Networking and collaboration

The STAMINA Mentoring Network is a group for mentoring scheme leads, co-ordinators, administrators and mentoring champions. Our name has emerged out of our mission which is to share good practice across mentoring schemes and support their sustainability - hence our name SusTAinable MentorINg Network. The network is based upon a project funded by the University of Oxford's ESRC Impact Acceleration Award in 2016/17.

Background

This project builds upon expertise and research interests of the team across 3 local Universities (Oxford, Oxford Brookes and Reading) and further through a Programme for Enhancement of the Student Experience (PESE) project at Oxford Brookes University on developing sustainable mentoring schemes (Gannon & Maher, 2012; Gannon, 2016; University Alliance, 2013), the Radcliffe Department of Medicine Mentoring scheme (RDMMS) at Oxford University and The University Mentoring Project at Reading University.

The central tenet of the project is to share good practice in developing mentoring schemes across disciplines and contexts. There are 3 main issues that mentoring schemes typically face as they grow and develop within the HE setting. These issues are sustainability, effective transitions for administrative systems and practices for reporting on impact and these same issues are recorded to a greater or lesser extent across different settings in the wider mentoring research (Clutterbuck et al, 2016; Karallis & Sandelands, 2009).

This network offers a unique opportunity to build upon our existing scholarship, research and expertise and share the approaches and practices which offer mentoring scheme longevity across disciplines. This is distinctive in the area of mentoring where the focus has tended to be on how to set-up mentoring schemes and fails to expand on the issues associated with growth, problem-solving and sustainability.

The team involved in this project is multi-disciplinary and responsible for developing and researching mentoring schemes across a range of settings, healthcare, higher, vocational and professional education. The core of the team have developed expertise in creating and supporting mentoring schemes and moving through key transition points including widening participation and incorporating the use of IT. The potential contributors include a range of industries and settings, education, healthcare, STEM subjects and the arts from the private sector to voluntary/charitable sector. From this diversity of expertise in managing mentoring schemes and our existing research we hope to share expertise in managing mentoring schemes and wider good practice in sustaining mentoring schemes.

This multi-disciplinary approach will allow those involved in mentoring schemes to explore good practice in this area and benefit from the dissemination of knowledge and practices from across the extensive range of settings where mentoring takes place. Supporting this bid will enable researchers and practitioners to draw on a wider set of expertise on mentoring (Gannon & Maher, 2012; Gannon, 2016). Specifically, it is envisaged that participants will be able to build sustainable mentoring schemes through identifying practices for mentoring schemes themselves and further disseminate good practice on the recruitment of mentors, training resources for mentors and mentees, planning and implementing clear reporting for impact procedures, and enhancing administrative systems which allow effective reporting and longevity for mentoring schemes.

Key themes and issues associated mentoring schemes:

Purpose
Determining what the purpose is of your mentoring scheme is crucial. What does your mentoring scheme set out to achieve for its participants and for the organization(s) concerned? You may have more than one purpose, however, so do think about what may be the secondary as well as the primary purpose of your mentoring scheme. Review our list of possible purposes and read the case studies associated with those categories.

• Organisational socialisation
• Employability
• Transition between education/career
• Leadership
• Organisational Focus/Strategy
• Equality/Diversity
• Retention
• Return to work
• Supporting social enterprise
• Community engagement
• Retirement
• Improving workplace culture
• Readjustment (post institutional)

There are many ways of delivering mentoring and this strand captures some of the options which can be considered in the development of a scheme. It may be that your scheme could several of these forms of mentoring or use more than one form to reach a wide range of mentors and mentees.

• 1 to 1
• Face to face
• Group mentoring
• E-mentoring
• Reverse mentoring
• Speed mentoring
• Hybrid mentoring

Our experiences suggest that it is important to effectively engage your mentors and mentees throughout the lifecycle of your scheme. There are several ways of achieving this and we outline the main options with examples from case study schemes to help you identify which might work for your mentoring scheme.

• Open evening/event
• Social media campaign
• Word of mouth (through network and previous participants)
• Trade Press
• Newsletter
• Press release
• Website information
• Career interviews
• Annual symposium
• Induction

Acquiring mentors and mentees is another potentially challenging area for mentoring scheme coordinators. In this strand, we provide the choices available to coordinators. It could be that you should select different forms of recruitment and selection for your mentors and mentees, and deploy more than one method for some participants. Use the options below to identify the case studies and resources used by other mentoring schemes.

• Self-referral
• Referral
• Application form (paper)
• Interview
• Engagement with related activities
• Online promotion and registration
• Sourced by networks (coordinator led)

Coordinators have a range of options available to them when they match mentors and mentees. These options depend upon the nature of the mentoring scheme and comprise different levels of mentor and mentee input into the matching process. Review our list of possible matching practices and read the case studies associated with the options.

