Matching mentors and mentees

Preliminary assessment of the mentee s learning and development needs. Creating an initial development plan will be one of the most invaluable types of data with regard to matching mentors and mentees. Data regarding the mentee s development needs could initially be collated from, for example, the mentee s self-assessment and/or the assessment of his or her immediate supervisor or manager. 

Possible criteria for matching mentors and mentees are listed in Table 8.4. 

The program was championed by Lars Akeson, the HR Director of the Division, and its global implementation was co-ordinated by Malin Boultwood, Manager of Competence and Culture. Boultwood is still responsible for managing the scheme, which means that she matches mentors and mentees, organizes the training, and carries out evaluations. The scheme is funded partially by the participants departments and partially from the central HR budget. 

Since it is a global program, it has been hard to find and match mentors and mentees that are based in the same area. When you have the traveiiing aspect to consider as well, it is harder to meet frequentiy. 

It will provide useful information for his/ her efforts to match mentors and mentees. Thus, they are given the opportunity to listen to the expectations of mentors and mentees and to observe the chemistry between them. This will help to prevent mismatches... 

Initially there were different workshops for mentors and mentees, but they were soon asked to attend joint ones, although certain aspects were still discussed separately. Running joint workshops proved much more successful and popular with participants, because they felt that they better understood how the scheme actually worked. Furthermore, once mentors and mentees started to attend the same workshops, it was possible to commence with the first step of matching during these sessions. This involved providing mentees with a pen picture of each mentor as well as a preferences form, and asking them, at the end of the workshop, to indicate both their top three favourites and those mentors they would not perceive as suitable at all. 

In terms of matching mentors with mentees, BAT takes the view that there should be balance between the similar and dissimilar personalities or backgrounds of the two parties. Compatibility depends on the individuals personality type, learning, and communication style. 

The scheme is run in conjunction with the Advancement of Women Task Force (AWTF), a group dedicated to the progress of female managers. It is co-ordinated by Kristen Nostrand, P G Marketing Director, and a small team of mentors. As in most traditional mentoring schemes, mentors and mentees are matched on the basis of compatibility in terms of expectations, needs, personality and locations. The structure of the scheme is highly flexible so that the participants can respond to their own individual needs. A central coordination team ensures that the Mentor Up pairs are monitored and changed if the relationships do not prove to be successful. 

In the last part of this chapter we also highlighted factors other than mentor and mentee characteristics that influence the extent to which a mentee benefits from a mentoring association. Thus, experience-needs match between mentor and mentee is a vital contributor to a mentee s gains, as is (potentially) their membership of a particular national culture. 

Once the implementation team is in place, recruitment should first focus on the selection of mentees before turning to the selection of mentors. The reason for this lies in the fact that mentoring is set up to benefit mentees (employees with certain learning requirements). In order for mentors to develop these employees, their needs must be ascertained first, and then mentors matched to them. Let us now consider mentor and mentee recruitment in more detail, starting with the mentee. 

Mentors and mentees as well as line managers, relationship supervisors and the program co-ordinator must undergo training. Mentors and mentees must attend this prior to being matched. Profiles of mentors and mentees are used to match pairs. Mentees are given several options to choose from and preferences with regards to particular mentors are taken into account. 

Training mentors and mentees jointly on some aspects enables them to get to know each other, and this enhanced familiarity will aid the matching process. As the participants in Megginson and Stokes scheme said, it helps them to understand much better what the scheme is all about. 

Mentoring relationships are unlikely to work unless they are volimtary associations. This implies that the mentee will want to be mentored in the first place, regardless of who the mentor is. It also implies that the mentor-mentee match has to be a good one, i.e. one that is desirable to both parties. A mentoring relationship is perceived as desirable if, for example, it fulfils the mentor s and mentee s expectations. A relationship is also desirable if rapport is built quickly. 

Business-to-business - mentors with corporate managerial expertise are matched to the needs of owner-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises. Typically, the mentors focus on supporting mentees to enhance clarity and effectiveness in business. 

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