Mentoring schemes marketing

Procter Gamble (P G) is a global consumer goods corporation that owns and operates hundreds of household name brands across the world. In order to retain and develop female managers in the marketing division, P G devised and implemented an innovative reverse-mentoring scheme. The project was so successful that is has been subsequently expanded across six other functions besides marketing. 

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. 

Intermediaries were used as far as marketing and mentor and mentee recruitment were concerned. These intermediaries included the Business Links community. Change Management alumni from Sheffield Hallam University, other private contacts, and newspaper advertisements. However, as it turned out, most mentors and mentees were eventually obtained via the Business Links community. Furthermore, some mentors used their own networks to win other mentors for the scheme. 

The scheme has been marketed through company websites and invitation letters. Half of the mentors recruited for the program were internal to Ericsson and typically recommended by senior management. The other half, the external mentors, were recruited with help from the business school IMD - they supplied a range of individuals who committed to mentoring on a voluntary basis. In the recruitment of mentees, Boultwood received assistance from HR and line managers in other countries, who nominated candidates. Selection criteria for mentors included that they had to be ... 

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