• Speed matching
• Mutual agreement of mentors and mentees
• Blind matching on both sides
• Mentor or mentee preferences and agreement (semi-blind matching)
• Software matching
• Coordinator matched

Operating a mentoring scheme involves a great deal of administration and deciding how to manage the practical details and activities associated with highly personal data is a crucial part of a coordinator’s role. In our experience, as mentoring coordinators we have tried various administrative approaches and moved between approaches as our schemes have grown and developed. The following list provides the key administrative practices we have used as well as linked case studies and outline resources.

• Paper based
• MS office (Excel) or spreadsheets
• Website development and use
• Shared drives approach - Googledocs, OneDrive, Dropbox solutions
• Use of online mentoring platform
• Specifying online mentoring system

Another key aspect of operating and managing a mentoring scheme involves identifying how involved coordinators/administrators become in overseeing and supporting individual mentoring relationships. It may be that within your own scheme mentees or mentors may need additional support or various check-in points to encourage dyads to develop their relationships. Below we outline the main options with examples from case studies to help you orientate which might be suitable for your mentoring scheme.

• Induction/Briefing
• Online goal setting
• Regular email/calls check-in with mentees/mentors
• Support/Supervision groups for mentors
• Informal networking/Social events
• Awards ceremony
• Recognition and announcement communications

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This case study focuses on the following:

• Purpose – Organizational socialization, Employability, Organizational Focus/Strategy, Equality/Diversity, Retention and Improving workplace culture
• Forms of Mentoring - 1 to 1, Face to face
• Marketing of the Mentoring scheme - Word of mouth (through network and previous participants), Newsletter, Induction, Annual symposium, website information
• Recruitment and Selection of Mentors and Mentees – Online promotion and registration, Self-referral, Application form
• Matching – Mentee preferences and Mentoring committee
• Administration and training - MS office (Excel) or spreadsheets, Shared drives but moving towards online mentoring system
• Monitoring of Mentoring Relationships - Induction/Briefing, Regular email/calls check-in with mentees/mentors, Informal networking/Social events and Recognition and announcement communications
• Evaluation - Before and After evaluation surveys (mentors and mentees), Participant attitude surveys, Central HR data, Organizational metrics (Athena Swan plan), Staff/participant attitude surveys and Retention and Turnover rates

Radcliffe Department of Medicine Mentoring scheme: Promoting cultural change towards gender equality and increasing retention at all levels via an inclusive Departmental mentoring scheme.

Executive Summary:
This scheme was initiated following a staff survey and our enrolment in the Athena Swan initiative. Launched in 2014, the scheme is open to all staff categories and postgraduate students, and offers one-to-one mentoring partnerships on a wide range of issues (from career progression to work life balance and relationships at work).

What are your goals?
The Radcliffe Department of Medicine (RDM) is a mega department in the University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division, composed of more than 700 staff and postgraduate students. At launch we were aiming for 10% enrolment of RDM for the 1st year, but already reached 20% after just 10 months. We are looking to create a cohesive identity for this large Department, which was established several years ago when other Divisions merged together, to then impact positively on culture change and effectively promote gender equality and achieve better staff retention.

Who was involved:
Two senior members of the Department’s Strategic team, Professor Alison Banham Head of NDCLS and a trained Springboard mentor, as well as the current scheme coordinator wrote the handbook and designed the registration and exit forms. Seven committee members were then recruited from different staff groups, ensuring that representation from each of the Divisions of the new Department and gender balance were respected.

Policies, procedures and processes used

Our approach:

• Including postgraduate students, administration & support staff: promoting inclusivity, culture change and retention at all levels
• Mentees and mentors can ask to join at any time (the only requirement is for mentors to have at least 1 year’s experience of the University)
• 1-to-1 mentoring
• Personal and family-friendly matters are included, not only professional development
• Mentees are asked to rank a set of mentors’ biographies before being matched by the Committee

Practicalities:

• Mentor training sessions offered at launch
• Virtual resource library available for scheme members to consult and expand their skills
• Online registration and exit forms (mentor and mentee)
• Matches reviewed by the Committee every 2 months (flexibility offered)
• Mentors’ biographies updated annually
• Relationship status checked annually

Systems 

Data collection is made via CVS files generated from web-based forms. We analyse everything in Excel. We gather data for both mentors and mentees to enable:

• Better understanding of current staff issues
• Enhanced interpersonal skills (positive feedback)
• CV enhancement

The RDM Mentoring Committee is a key component to the success of our scheme, as the 7 members are very much involved in promoting the benefits to staff and students in their Divisions and/or staff groups. The Head of Department, Professor Hugh Watkins, also promotes the scheme at the annual Departmental Symposium where staff are also available on the day to field any questions about the scheme

• Membership is for two years (renewable)
• Gender balanced
• Mix of administration, research & support roles across RDM

As the scheme coordinator, Michaella Smart is responsible for data gathering and analysis, maintenance and updating, customer service, committee servicing, publicity and strategic planning for sustainability. This post a part-time role additional to the named individual’s HR role in RDM.

