If you’re a Program Coordinator taking over a mentoring program from another PC, there are a few things you should do before diving in.
Carrying out these tasks will help ensure you’re up-to-date on all the mentoring program happenings, and will ultimately help get you started on the right foot.
Let’s take a look!
1. Familiarise yourself with the mentoring software in use
As you get to know the mentoring software your company is using, you can always ask for an additional demo or even an onboarding call if your provider or plan allows for it.
This will help you get the most out of the tool, ensuring you know your way around the software, can get better metrics, know how to ask for better feedback, and more.
2. Get to know the goals of the program and how it’s being evaluated
Finding out 1) What the goals of the program are, and 2) How they’re being tracked and evaluated, will guide you on what you should prioritise. This will also give you a general idea of why the program was implemented in the first place, how it’s progressing, and who you should target when you need to recruit participants again.
3. Review previous and current data
Tools like Mentorloop can provide you with real-time qualitative sentiment feedback, a Mentorloop Quality Score (MQS), dashboard analytics, and monthly reporting. Use all of that data to do a bit of a health check on the program’s engagement and whether participants are having a good experience.
By using this data as your baseline from here on out, you can keep a pulse on if you’re doing well or if you need to make some adjustments down the line.
4. Determine what set of matching criteria worked best
Another great way to use that data is to determine what set of matching criteria has worked best thus far so you’re not starting from scratch.
For those who manually match, it will help you get insights on what criteria to prioritise when matching. And, for those using the algorithm, these are useful insights in case you need to make adjustments in the future.
5. Ask about any problems and challenges
Hopefully, the answer to this question is, “There are none,” but whatever the case may be, it pays to learn about any problems between participants, any issues during recruitment, or any other challenges that the previous PC experienced.
This can help you avoid similar situations while ensuring you’re all caught up on any problematic program history.
6. Find your mentoring champions
As we’ve touched on before, a mentoring champion is someone in a position to influence, encourage, and motivate others to get involved in mentoring.
After you’ve identified who these rock stars are, use their testimonials for marketing and recruitment, and have them provide potential participants with a second opinion on why they should participate in your mentoring program.
7. Introduce yourself to the participants
Ready to get to work? Your first step should be to introduce yourself to your program participants. Inform participants of the change, and then open that line of communication so that they feel free to relay any feedback or ask for support.
What’s Next?
Taking over a mentoring program from a different PC can be hard and overwhelming, but hopefully, these tips will make it easier!
Need more support? We’ve got your back. Check out our Resource Library to learn about the ins and outs of remote mentoring, the qualities and habits that make effective mentors, access our goal-setting spreadsheet, and more.
