor, possibly using an agenda.

The mentee should:

• keep to scheduled meetings
• seek to resolve problems themselves, but entrust the mentor with any concerns they have
• be prepared to accept constructive criticism
• prepare questions in advance

The mentor should:

• allocate sufficient, uninterrupted time where discussion can go beyond any immediate issue
• ensure the mentee feels comfortable instigating meetings
• listen carefully to the mentee's ideas and concerns and try to offer a new perspective
• identify strengths and weaknesses - and recommend ways to further their development
• assist the mentee to set goals
• be fair when giving feedback on performance

What makes a good mentor?

• Good communication skills - the mentor will share information with the mentee and should encourage the mentee to develop their own views and opinions.
• Skills and experience - to develop and provide guidance to the mentee. The mentor should be able to clarify the mentee's ideas and help them plan to achieve their goals.
• Good interpersonal skills - the mentor should help the mentee expand their network of contacts by developing networking skills.

Your business should issue guidelines on the structure and objectives of any mentoring programme, including how it will be monitored. See set up a mentoring programme.

Both mentor and mentee must be sure of their function in the mentoring relationship. The guidelines should make a clear distinction between the mentor's responsibilities and those of the line manager.

The business should also provide training as to what does and does not fall within the remit of a mentor - for example how to deal with issues of confidentiality and how to respond when discussion leads into issues outside of the working environment.

How long should the mentoring relationship last?

The aim of mentoring is to help the mentee move forward in their career and life goals.

In a structured mentoring programme, the relationship will come to an end in accordance with the development plan.

Where the mentoring scheme is more informal, the relationship will come to a natural end when the mentee feels that they have achieved their goals.

It's worth having procedures in place to deal with situations where mentees wish to end their mentoring relationship prematurely if a mentoring relationship doesn't work out. See mentoring: resolving problems.

Contact between mentor and mentee

How often the mentor and mentee meet is ultimately their decision.

However, regular meetings should be arranged to ensure an effective, continuous relationship.

Whether your mentoring programme is structured formally or is more informal, you should ensure you monitor, record and evaluate it in order for your business to get the most from mentoring.

Monitoring informal mentoring programmes

You can monitor an informal mentoring scheme, by getting the mentor to:

• record each meeting, what it involved and the main objectives of the activity
• record a summary of discussion and action points

Monitoring formal mentoring programmes

In more formal mentoring programmes, you can monitor the programme by:

• training the mentors
• considering how to match mentors to mentees
• issuing guidelines as to what mentoring involves
• understanding when mentoring would be effective
• setting up contractual arrangements where necessary
• developing a system to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme

It is good practice to measure the progress of the mentoring relationship:

• at the beginning to establish expectations
• after six months to assess how well the relationship is working
• after 12 months to measure outcomes

Evaluating a mentoring programme

It is important to evaluate your mentoring programme to ensure that it is achieving its aims. You should do this by assessing the mentors as well as the programme itself.

To evaluate the programme, you could ask all participants to give feedback on the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship.

The formats for the feedback could include:

• a simple questionnaire where the participants answer specific questions about the programme
• a written report from each participant
• an interview of each of the participants

You can evaluate the mentor in the same way. However, also consider including specific mentoring criteria as development goals for mentors.

Mentoring relationships may not work out for several reasons. For example:

• time - the mentor may become involved in other projects, thus taking up time set aside for mentoring
• personality clash - there could be a clash of personalities, when the mentor and mentee fail to agree on the objectives of their relationship
• goals - the mentee could become frustrated that their goals are not being achieved

How to resolve problems with a mentoring relationship

You should devise a procedure for dealing with a failing mentoring relationship that creates the minimum amount of disruption to work or bad feeling from either party. Mentors and mentees should be made aware from the beginning of the programme that they should inform you if problems develop.

Methods of resolving issues include:

• encouraging the pair to resolve their differences by setting up a meeting where they can discuss their issues - and with a mediator present if necessary
• setting up separate support groups for mentors and mentees
• if the pair cannot resolve their differences, don't force them to work together and instead find a new mentor for the mentee

If you find that a mentor proves to be incompatible with two or more mentees, you might need to reassess their suitability for such a role. Equally, mentees who are not compatible with more than one mentor may have wider problems that should be addressed.