Challenges:
Enrolling senior staff members can be a challenge. However, by identifying at the start a few senior staff who were genuinely interested in mentoring and letting them promote the scheme to their peers, we managed to enrol more from this specific group. A specific invitation was also emailed to senior staff by the Head of Department.

Often mentees would by default opt to be mentored by much more senior staff. We recognise however that a mentor at the next career stage from the mentee’s current position can be more beneficial than a senior mentor. Our rationale is that recently promoted staff will have a more up-to-date understanding of the current funding situations and career routes. We therefore purposely send biographies from an array of staff at different stages of their careers who might be more relevant to the registered purpose of the mentee’s request.

In the longer term, complex data analysis will require a more robust system than our actual Excel-based system. This is something we are still working on. Gathering exit data can also be difficult given that when staff leave the university, it is not their main priority and we would usually lose contact. We are mitigating the risk by regularly checking on mentoring relationship statuses, looking at HR data to identify leavers for staff and using exit interviews to remind staff to complete their exit questionnaires.

Outcome:
April 2017 will be the third anniversary of the scheme. So far, we maintained around 20% participation across the Department (staff and students). We are increasing our students’ participation and we have also collaborated with other Departments and with a student society called OxFEST, matching some of our mentors and mentees outside of RDM. By doing so, we are able to respond to niche needs from some mentees, but also, we can guarantee matches to more mentors thus sustaining interest and satisfaction levels from our members.

We are in the process of transferring the web-based content of our scheme to a new system, and we are looking at making the information and support more interactive to enhance the experience. This would include a podcast, some interactive training material and a growing virtual library.

The feedback we have received so far is positive (89% of participants recommend the scheme – 2016 staff survey) and seems to show a real impact on career progression and goal achievements set by the mentees. We are hoping to investigate whether benefits in terms of re-grading and promotion can be objectively linked to staff participation in the scheme.

Supporting Visuals or Quotes:
“My mentor has been absolutely fantastic, so I can't thank her enough for her time and valuable advice throughout the year. She has helped me expand my network of contacts in other departments, which I am sure will be useful for career progression in the future. Overall, I would give the RDM Mentoring Scheme 10/10. It's a great initiative and I am really thankful to the department for organising it.”

“My mentor was really friendly and helpful and I would definitely recommend her as a mentor. I knew I could always ask for her advice and ideas for possible career options after my DPhil and she also put me in touch with people she knows in industry who I could also contact and ask questions, which was extremely useful. I appreciate the effort put in both by my mentor and also the RDM mentoring scheme.”

“I have found the mentoring process incredibly useful and beneficial. I was able to explore different career roles, and gained an insight into the role of a Laboratory Manager. My mentor encouraged me to be pro-active in gaining relevant skills. My confidence increased as he encouraged me to approach different people within the university that were also able to offer guidance.”  

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This case study focuses on the following:

• Purpose – Employability, Leadership, Equality/Diversity, Retention and Return to work
• Forms of Mentoring - 1 to 1, Face to face, Group mentoring
• Marketing of the Mentoring scheme - Social media campaign, Word of mouth (through network and previous participants), Trade Press, Press release
• Recruitment and Selection of Mentors and Mentees - Self-referral, Application form (paper), Interview and Sourced by networks (coordinator led)
• Matching - Coordinator matched
• Administration and training - Paper based and MS office (Excel) or spreadsheets
• Monitoring of Mentoring Relationships - Induction/Briefing, Regular email/calls check-in with mentees/mentors, Informal networking/Social events and Recognition and announcement communications
• Evaluation - Formative evaluation surveys (mentors and mentees), Before and After evaluation surveys (mentors and mentees), Participant attitude surveys, Focus groups/Interviews and Social Media capture – blogs, vlogs and posts

Executive Summary:
This is an annual mid-career scheme aimed at women working in film and television who are facing a significant challenge. Issues addressed have included redundancy; returning from a career break; dealing with a new promotion or moving in a different direction. The scheme runs for six months, during which time participants receive six hours of mentoring contact with an experienced industry figure alongside an intensive programme of exclusive peer-to-peer seminars, WFTV member events and wider industry networking opportunities. Each scheme consists of 20 diverse women (job role; industry sector; age; BAME; geographical origin; disability etc) who meet fortnightly and form a tight-knit support group that continues long after the scheme officially ends; each mentee also joins a growing alumni network.

