SkillPath’s Mentoring Job Aids Improve Program Effectiveness

Mentoring is one of the best tools that an organization can use to recruit new talent, retain current employees, engage the workforce, improve skills and expand knowledge. To help organizations standardize and support these programs, SkillPath has developed a tool kit of mentoring job aids to guide their success.

“For many companies, implementing a new formal mentoring program can be a challenge,” said Dave Fogleman, Chief Learning Officer for SkillPath. “Mentoring programs require planning and preparation, and this tool kit provides a number of items to establish objectives, determine roles, kick off the program and measure results.”

The best mentoring programs have a strong balance between planned and managed objectives, expectations, activities and milestones, and they create the right environment for the relationship to develop. SkillPath’s mentoring job aid tool kit provides guidance on:

• Establishing scope questionnaires
• Planning mentoring agreements
• Presenting guiding principles for the program
• Setting up a kickoff meeting
• Establishing mentor and mentee roles
• Determining the roles of managers
• Matching plan approaches
• Coaching model considerations
• Measuring the program for results
• Creating a sustainable program

For best results, Fogleman recommends adding a professional learning and development component to the mentoring program. “Organizations that add training to their mentoring programs are more likely to meet their learning goals,” he adds.