In order to give the mentor clear feedback about what they might do differently and what they did well, you should try to find out from the mentee why they wanted to end the relationship.

Although coaching and mentoring can overlap, they perform different functions.

Mentoring

Mentoring is the long-term provision of guidance to someone less experienced in order to support their general development at work and involves:

• a reactive approach with the mentor guiding the mentee
• the mentor listening, offering advice and making suggestions that can help the mentee develop
• a broader view of the person - personal issues can be discussed
• an informal and less structured provision - meetings take place as and when the mentee needs guidance

Mentoring is a supportive form of employee training that many experts believe should be independent from other training activities.

Mentoring usually takes place outside the conventional top-down employee-manager relationship. Instead, the mentee sets the agenda based on their own development needs, with the mentor providing guidance to help the mentee achieve their goals.

The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) provides further guidance on the differences between coaching and mentoring.

Try to avoid a situation where an individual is mentored by their immediate manager. This is because combining the management relationship with the more personal and equal nature of the mentoring relationship could damage the former. However, for smaller businesses, it may be more difficult to avoid immediate managers being mentors. In these situations, you could consider external mentors.

Another form of mentoring, business mentoring, focuses more on the overall needs and goals of a business, rather than an individual's personal development. To find out more, see the benefits of business mentoring.

Coaching

Coaching is aimed at developing a person's skills and knowledge in a specific area of work leading to achievement of an objective and is:

• proactive
• generally on a short term basis focusing on performance at work
• based on the coach directing the learner

Mentoring can take several forms including one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring, peer learning alliances and remote mentoring. To get the most from mentoring for your business you may find that a combination of these mentoring types works best.

One-to-one mentoring

One-to-one mentoring consists of usually one but sometimes more than one mentee to each mentor, with each mentoring relationship existing independently.

Group mentoring

Group mentoring or mentoring circles typically consists of a group of several individuals being mentored by one mentor, usually with the ratio of one mentor for every two to three mentees, but no individual mentor being allocated to a mentee.

Advantages of group mentoring

The advantages of group mentoring are:

• efficiency - efficient use of mentors, with a higher ratio of mentees to mentors
• relationships between individuals - the mentees in the group can build a rapport and integrate with colleagues
• feedback - the mentees can receive multiple sources of feedback

However, there are some disadvantages to group mentoring, such as:

• some people do not work well in a group environment
• there may be concerns about confidentiality
• the mentee has less or possibly no one-on-one contact with a mentor and so sometimes their individual needs aren't fully met

Group mentoring has to be more structured than one-to-one mentoring as scheduling is necessary in order to accommodate everyone.

Peer learning alliances

Peer learning alliances or peer-to-peer learning have a different structure to standard peer mentoring in that there is no mentor or mentee.

Instead, both participants have similar levels of experience within the business - preferably in different areas - and each partner guides the other.

The purpose of a peer learning alliance is to:

• share experiences and knowledge
• challenge each other's assumptions
• act as a sounding board
• expand each other's networks
• provide a different point of view

Remote mentoring

If the mentor and mentee do not work in the same location, the mentoring may have to be done over the phone, using video conferencing, via email or social networking. If the needs and aims of the individual are clearly outlined and a structure set in place remote mentoring can work as effectively as face-to-face contact between the individual and their mentor.

A well-structured mentoring programme can benefit both your business and your employees.

Mentoring: business benefits

Some benefits that mentoring can bring to your business are:

• staff development - employees being mentored will develop both in a professional and personal capacity
• business insight - broaden staff's insight into your business
• productivity and performance - increase productivity and improve the individual's performance
• staff retention - help to engage employees, which should lead to better retention levels and lower staff turnover
• knowledge sharing - give the mentor a sense of responsibility and the satisfaction of passing on their knowledge
• stronger relationships - build relationships between employees by encouraging the exchange of information and experience

Benefits of mentoring to the individual

Mentoring can be very beneficial to individuals being mentored including:

• integration - helping the individual integrate more effectively within the organisation
• confidence - increase the individual's confidence
• business awareness - give the mentee a stronger awareness of the culture and objectives of the business
• identify strengths and weaknesses - allow the mentee to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, which can in turn lead to faster learning and personal development

When establishing a mentoring programme in your workplace the first thing you need to do is decide what you want your mentoring programme to achieve.