What are your goals?
The scheme in its current form was launched in 2011 in response to a 2009 Creative Skillset census that revealed that 4950 women lost their jobs in TV since the start of the recession, (compared to just 650 men). Not only were the numbers of women declining in the industry, but it was also noted there was steep drop in the number of women staying in the industry after the age of 35, and those who remained often struggled to progress to a more senior level. Our goal was to create an industry culture that supports and respects women throughout their careers so that they remain in the industry into their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.

Who was involved:
The scheme is run by Nicola Lees, who works two-days per week year round on the project, with some administrative support from the core WFTV team. The scheme is funded by a number of partners (which have changed over time); currently the sponsors include BBC, Channel 4, EON Productions, AVID, Lee & Thompson, Head Gear, Bankside Films and NBCUniversal International.

Shortlisting and interviewing of mentees is carried out by the scheme’s producer along with a panel of volunteers from the WFTV Board and former mentors and mentees. Finding and selecting mentors is done solely by the scheme’s producer.

Outcome:
At the time of writing six schemes have been completed and another is about to launch in February 2017, taking the total number of participants to 140. Over the course of six schemes mentees have: been promoted (some into international roles); set up their own companies; worked together professionally; commissioned work from each other; attended Cannes Film Festival and Sheffield Doc/Fest as a group; delivered one-hour seminars to the group and then gone on to speak on panels and at conferences and universities.

Progress is tracked through their application form, interview, induction day goal setting and progress reports completed at midpoint and end of the scheme. At the end of one scheme:

• 100% felt that they had advanced their career in some way (not necessarily as foreseen)
• 93% raised their professional profile (more contacts, press coverage, panels)
• 60% won more work (of the kind they wanted to do)
• 29% had negotiated a higher salary/fee
• 29% found new clients
• 14% had set up a new business (not necessarily foreseen)
• 14% got a new job

They also report that they are better able to:

• Articulate what they want, and to ask for it
• Set clearer boundaries so they can prioritise the work that they want to do
• Deliberately step out of their comfort zone in order to challenge themselves
• Embrace failure as both a possibility and a potential opportunity

In 2016, former mentees started organising twice-yearly alumni mixers, which will help sustain support and networking over the long term; others have become mentors themselves, either on the WFTV Scheme or for new entrants via other industry schemes, creating a virtuous ripple effect.

Quotes:
"One of the very best things that I have done for my career. It forced me to work on areas I had neglected - networking, contact building and focusing on long-term goals - and also allowed me to meet, bond and be a part of a new network with brilliant women.” - Christiana Ebohon, Director, Mentee 2015

"It kicked me into 'business mode' - my knowledge of the freelancing world and industry as a whole has increased hugely and, with that, my confidence in 'selling myself' (a somewhat alien idea to me)." - Lucy Johnstone, Sound Editor, Mentee 2015

"The scheme forced me to stop, take stock and focus on what it is that tempted me into the industry in the first place... I felt less alone, regularly inspired and positively accountable.” - Emma Smithwick, Head of Scripted Content, Mentee 2015

"Once you go through it, you can't turn back because you've made a commitment and you're accountable to the other mentees, your mentor and most of all yourself - that’s very powerful." - Sofia Olins, Director, Mentee 2015

"This scheme is appropriate to ANYONE who is mid-career and needs to reconnect with themselves in some professional way. The creation of the supportive female network is inspired and definitely the best thing about the scheme." - Anita Gupta, Set Decorator/Production Buyer, Mentee 2015

"The mentoring scheme fosters an incredibly supportive and safe environment to openly identify obstacles (both professional and personal), push boundaries, learn new skills, ask questions and take risks." - Fleur Jago, Producer, Mentee 2014

"The mentoring scheme was really magical - it unfolded in both typical and surprising ways. I learned not only so much about the industry but also about myself. It was challenging and yet so much fun!” - Meghan Horvath, Director, Mentee 2013

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This scheme has some very distinctive features, which include compulsory mentoring for some mentees, dyads interact virtually and the payment of mentors.

This case study focuses on the following:

• Purpose – Organizational socialization, Transition, Organizational Focus/Strategy and Retention
• Forms of Mentoring – E-mentoring – typically using telephone, email and skype
• Marketing of the Mentoring scheme - Word of mouth (through network and previous participants), *compulsory for some mentees as part of their development as practitioners
• Recruitment and Selection of Mentors and Mentees – Online promotion and registration, Self-referral, Application form
• Matching – Coordinator matched based on skills and specialisms
• Administration and training - MS office (Excel) or spreadsheets
• Monitoring of Mentoring Relationships - Regular email/calls check-in with mentees/mentors, Support/training and supervision groups for mentors and Recognition and announcement communications. This scheme also pays its mentors for the work they do and there is a payment administration system which offers another form of monitoring.
• Evaluation – Formative evaluation surveys for mentors and mentees

