Streamlining mentoring for an industry association of over 6,000+ members
with Sam Bell,
CEO, Institute of Managers and Leaders ANZ
with Sam Bell,
CEO, Institute of Managers and Leaders ANZ
IML ANZ has spent years building better managers and leaders across Australia and New Zealand — through accreditation, community, and a mentoring program that’s grown from a paper-based side project into one of the association’s most valuable member benefits.
Before Mentorloop, IML ANZ ran its mentoring program manually. Applications, matching, and communications were all handled by staff — a slow, admin-heavy process that created backlogs and made scaling difficult.
The turning point came after one of IML ANZ’s member events. Interest in mentoring spiked, but the team was still running everything manually — paper applications, spreadsheet matching, and communications and reporting scattered across multiple systems. As CEO Sam Bell puts it, tracking engagement was hard, and measuring the program’s success was harder still. It became clear that if IML ANZ wanted to meet growing demand, they needed a system that could scale with them.
Before implementing Mentorloop, IML ANZ faced several significant challenges:
Mentorloop gave the program its first real infrastructure — automated onboarding, faster mentor-mentee pairings, and dashboards that gave the coordination team visibility they’d never had.
Momentum has only built since. Over the most recent 12 months alone, IML ANZ created 127 mentor matches, supported 916 participants, and logged more than 15,000 interactions — meetings, calls, and every touchpoint in between. Participant satisfaction has held at 4.7 out of 5 on post-meeting ratings, with 419 five-star reviews recorded in that period alone.
For Sam, the numbers tell part of the story — but a single moment at an IML ANZ event brought the impact home. A mentee had joined the program at a pivotal point in their career, unsure of their next step. Through months of regular mentoring conversations, they built the confidence and clarity to go after a leadership opportunity that had once felt out of reach.
Sam was there in person when that mentor and mentee met face to face for the first time — a full year after their conversations began.
“These stories remind us that this program is more than professional development; it’s about changing lives, building confidence, and creating a stronger leadership community.”
Beyond matching, IML ANZ points to the platform’s dashboards and analytics as central to running a program at this scale — giving clear visibility into engagement, outcomes, and impact, while built-in communication tools keep mentors and mentees connected throughout the journey. Just as important has been the relationship with the Mentorloop team itself: responsive, willing to listen, and invested in continuous improvement alongside IML ANZ.
Mentorloop gave IML ANZ everything they needed to grow with confidence:
"Mentorloop has allowed us to focus less on administration and more on creating meaningful value for our participants."
IML ANZ is looking to deepen the program rather than just grow its numbers — introducing group mentoring, developing industry-specific pathways, and building targeted support for emerging leaders navigating key career transitions. The team also plans to lean further into Mentorloop’s smart matching capabilities to sharpen the quality of every pairing.
Their vision is clear: ensure mentoring is a core, long-term benefit of IML ANZ membership, helping leaders at every stage grow and thrive.
By moving from manual processes to Mentorloop, IML ANZ has turned mentoring into one of its most powerful member benefits. The results speak for themselves: more leaders supported, more careers transformed, and a stronger leadership community across Australia and New Zealand.
Ready to build your own impactful mentoring program?
CEO, Institute of Managers and Leaders ANZ
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"Celebrate and share the stories of your participants. While data helps measure success, it's really the stories of career growth, stronger leadership capability, increased confidence, and meaningful connections that truly showcase the impact of a strong mentoring program."
– Sam Bell, CEO, IML ANZ
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