How Does It Work?

You will be asked to complete a short form with details about your current job role, level of experience and any preferences you have opposite a mentor/mentee (e.g. geographical location, department of and level of seniority of the mentor /mentee you are seeking, whether you would like anyone with specific qualities (for example a person of a particular sex, ethnic group, sexual community etc)). After this form has been submitted to us, we will begin our search to match you with an appropriate mentor/mentee. Please be aware that the more specific your requirements, the longer it may take us to find a good match. 

You will be asked to read and attest to a short mentoring contract. This contract is important as it covers key areas such as respect of confidentiality between the mentoring partners, anticipated duration of the mentoring partnership and completion of training prior to commencement (see more in step 3). If for any reason the mentoring partnerships needs to be terminated* there is no penalty, but the purpose of the contract is to ensure that both mentor and mentee are aware of what they are agreeing to and to establish ground rules for the mutual benefit of both parties.

*A mentoring relationship may need to be terminated for any number of reasons, for example, a family bereavement, change in career of one of the mentoring partners, lack of commitment from one mentoring partner etc. In such events, we will find a new suitable mentoring partner for you should you wish to start a new mentoring partnership. 

Prior to commencement, we require that you watch a short training video which will cover crucial elements of the mentoring programme. The purpose of this is to help you prepare for embarking on the mentoring programme and how to get the most out of it for both mentoring partners. This training will form part of your mentoring contract. 

You will also be provided with access to more detailed resources to assist in multiple areas including objective setting, laying ground rules, how to get the most out of the programme, how to stay on track, agenda templates etc. These are not required to be watched and read as part of the mentoring contract, but will be useful for you in setting yourself up for maximum mentoring success, or can be used as resources to be consulted at any point during the mentoring relationship. 

We will match you with the best possible mentor/mentee available for your circumstances and communicate details of that individual to you. We will obtain permission from both the mentor and mentee to introduce you to each other and share contact details.  

Connect with your mentor/mentee and set up your first meeting.  Unless agreed otherwise between the mentoring partners, we ask that the mentee be pro-active in reaching out to their mentor and scheduling meetings. Meetings can be held over video or in person. We recommend that wherever feasible, you aim to meet in person at least once and preferably earlier rather than later within the mentoring relationship: a quiet coffee shop is ideal or perhaps one of your employers may allow you use of a meeting room within their offices. 

We recommend aiming for 6 mentoring sessions over the course of around 9 months and that each mentoring relationship is established for a minimum of 6 months and maximum of 12 months. The initial mentoring session should be shorter (around 30 minutes) and the following sessions 1- 2 hours.  It's estimated the time commitment will be around 10 hours over the course of up to 12 months. 

We will provide you with a suggested agenda for your mentoring sessions, which will vary depending on where you are at in your mentoring relationship: initially you should focus on building trust, understanding each others background and challenges, and agreeing on the mentee's objectives. Thereafter you should discuss how to achieve those objectives, with a focus on knowledge sharing, listening and provision of feedback (both ways) whilst also incorporating a constant review of where you are against those objectives. 

It is important to set a date for closure of the mentoring relationship from the outset. This will ensure that the relationship doesn't continue indefinitely. It also provides a timeline for completion of the mentee's objectives as agreed at the start of your mentoring partnership. We recommend agreeing that the mentoring relationship will end around 9 months after it begins. 

You can of course choose to extend your mentoring relationship if it is working well for both partners. However, we recommend that you agree to extend it for a set period (again we recommend around 9 months) and following the same programme (for example setting new objectives to be achieved). This ensures that both partners can continue to evaluate that the partnership remains mutually beneficial and is achieving the desired outcomes. At the point that both parties agree to bring the relationship to a close, we will provide you with an agenda template for your last mentoring session so that you can reflect, evaluate the progress made and recognise what has been achieved. 

Though your formal mentoring partnership will come to an end at some point. This does not mean that you cannot stay in touch with each other, perhaps as friends or have the occasional check in to see how each other is doing. How you will stay in touch in future is something you can cover as part of the closure session. 

Mentortees is also very interested in any feedback that you have on the mentoring programme in order that we can continuously adapt and improve it. Please send any feedback to feedback@mentortees.com or if preferred, please contact us to schedule a brief call to provide your feedback.