Executive Summary:
NCT (formerly the National Childbirth Trust) is a large charity which organises courses and services for the time of transition to parenthood. Self-employed education practitioners are trained and educated to foundation degree level. They work with expectant and new parents on behalf of NCT. The mentoring scheme began to be planned in 2012 in response to changing higher education practices and University partners. Mentors are recruited, trained and paid to work with a variety of mentees – to be a mentor is a specific role within the Senior Practitioner body of NCT. They work with mentees who are the self-employed education practitioners. A mentee might be from a routine part of a programme of study, or a practitioner who has had a difficult situation (e.g. a complaint made against them by a client, a challenging assessment of practice, or a period of ill-health), practitioners who are facing challenges of transition or gate-keeping, and any practitioner who wishes to self-fund their own mentoring as alternative CPD.

What are the goals?
Our ultimate goal is the improvement of client (i.e. expectant and new parents) experiences through services and courses that NCT offers. To do this we need to support our practitioners (NCTPs) through development and transitions, in order to enhance their practice.

Who was involved?
I have been a tutor for NCT for around 11 years now (around 6 at the time of the scheme beginning) and was the nearest thing they had to an expert on mentoring! I designed the training and wrote the handbook, which has been updated for each of the 6 cohorts of mentors that have been trained so far. My current title is Mentor Tutor and Coordinator, so I train the mentors and coordinate the scheme. I work under the management of the Quality and Support team, headed by the Quality and Competencies manager. She in turn works under the Head of Education, and ultimately the CEO of NCT. Mentors are drawn from our ‘Excellent Practitioners’ i.e. those who have passed a gate-keeping assessment of their practice that shows they are excellent within their specialisms (e.g. antenatal teaching, breastfeeding counselling, postnatal practitioners, baby massage teachers etc.), and that they are good ‘NCT citizens’ thus good role models. Mentees are drawn from the probationary or newly qualified practitioner ranks, from those who have had complaints or challenging assessments, those who are identified as struggling in their practice in some way, and potentially, all NCTPs.

Policies, procedures, and processes used in this scheme
Mentors are recruited, trained and licensed to practise as an NCT mentor. The training involves 3 days of facilitated learning, self-determined learning and undertaking a ‘training’ mentoring relationship. This is real, although the mentee is a volunteer and willing to cope with the experimental nature of the mentor’s work. Mentors have to then fulfil a certain amount of relevant CPD each year in order to retain their license. This involves an update day at least every two years, and participating in teleconferences which provide peer learning opportunities (these are anonymised), peer and tutor supervision, updates on information and studies, as well as celebrations of success.

Some mentees are approached about mentoring by the mentor coordinator, and others by assessors, tutors or other senior staff within NCT. Mentoring for probationers and for newly qualified practitioners is a compulsory part of their first year of practice. For other mentees, it is voluntary and is offered as part of the support and development package identified after a difficult situation.

Describe the system we used or created:
Mentors’ details are maintained on a database by the mentoring coordinator. These include specialism/s, contact details and preferences, and contact times and preferences. Newly qualified (NQ) and probationary mentees fill in a form stating their specialism/s, their contact details and preferences, and their contact times and preferences. I then match mentors and mentees by hand. For other mentees, the particular needs of a mentee are identified, and an email sent to all mentors looking for availability and the particular skill set needed. When a match of any kind is identified, a form letter introducing them to one another is emailed through, along with a mentor-mentee agreement for the mentee to sign and information about ‘how to get the most from your mentor’.

Dyads work virtually as NCT is a dispersed organisation, so either by phone, skype, email or even text at times. It is very rare for mentoring to be carried out face-to-face. Mentors fill in a monthly return detailing the mentoring they have carried out over that period. They claim fees through a central purchase management system, administered by office staff, but authorised by the mentoring coordinator, so there is an element of cross-checking. Mentees are invited to fill in evaluation forms at the end of their mentoring relationship, although only around half do so.

Challenges:
Cost is always a challenge as there are limited funds for extending mentoring. Mentors are paid for the work they do within the scheme (although not for any informal work they may do with other local practitioners). The NCT rule is that if it is activity performed can earn money, then the training for fulfilling that activity has to be paid for. Mentors in training can pay up front for their mentor training, or can wait to pay as soon as they begin earning, or they can use their CPD budget to pay for some of their mentoring training.

Working virtually can be a challenge but most people seem to be quite pragmatic about it and some positively welcome it. Expanding the scheme is difficult as the recruitment of mentors is limited and encouraging other practitioners to use mentoring as part of an alternative approach to CPD involves them paying for this support service.

Finding places to train groups of mentors is another difficulty as NCT no longer has a headquarters with a training room available. Obtaining evaluation forms from mentees is an ongoing struggle which is being tackled by the coordinator.