Formal or informal mentoring?

An informal mentoring programme may aim to induct the mentee into the business, and identify a sympathetic colleague for them to discuss any issues with.

A more formal mentoring programme may aim to encourage the mentee to achieve specific development goals set by themselves or by their line manager.

See more on mentoring: formal and informal programmes.

It may be a good idea to set up a pilot mentoring programme with just a few people participating, to see whether mentoring will work in your business. If successful, it can then be extended.

Guidelines for mentoring programmes

Both the mentor and the mentee should know what their roles are, and the objectives of the mentoring programme should be clear. Draw up guidelines as to how the programme will operate and be monitored.

Mentoring programmes should:

• use mentors who are well-matched to their mentees
• be supported by an objective co-ordinator, such as a human resources practitioner
• make a clear distinction between the roles of line managers and mentors

The International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment (ISMPE) set the standard for mentoring programmes. You may wish to use them to design your programme and/or to achieve the standard after one year of operation.

Training staff to become mentors

Mentoring is more likely to be successful if the individual you choose as the mentor has the necessary mentoring skills.

Identify employees who you think will make good mentors and consider enrolling them on a training programme.

Using mentoring co-ordinators

Ideally, your mentoring programme should be designed by trained co-ordinators.

You can hire consultants to design an effective programme for your business and train your employees in mentoring - however, this can be expensive.

Training providers should be accredited by the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC).

There are also courses to train mentoring coordinators.

Supporting the mentoring relationship

Just training mentors is not enough. They will need support for at least the first year of the mentoring programme in order to help maximise its success.

Useful support methods include:

• having a steering group, who monitor relationships
• bringing mentors together to review their experience and reinforce their skills in the role
• having an online information resource to answer their queries in real time

In informal mentoring programmes, a mentor will induct the mentee into the business and lead the initial meetings, which may be regular and frequent.

As the mentee becomes more confident and experienced in their role, they can ask for guidance from the mentor only when needed.

Formal mentoring programmes may be more structured, with the development of the mentoring relationship set out according to mentoring guidelines.

One approach is for a mentoring supervisor to agree the mentee's developmental objectives, with the mentor helping the mentee to check their overall plan.

Mentoring programme: example structure

1. The mentoring supervisor briefs the mentee and mentor separately on the aims of the mentoring scheme, the behavioural guidelines, and discussions of their expectations and concerns.
2. The mentee and the supervisor identify the mentee's strengths and weaknesses, and the skills they wish to improve, and then set developmental objectives to build on the strengths and address any weaknesses.
3. The supervisor discusses the mentee's objectives with the mentor.
4. The mentor and mentee use the objectives to develop simple goals as part of the mentoring programme. Discussions continue at appropriate intervals.
5. Discussion of the mentee's progress takes place between the mentor and the supervisor.
6. After a predetermined length of time, the mentor and mentee assess whether their mentoring relationship has accomplished its goals. This is reported back to the supervisor who can then evaluate its effectiveness and suggest any further course of action if required.

The mentoring relationship will be more effective if both parties have the same expectations from the beginning. If these are not set out in mentoring guidelines, you should encourage the mentee and mentor to establish their own ground rules in their initial meeting.

Mentoring relationship: setting ground rules

Encourage the mentee to use the initial meeting to establish the attitude and behaviour expected of them, and as a way of gaining an understanding of the business.

To establish the nature of the mentoring relationship, the mentor and mentee should discuss:

• how much time the mentor will have to spend on mentoring
• how much interaction the mentor expects
• how the mentee should ask for guidance
• who the mentee should speak to if the mentor is unavailable

Regarding the work and company structure, you should encourage discussion as to:

• what the most challenging aspects of the job are
• whether the mentor has taken any courses they would recommend
• what type of training the mentee will receive
• how the mentee can expect to advance

Making the best use of the mentor

A well-organised approach to mentoring is preferable. The mentee should have a clear idea of what they want out of each meeting with their mentor, possibly using an agenda.

