We already had successful mentoring in our training scheme for
aspiring partners, the Developing Leaders' Programme, with the
candidates matched to senior partners from outwith their own
division.
The value of this in terms of career development was clear,
through both the sharing of expertise and the ability for the
mentor to raise the profile of the mentee across our three
offices.
Due to these benefits, we wanted to expand the mentoring scheme
as a firm-wide initiative so anyone could sign up to be a mentor or
be mentored, or both. We conducted a firm-wide survey to gauge
interest - and it was overwhelmingly positive.
In late 2019 I starting working with a partner who is the
mentoring scheme champion. We had a launch announcement arranged
for March 2020 and dates in place for June 2020 with our training
partner, Project Scotland. Then everything had to be put on hold
when lockdown was announced!
In August it was great to be able to reignite the planning of
the scheme.
There had been initial concern about holding virtual training,
as the face-to-face sessions had been so successful in the
past.
However, with remote working functioning well for the business
there was now additional value in it through helping colleagues
stay connected while working from home.
The delay in rolling out the scheme also allowed us more time to
speak with external organisations, who shared their invaluable
experiences of running their own large-scale mentoring schemes.
The top tips that were recommended to us were:
- Get buy-in from the senior management team - we're lucky that
this was not an issue, with our managing partner cascading the
importance of the scheme to employees and partners;
- Train both mentors and mentees - we work with Project Scotland
on a ½ day session for mentors, and also a 90 minute session on
what mentees should expect from the relationship. We have ended up
running these sessions virtually, but with online platforms being
so great for hosting training they've been very successful.
- Look at the pros and cons of online matching software - we are
running our scheme with a paper based matching form, and for our
numbers in the first phase of training - 40 mentors and 40 mentees
- this works, and enables us to give it more of a personal
touch;
- Use of a panel for the matching process - along with the
Edinburgh-based partner champion we asked a partner in Aberdeen and
Glasgow to help with the matching process.
- Have a no-fault divorce clause - for various reasons a
mentoring relationship may not be successful and we encourage both
mentor and mentees to be open with each other if it's not working
out as expected. I am also available as the scheme coordinator to
offer advice.
- Keep getting feedback on the scheme as it progresses.
We plan to run another phase of training in early 2021 and are
also keen to look at reverse mentoring next year as well.
Hopefully that will include face-to-face meetings in the IFSD
and beyond by that point.
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