Outcome:
Currently (2017) there are 14 mentors, with another 10 in training. We have worked with around 200 mentees over the last few years, with some mentors working with 10 + mentees at any one time. The scheme has evaluated well, with the proviso that the missing evaluation forms may mask some inadequacies of the system.

Supporting quotations:

What mentees have said:

• I am sorry it has to come to an end! I cannot foresee a time when it wouldn’t be useful to have a mentor
• Most of all the confidence that my mentor has fostered in me has been truly fabulous.
• In short I feel privileged and lucky to have undergone this mentoring opportunity.
• My mentor made me feel supported and encouraged and was an excellent source of advice if I needed it. Her listening skills were fantastic and most appreciated
• She was very respectful of my needs and even in a short space of time she had worked out a way to support me to the best of my ability

What mentors have said:

• It’s giving me a new perspective on my own practice, and the training has helped me develop my listening skills to a new level.
• I found the mentoring course to be meticulously planned, effectively carried out and a very enjoyable experience.
• We’ve created a really supportive group of practitioners
• Gaining a real insight into life for the new practitioners which is helpful in terms of context. Has often made me think about my own facilitation.
• I don’t really like to just be kind of plodding along. I’d much rather be doing something that’s a bit challenging, and certainly some of them are quite challenging, so that I quite enjoy – something to kind of get my teeth into a little bit.

Compiled by Cathy Evans - 29.03.2017

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The incentive for the creation of this scheme is to allow students to start building their own network and provide them with an outlet to speak to people who are currently working in an environment or industry that is aspirational to them. Allowing students to get a full perspective, as opposed to solely relying on people within their direct environment, a mentor could provide feedback and views on:

• What career path to follow?
• Should they stay in the job for longer than 2 years?
• What extra qualifications would be useful to complete?
• How did they build their network?
• What skills and attributes do certain industries and employers regard more highly than others?
• How should they deal with a difficult boss or colleague?

School of Management Mentoring Scheme, Swansea University: Careers Team Employability Mentoring Scheme 

Executive Summary:
Within the careers team we have set up an employability mentoring scheme which matches final year students with employers within relevant industries. The scheme has been running over the past 2 years and its role is to help students with the transition from student to working professional whilst also enhancing the employability prospects of students who take part.

What are your goals?
The incentive for the creation of this scheme is to allow students to start building their own network and provide them with an outlet to speak to people who are currently working in an environment or industry that is aspirational to them. Allowing students to get a full perspective, as opposed to solely relying on people within their direct environment, a mentor could provide feedback and views on: 

• What career path to follow?
• Should they stay in the job for longer than 2 years?
• What extra qualifications would be useful to complete?
• How did they build their network?
• What skills and attributes do certain industries and employers regard more highly than others?
• How should they deal with a difficult boss or colleague?

Who was involved?
During the history of the scheme we have matched students with employers ranging from Swansea City Council, PwC, Office for National Statistics, EY, Admiral, HSBC, Credit Safe, S and E Electric, Santander and a number of entrepreneurs. Currently we have 20 students who are matched with different employers on a one to one basis.

Policies, procedures and processes used:
The scheme runs for 6 months from October to March and each mentor meets with his or her mentee on a monthly basis for a minimum of two hours. Meetings can be via email, skype, or face to face. Each student applies to the scheme by filling out an application form and stating why they wish to be matched with a mentor and what benefits or skills the scheme will give them. Currently our focus is on final year students but we also take referrals from pastoral tutors. The mentors are found either through school networking events or via colleague’s recommendations. Generally, we tend to find that most organisations support their staff in taking part in the mentoring scheme and it usually forms part of the mentor’s CPD. 

Through the scheme, the mentor also offers up to a week’s voluntary work experience, which takes place during the  University’s employability week in January. This is an excellent opportunity for the student to really experience their mentor’s organisation and get a feel for that industry.

All the matching is completed by hand, by the careers team and is achieved by viewing the students’ application forms, and from meetings with mentors and mentees. This allows the scheme coordinator to gauge who they think is best suited as a match. As a smaller scheme, this matching approach is manageable. However, I have looked at purchasing matching software but currently nothing suitable has been found. Feedback and evaluation is gathered halfway through the mentoring scheme and at the end, allowing mentors and mentees are to offer views and opinions.

Successes and lessons learnt: 

The mentoring project has been a success and many students have found their mentor to be useful. Some students have quoted:

“…from the meetings and that were held I already gained a great amount of insight and advice that I can use in my future”

“My mentor gave me useful tips when I told her that I have been applying to placements. She gave me some interview tips and online test tips, which was very helpful”

“The skills that I believe of most significant was how to interact in a manner that comes as professional, as most students will have little exposure to this before gaining a graduate job”

The main benefits from the scheme are the ability for the student to network with the mentors building their own network and the chance to visit the employer in the work place.

