The Amazing Work of a Mentoring Administrator
One of our goals at River is to be a support system for the people who run their organization’s mentoring program via our mentoring software. For all of you out there, whether you run your program as a solo administrator or you have a cadre of colleagues who give their time to mentoring, all of us at River salute you. Your work and dedication are invaluable!
We’d like to take a moment to share some of their stories and shine a light on the important work they are doing. (We are not using names in order to protect their privacy.)
The Planner
While many of the people we work with could be called planners, one person in particular deserves this title. This person heads her organization’s mentoring program with a keen eye on preserving the progress they have made, while also seeking news ways to enhance the mentoring experience for their employees. She communicates clearly, frequently, and persuasively to leaders in the organization who need to support the mentoring program, as well as to the employees who use the program as mentees and mentors. She plans ahead by looking to see what organizational meetings and milestones are coming up, and then proactively strategizes on how to talk about the mentoring program at those critical moments. She even starts planning for National Mentoring Month months ahead of time to ensure she has excellent and thoughtful tools and messaging that she can bring to her leaders and employees. This mentoring administrator is the epitome of a talented planner.
The Reports Wizard
Data, reports, metrics, and analytics are important to all of our program administrators, but one person stands out as a reports wizard. The data collected in River can provide a great start to an organization’s overarching view of their employee pipeline and talent development issues. Tying that data to other metrics from other internal systems/sources gives our clients a full view of where things stand with their employees on topics such as engagement, retention, productivity, promotion rates, and more. One administrator has perfected how to join these sources of data into a single clear picture that shows how mentoring impacts promotion rates, retention rates, and gender diversity rates. Putting the pieces together takes effort, but the result is well worth it.
The Newbie
All of our clients started out as newbies at some point in time, and while we have one person in mind, this title reflects the persistence of all of our mentoring program administrators—new and veteran alike. The newbie we have in mind has just launched his organization’s mentoring program. He is running this by himself but reports to a few other people who are involved with the program in a broader sense, such as through executive sponsorship. This newbie worked tirelessly to ensure the launch of his program went off smoothly and that all of the mentees and mentors involved in the initial phase of the program had a positive experience. We know it can be stressful to launch a new mentoring program, which is why we offer assistance every step of the way. As for the newbie, he had a well-conceived plan in place and conducted a successful launch of his program.
The Soloist
From time to time, we come across a person who is so passionate about mentoring, they take it upon themselves to build a business case for launching a mentoring program at their organization, work to build alliances among various areas of the company in order to gain support for mentoring, and pull together a team of executive stakeholders who grant approval for the program and for the purchase of mentoring software to help run the program. While we call these people soloists, they know they could not actually do it alone. They may spearhead the mentoring program and be the voice pushing for it, but they work to form a team of advocates who share their vision. We’ve had the pleasure of working with several visionaries such as this, with a few sticking out in our minds. One in particular stands out for her tireless commitment to mentoring. She joins meetings hosted by various employee resources groups to tout the mentoring program and encourage people to sign up. She hosts events to educate people about mentoring in general, as well as to teach them about the mentoring program and opportunities available at the organization. She also recruits executives to give testimonials about their own personal experiences with mentoring and uses these first-person stories to drive sign-ups in the program. Her endless energy and commitment to mentoring make her a rock star among administrators.
The Committee
We’ve also had the pleasure of partnering with teams of people who work together in pursuit of creating a successful mentoring program at their organization. Sometimes these are volunteer committees whose members share a love of mentoring and want to bring the practice to their fellow employees. One such volunteer mentoring committee that we work with has successfully launched and expanded a mentoring program at their organization that has embedded itself into the culture of the company. These volunteers support one another and share the workload for running a mentoring program—even though it is outside the scope of their daily job tasks. They willingly give of their time and energy for the betterment of their fellow employees. To our way of thinking, committee and commitment are synonymous at this organization.
For all of the mentoring program administrators out there, those we’ve had the pleasure of working with and those we have yet to meet, we salute your dedication to mentoring and praise your efforts to bring this practice to your employees and organizations. Thank you for all that you do.