The mentee should:

• keep to scheduled meetings
• seek to resolve problems themselves, but entrust the mentor with any concerns they have
• be prepared to accept constructive criticism
• prepare questions in advance

The mentor should:

• allocate sufficient, uninterrupted time where discussion can go beyond any immediate issue
• ensure the mentee feels comfortable instigating meetings
• listen carefully to the mentee's ideas and concerns and try to offer a new perspective
• identify strengths and weaknesses - and recommend ways to further their development
• assist the mentee to set goals
• be fair when giving feedback on performance

What makes a good mentor?

• Good communication skills - the mentor will share information with the mentee and should encourage the mentee to develop their own views and opinions.
• Skills and experience - to develop and provide guidance to the mentee. The mentor should be able to clarify the mentee's ideas and help them plan to achieve their goals.
• Good interpersonal skills - the mentor should help the mentee expand their network of contacts by developing networking skills.

Your business should issue guidelines on the structure and objectives of any mentoring programme, including how it will be monitored. See set up a mentoring programme.

Both mentor and mentee must be sure of their function in the mentoring relationship. The guidelines should make a clear distinction between the mentor's responsibilities and those of the line manager.

The business should also provide training as to what does and does not fall within the remit of a mentor - for example how to deal with issues of confidentiality and how to respond when discussion leads into issues outside of the working environment.

How long should the mentoring relationship last?

The aim of mentoring is to help the mentee move forward in their career and life goals.

In a structured mentoring programme, the relationship will come to an end in accordance with the development plan.

Where the mentoring scheme is more informal, the relationship will come to a natural end when the mentee feels that they have achieved their goals.

It's worth having procedures in place to deal with situations where mentees wish to end their mentoring relationship prematurely if a mentoring relationship doesn't work out. See mentoring: resolving problems.

Contact between mentor and mentee

How often the mentor and mentee meet is ultimately their decision.

However, regular meetings should be arranged to ensure an effective, continuous relationship.

Whether your mentoring programme is structured formally or is more informal, you should ensure you monitor, record and evaluate it in order for your business to get the most from mentoring.

Monitoring informal mentoring programmes

You can monitor an informal mentoring scheme, by getting the mentor to:

• record each meeting, what it involved and the main objectives of the activity
• record a summary of discussion and action points

Monitoring formal mentoring programmes

In more formal mentoring programmes, you can monitor the programme by:

• training the mentors
• considering how to match mentors to mentees
• issuing guidelines as to what mentoring involves
• understanding when mentoring would be effective
• setting up contractual arrangements where necessary
• developing a system to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme

It is good practice to measure the progress of the mentoring relationship:

• at the beginning to establish expectations
• after six months to assess how well the relationship is working
• after 12 months to measure outcomes

Evaluating a mentoring programme

It is important to evaluate your mentoring programme to ensure that it is achieving its aims. You should do this by assessing the mentors as well as the programme itself.

To evaluate the programme, you could ask all participants to give feedback on the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship.

The formats for the feedback could include:

• a simple questionnaire where the participants answer specific questions about the programme
• a written report from each participant
• an interview of each of the participants

You can evaluate the mentor in the same way. However, also consider including specific mentoring criteria as development goals for mentors.

Mentoring relationships may not work out for several reasons. For example:

• time - the mentor may become involved in other projects, thus taking up time set aside for mentoring
• personality clash - there could be a clash of personalities, when the mentor and mentee fail to agree on the objectives of their relationship
• goals - the mentee could become frustrated that their goals are not being achieved

How to resolve problems with a mentoring relationship

You should devise a procedure for dealing with a failing mentoring relationship that creates the minimum amount of disruption to work or bad feeling from either party. Mentors and mentees should be made aware from the beginning of the programme that they should inform you if problems develop.

Methods of resolving issues include:

• encouraging the pair to resolve their differences by setting up a meeting where they can discuss their issues - and with a mediator present if necessary
• setting up separate support groups for mentors and mentees
• if the pair cannot resolve their differences, don't force them to work together and instead find a new mentor for the mentee

If you find that a mentor proves to be incompatible with two or more mentees, you might need to reassess their suitability for such a role. Equally, mentees who are not compatible with more than one mentor may have wider problems that should be addressed.