Training mentors is invaluable as it gives them the confidence to take the mentoring forward. Following on from mentor feedback during the first run of the scheme, it was felt that the mentors needed more support on how to get the most from the time spent with their mentees. We have since also included a session on asking powerful questions and listening techniques.

Future proofing:
As the scheme continues to grow we have considered how we would develop and in what direction. Our current intention is to keep the original scheme to a bespoke number of mentees; this is more manageable and keeps the integrity of the scheme intact, giving it more credence and coveted by all. Alongside this we are looking to offer the mentors the opportunity to complete a CMI Award in Coaching and Mentoring allowing us to give some back to the mentors ensuring longevity and retention of mentors.

Compiled by Emma Evans – Careers team – School of Management, Swansea University. 

Yr Ysgol Reolaeth | School of Management
Campws y Bae, Ffordd Fabian, Abertawe, SA1 8EN | Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, SA1 8EN 
Tel/Ffôn: +44 (0) 1792 296501 | Email/Ebost: som@swansea.ac.uk 

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The scheme, although open to all part two undergraduates, was designed with the needs of widening participation students in mind with the aim of enhancing social, economic and cultural capital for those involved where needed. The broad aim was focused on student employability: “to enable students to make a confident transition into graduate level work.”

Alongside this we designed a range of key performance indicators for which we measure positive shifts for each mentee and the cohort as a whole:

• Career clarity
• Sector, organisational and job knowledge
• Confidence in interacting with professionals
• Strength and breadth of professional networks
• Self-belief in the ability to secure graduate level employment
• Exposure to the workplace via discussions, visits, shadowing, work experience, placements, and potentially, permanent job offers

Tania Lyden, University Career mentoring Manager
Thrive Career Mentoring: a strategy embedded scheme at the University of Reading 

Executive Summary:
Thrive Career Mentoring is a scheme run by the Career Mentoring team, within Careers, at the University of Reading. The scheme is ambitious and, having started from two pilot schemes with 65 mentoring partnerships, currently has around 275 partnerships with the aim of some 1,000 partnerships a year by 2021 across both undergraduate and taught postgraduate courses. Integration of the purpose of the scheme into the University strategy has led to long term commitment, funding and stability.

What are your goals?
The scheme, although open to all part two undergraduates, was designed with the needs of widening participation students in mind with the aim of enhancing social, economic and cultural capital for those involved where needed. The broad aim was focused on student employability: “to enable students to make a confident transition into graduate level work.”

Alongside this we designed a range of key performance indicators for which we measure positive shifts for each mentee and the cohort as a whole:  

• Career clarity
• Sector, organisational and job knowledge
• Confidence in interacting with professionals
• Strength and breadth of professional networks
• Self-belief in the ability to secure graduate level employment
• Exposure to the workplace via discussions, visits, shadowing, work experience, placements, and potentially, permanent job offers.

Alongside these more immediate measures the scheme aimed to look for any correlation between scheme engagement and graduate level employment. We wanted a positive, altruistic experience for our mentors and mentees so strong engagement and a win-win situation was the team aim.

Who was involved?
The original project was initiated by Dr Orla Kennedy, Teaching and Learning Dean at the University of Reading, who made Tania Lyden, University Career Mentoring Manager project manager. Since then scheme expansion has led to a team of three and soon four (2.7FTE) with a Career Mentoring Officer, Assistant and a new Assistant planned for 2018.

Beyond this immediate team, there is a wider collaboration across the university that enables the scheme to function. Our central alumni team have been fundamental to the mentor recruitment process. We have an academic partner in every school who acts as a conduit to market to students and also to help us identify alumni mentors. Personal Tutors are also kept in the loop and consulted if mentees stop engaging. We also have a team of Thrive Ambassadors to help with promotion and mentee training.

In 2014/15 the Career Mentoring Manager put forward successful proposals that mapped the scheme onto the University and the Careers and Employability strategy. This convinced the Head of Student and Applicant Services to invest in the scheme longer term (a further five years). The access committee also endorsed the scheme with funding at this stage. 

Policies, procedures and processes used
Recruitment and marketing: involves a detailed case study led marketing campaign for both mentors and mentees. The academic network is also used as is LinkedIn for searching for particular occupations to be represented. Recruitment is open to all part two undergraduates at present up to a maximum of 400 in 2017/18 and shortly 75 postgraduate taught students across specific Schools from January 2018. We particularly encourage students with disabilities and mental health conditions who need extra support with the transition into work by encouraging tutors to refer students to the scheme and also provide extra marketing to widening participation students. We also have a range of marketing materials (stands, leaflets, stickers, coasters, pens, lollies etc.) to help us promote the scheme. We have extensive application forms for both mentors and mentees to ensure they are committed. If they won’t fill in a 15 minute form, then will they meet their mentee/mentor? Mentors are normally alumni but we will aim for about 25% non-alumni to broaden our labour market reach. A third of our mentors are overseas, spread across 53 countries. 