In order to give the mentor clear feedback about what they might do differently and what they did well, you should try to find out from the mentee why they wanted to end the relationship.

Although coaching and mentoring can overlap, they perform different functions.

Mentoring

Mentoring is the long-term provision of guidance to someone less experienced in order to support their general development at work and involves:

• a reactive approach with the mentor guiding the mentee
• the mentor listening, offering advice and making suggestions that can help the mentee develop
• a broader view of the person - personal issues can be discussed
• an informal and less structured provision - meetings take place as and when the mentee needs guidance

Mentoring is a supportive form of employee training that many experts believe should be independent from other training activities.

Mentoring usually takes place outside the conventional top-down employee-manager relationship. Instead, the mentee sets the agenda based on their own development needs, with the mentor providing guidance to help the mentee achieve their goals.

The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) provides further guidance on the differences between coaching and mentoring.

Try to avoid a situation where an individual is mentored by their immediate manager. This is because combining the management relationship with the more personal and equal nature of the mentoring relationship could damage the former. However, for smaller businesses, it may be more difficult to avoid immediate managers being mentors. In these situations, you could consider external mentors.

Another form of mentoring, business mentoring, focuses more on the overall needs and goals of a business, rather than an individual's personal development. To find out more, see the benefits of business mentoring.

Coaching

Coaching is aimed at developing a person's skills and knowledge in a specific area of work leading to achievement of an objective and is:

• proactive
• generally on a short term basis focusing on performance at work
• based on the coach directing the learner

Mentoring can take several forms including one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring, peer learning alliances and remote mentoring. To get the most from mentoring for your business you may find that a combination of these mentoring types works best.

One-to-one mentoring

One-to-one mentoring consists of usually one but sometimes more than one mentee to each mentor, with each mentoring relationship existing independently.

Group mentoring

Group mentoring or mentoring circles typically consists of a group of several individuals being mentored by one mentor, usually with the ratio of one mentor for every two to three mentees, but no individual mentor being allocated to a mentee.

Advantages of group mentoring

The advantages of group mentoring are:

• efficiency - efficient use of mentors, with a higher ratio of mentees to mentors
• relationships between individuals - the mentees in the group can build a rapport and integrate with colleagues
• feedback - the mentees can receive multiple sources of feedback

However, there are some disadvantages to group mentoring, such as:

• some people do not work well in a group environment
• there may be concerns about confidentiality
• the mentee has less or possibly no one-on-one contact with a mentor and so sometimes their individual needs aren't fully met

Group mentoring has to be more structured than one-to-one mentoring as scheduling is necessary in order to accommodate everyone.

Peer learning alliances

Peer learning alliances or peer-to-peer learning have a different structure to standard peer mentoring in that there is no mentor or mentee.

Instead, both participants have similar levels of experience within the business - preferably in different areas - and each partner guides the other.

The purpose of a peer learning alliance is to:

• share experiences and knowledge
• challenge each other's assumptions
• act as a sounding board
• expand each other's networks
• provide a different point of view

Remote mentoring

If the mentor and mentee do not work in the same location, the mentoring may have to be done over the phone, using video conferencing, via email or social networking. If the needs and aims of the individual are clearly outlined and a structure set in place remote mentoring can work as effectively as face-to-face contact between the individual and their mentor.

A well-structured mentoring programme can benefit both your business and your employees.

Mentoring: business benefits

Some benefits that mentoring can bring to your business are:

• staff development - employees being mentored will develop both in a professional and personal capacity
• business insight - broaden staff's insight into your business
• productivity and performance - increase productivity and improve the individual's performance
• staff retention - help to engage employees, which should lead to better retention levels and lower staff turnover
• knowledge sharing - give the mentor a sense of responsibility and the satisfaction of passing on their knowledge
• stronger relationships - build relationships between employees by encouraging the exchange of information and experience

Benefits of mentoring to the individual

Mentoring can be very beneficial to individuals being mentored including:

• integration - helping the individual integrate more effectively within the organisation
• confidence - increase the individual's confidence
• business awareness - give the mentee a stronger awareness of the culture and objectives of the business
• identify strengths and weaknesses - allow the mentee to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, which can in turn lead to faster learning and personal development

When establishing a mentoring programme in your workplace the first thing you need to do is decide what you want your mentoring programme to achieve.