Training and support: mentees receive two hours of face to face training using a flipped classroom technique. We support them in making the first move to engage with mentors and monitor their relationships to ensure they have the support they need. Mentors receive 2-3 hours of face to face or online training and have specialist training around disability and mental health conditions if they are supporting a student where this is relevant. We support mentors with ad hoc training during the year, offer ‘drop-in’ clinics to discuss issues with the team and have a LinkedIn discussion page.

Matching: research suggests that formal mentoring schemes who give the mentee control in their choice of mentor are more likely to have higher mentor/mentee engagement levels. Matching is also the most time consuming part of organising a scheme. As a result we ask our mentors to create profiles and provide these on a private web page for students to review and select their own mentors. We review the choice and either confirm this or suggest a better alternative. Applications are on a first come, first served basis only. Effectively students apply to be mentored by a specific person. We have found this is highly effective and seems to have increased engagement levels.

Engagement and events: engagement is monitored, particularly at the start of the process where bonding is crucial. We expect all partnerships to meet face to face once or twice (or skype) to help build this connection. We measure engagement at the end of the scheme and regularly check in for news from our pairs throughout the year. We have a LinkedIn page for mentors, a quarterly newsletter for all and meet and greet, networking and closure events to help maintain engagement.

Evaluation: we evaluate the scheme in line with the goals listed above using a before and after survey of both parties, looking for KPI shift. The first is incorporated into the application form. We are measuring other opportunities that can be harvested from the scheme such as work shadowing and work experience or placements. Finally, from this year we will be able to look for correlations between scheme engagement and graduate level employment.

Describe the system you used and created

To date we have functioned by using a combination of excel spreadsheets, online survey packages and word documents on webpages. With ambitious goals for growing the scheme, and having reviewed the alternative IT systems available, we are now designing our own internal database which will also have a web based user interface to facilitate students selecting mentors. The scheme will also enable us to safely store and manage mentor and mentee information and undertake routine processes such as checking training completion, checking who is matched/not matched, monitoring the diversity of mentors and mentees and also facilitating event management.

Challenges
The main challenges are resource related. Running a large scheme with only 2.7 FTE is difficult and requires innovative approaches that will not compromise standards such as training, engagement monitoring and reporting. In addition, with larger schemes comes more expense in terms of IT systems and also basics like food and drink for events.

Other challenges have been around trying to secure academic commitment consistently across the University, although on the whole this has been good and continues to improve as the scheme’s credibility and solid reputation become more widespread. Finally, when a mentor or a mentee decides not to engage it can be damaging to the reputation of the University, so time must be allowed for managing the fall out of these situations to preserve alumni and employer relationships. 

Outcomes
Our results have been excellent and we have listed these for 2015/16 below: 

• 100% or mentors and mentees who met each other felt comfortable with their partner.
• 98% of mentors rated the training as good or excellent.
• 96% of mentors stated they would recommend becoming a mentor to a colleague.
• 97% of mentors felt the scheme was well or very well organised.
• 92% of mentees had at least one significant meeting/contact with their mentor with 86%meeting at least 3 times.

Mentee quotes:
“You never know what you’ll discover and how that may actually change your preconceived ideas of what you actually want from life.”

“The most important thing I have gained from my mentor is self-confidence and self-belief. Now I feel like I can walk into a room full of professionals and believe that I fit in, can have conversations and make people remember me.”

“Thrive mentoring has not only helped guide me but also empowered me.”  

“I hope we keep in touch after the mentoring scheme is over, but I know now that I have what it takes to make it on my own.”

“I can't believe how helpful my mentor has been at putting me in contact with different people in the food industry. I am so glad I did thrive mentoring it has been so helpful.”

“I found Thrive mentoring the most useful part of careers so far. Having a mentor who is in the sector I would like to work in has been very useful and so helpful in securing an industrial placement.”

“The Thrive mentoring scheme has been one of the most useful services I have received whilst being at university - I would 100% recommend it to any student at Reading.”

“The biggest thing so far has been developing my first professional relationship- seeing how easy it is/ how competent I am at building a relationship with someone in the field of work I am looking to go into. “

“My mentor instigated my interview and thus my internship with “XYZ” media (name changed). This was a fantastic opportunity for me, to learn as much as I can about PR and network with people within the industry, hopefully after university to give me a head start!”

“I have really benefitted from the advice that my mentor has given me throughout my placement application. Without this I wouldn't have felt as confident and probably wouldn't have secured my placement.”

“It is great to have the support of a mentor and someone to speak to, as well as having access to a network so someone such as myself (who doesn’t have many family contacts in a professional work environment), can begin to expand his own network.”