Formal or informal mentoring?

An informal mentoring programme may aim to induct the mentee into the business, and identify a sympathetic colleague for them to discuss any issues with.

A more formal mentoring programme may aim to encourage the mentee to achieve specific development goals set by themselves or by their line manager.

See more on mentoring: formal and informal programmes.

It may be a good idea to set up a pilot mentoring programme with just a few people participating, to see whether mentoring will work in your business. If successful, it can then be extended.

Guidelines for mentoring programmes

Both the mentor and the mentee should know what their roles are, and the objectives of the mentoring programme should be clear. Draw up guidelines as to how the programme will operate and be monitored.

Mentoring programmes should:

• use mentors who are well-matched to their mentees
• be supported by an objective co-ordinator, such as a human resources practitioner
• make a clear distinction between the roles of line managers and mentors

The International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment (ISMPE) set the standard for mentoring programmes. You may wish to use them to design your programme and/or to achieve the standard after one year of operation.

Training staff to become mentors

Mentoring is more likely to be successful if the individual you choose as the mentor has the necessary mentoring skills.

Identify employees who you think will make good mentors and consider enrolling them on a training programme.

Using mentoring co-ordinators

Ideally, your mentoring programme should be designed by trained co-ordinators.

You can hire consultants to design an effective programme for your business and train your employees in mentoring - however, this can be expensive.

Training providers should be accredited by the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC).

There are also courses to train mentoring coordinators.

Supporting the mentoring relationship

Just training mentors is not enough. They will need support for at least the first year of the mentoring programme in order to help maximise its success.

Useful support methods include:

• having a steering group, who monitor relationships
• bringing mentors together to review their experience and reinforce their skills in the role
• having an online information resource to answer their queries in real time

In informal mentoring programmes, a mentor will induct the mentee into the business and lead the initial meetings, which may be regular and frequent.

As the mentee becomes more confident and experienced in their role, they can ask for guidance from the mentor only when needed.

Formal mentoring programmes may be more structured, with the development of the mentoring relationship set out according to mentoring guidelines.

One approach is for a mentoring supervisor to agree the mentee's developmental objectives, with the mentor helping the mentee to check their overall plan.

Mentoring programme: example structure

1. The mentoring supervisor briefs the mentee and mentor separately on the aims of the mentoring scheme, the behavioural guidelines, and discussions of their expectations and concerns.
2. The mentee and the supervisor identify the mentee's strengths and weaknesses, and the skills they wish to improve, and then set developmental objectives to build on the strengths and address any weaknesses.
3. The supervisor discusses the mentee's objectives with the mentor.
4. The mentor and mentee use the objectives to develop simple goals as part of the mentoring programme. Discussions continue at appropriate intervals.
5. Discussion of the mentee's progress takes place between the mentor and the supervisor.
6. After a predetermined length of time, the mentor and mentee assess whether their mentoring relationship has accomplished its goals. This is reported back to the supervisor who can then evaluate its effectiveness and suggest any further course of action if required.

The mentoring relationship will be more effective if both parties have the same expectations from the beginning. If these are not set out in mentoring guidelines, you should encourage the mentee and mentor to establish their own ground rules in their initial meeting.

Mentoring relationship: setting ground rules

Encourage the mentee to use the initial meeting to establish the attitude and behaviour expected of them, and as a way of gaining an understanding of the business.

To establish the nature of the mentoring relationship, the mentor and mentee should discuss:

• how much time the mentor will have to spend on mentoring
• how much interaction the mentor expects
• how the mentee should ask for guidance
• who the mentee should speak to if the mentor is unavailable

Regarding the work and company structure, you should encourage discussion as to:

• what the most challenging aspects of the job are
• whether the mentor has taken any courses they would recommend
• what type of training the mentee will receive
• how the mentee can expect to advance

Making the best use of the mentor

A well-organised approach to mentoring is preferable. The mentee should have a clear idea of what they want out of each meeting with their mentor, possibly using an agenda.

The mentee should:

• keep to scheduled meetings
• seek to resolve problems themselves, but entrust the mentor with any concerns they have
• be prepared to accept constructive criticism
• prepare questions in advance

The mentor should:

• allocate sufficient, uninterrupted time where discussion can go beyond any immediate issue
• ensure the mentee feels comfortable instigating meetings
• listen carefully to the mentee's ideas and concerns and try to offer a new perspective
• identify strengths and weaknesses - and recommend ways to further their development
• assist the mentee to set goals
• be fair when giving feedback on performance

What makes a good mentor?

• Good communication skills - the mentor will share information with the mentee and should encourage the mentee to develop their own views and opinions.
• Skills and experience - to develop and provide guidance to the mentee. The mentor should be able to clarify the mentee's ideas and help them plan to achieve their goals.
• Good interpersonal skills - the mentor should help the mentee expand their network of contacts by developing networking skills.

Your business should issue guidelines on the structure and objectives of any mentoring programme, including how it will be monitored. See set up a mentoring programme.

Both mentor and mentee must be sure of their function in the mentoring relationship. The guidelines should make a clear distinction between the mentor's responsibilities and those of the line manager.

The business should also provide training as to what does and does not fall within the remit of a mentor - for example how to deal with issues of confidentiality and how to respond when discussion leads into issues outside of the working environment.

How long should the mentoring relationship last?

The aim of mentoring is to help the mentee move forward in their career and life goals.

In a structured mentoring programme, the relationship will come to an end in accordance with the development plan.

Where the mentoring scheme is more informal, the relationship will come to a natural end when the mentee feels that they have achieved their goals.

It's worth having procedures in place to deal with situations where mentees wish to end their mentoring relationship prematurely if a mentoring relationship doesn't work out. See mentoring: resolving problems.

Contact between mentor and mentee

How often the mentor and mentee meet is ultimately their decision.

However, regular meetings should be arranged to ensure an effective, continuous relationship.

Whether your mentoring programme is structured formally or is more informal, you should ensure you monitor, record and evaluate it in order for your business to get the most from mentoring.

Monitoring informal mentoring programmes

You can monitor an informal mentoring scheme, by getting the mentor to:

• record each meeting, what it involved and the main objectives of the activity
• record a summary of discussion and action points

Monitoring formal mentoring programmes

In more formal mentoring programmes, you can monitor the programme by:

• training the mentors
• considering how to match mentors to mentees
• issuing guidelines as to what mentoring involves
• understanding when mentoring would be effective
• setting up contractual arrangements where necessary
• developing a system to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme

It is good practice to measure the progress of the mentoring relationship:

• at the beginning to establish expectations
• after six months to assess how well the relationship is working
• after 12 months to measure outcomes

Evaluating a mentoring programme

It is important to evaluate your mentoring programme to ensure that it is achieving its aims. You should do this by assessing the mentors as well as the programme itself.

To evaluate the programme, you could ask all participants to give feedback on the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship.

The formats for the feedback could include:

• a simple questionnaire where the participants answer specific questions about the programme
• a written report from each participant
• an interview of each of the participants

You can evaluate the mentor in the same way. However, also consider including specific mentoring criteria as development goals for mentors.

Mentoring relationships may not work out for several reasons. For example:

• time - the mentor may become involved in other projects, thus taking up time set aside for mentoring
• personality clash - there could be a clash of personalities, when the mentor and mentee fail to agree on the objectives of their relationship
• goals - the mentee could become frustrated that their goals are not being achieved

How to resolve problems with a mentoring relationship

You should devise a procedure for dealing with a failing mentoring relationship that creates the minimum amount of disruption to work or bad feeling from either party. Mentors and mentees should be made aware from the beginning of the programme that they should inform you if problems develop.

Methods of resolving issues include:

• encouraging the pair to resolve their differences by setting up a meeting where they can discuss their issues - and with a mediator present if necessary
• setting up separate support groups for mentors and mentees
• if the pair cannot resolve their differences, don't force them to work together and instead find a new mentor for the mentee

If you find that a mentor proves to be incompatible with two or more mentees, you might need to reassess their suitability for such a role. Equally, mentees who are not compatible with more than one mentor may have wider problems that should be addressed.

In order to give the mentor clear feedback about what they might do differently and what they did well, you should try to find out from the mentee why they wanted to end the relationship.