M1.02. Designing and planning the mentoring process

To which elements one should pay attention prior to the commencement of mentoring?

We may distinguish subsequent phases of the mentoring process. The first phase is the so-called phase of initiation, when the process is commenced, mentee's expectations are identified, people are getting to know each other and pairs for cooperation are selected. The second phase, i.e. mature exchange, consists in the accomplishment of purposes defined in the first phase and expectations of mentees. The third phase is separation - the mentee, who in the mentoring process strengthened its competence, skills and knowledge, is ready to cope on its own, may become the mentor for other persons (employees) from the organisation. In order to enable these phases to come after each other and to make the mentoring process compliant with expectations of mentors, mentees and organisations, it should be planned, designed before its commencement.

The first decision that should be made in the organisation implementing the mentoring process concerns the unit/persons responsible for the mentoring organisation and process. The HR Department is usually the organisational centre of mentoring, but it is more and more often supported by the IT Department. At the mentoring design stage, the Team may be appointed to include representatives of various departments. It is important that this Team is able to make binding decisions and, if needed, it is supported from the outside by experienced mentors from the organisation or by the "market" experts.
If the mentoring process is carried out under some external project, its course results directly from the project assumptions. In such a situation, designing is limited to adjusting the project's requirements to the organisation's specificity. Often, there is a coordinating team in the project, which supports persons, teams in the organisation responsible for the mentoring implementation.

At the stage of designing the mentoring process, it is crucial to answer the question about what we want to achieve through mentoring, i.e. what benefits we expect, both us as the organisation and as persons directly involved in mentoring (see table).

Potential benefits from the implementation of the mentoring process:

While proceeding to implementation of the mentoring process, every organisation should consider the below presented set of questions. Answers to them shall determine planning of the mentoring process in the organisation.

AT THE START

Before you plan the mentoring process in your organisation, please answer the questions below:

Question 1. Has the organisation had any experience within the scope of mentoring in the past?
Question 2. What form (forms) of mentoring is preferred in your organisation?
Question 3. What are the programme purposes and scope (specific purposes for specific groups of employees, for the organisation)?
Question 4. What functions and tasks shall be performed by the mentor?
Question 5. Who should be the mentor, the mentee and what shall be the selection criteria?
Question 6. What competences of the mentor are deemed key in the organisation?
Question 7. What competences of the mentee are the most important?
Question 8. How mentors and mentees should be prepared to start the programme implementation?
Question 9. What support should be provided by the organisation – how the mentoring should be organised?
Question 10. How training needs of the mentoring participants shall be defined?
Question 11. What is the role and responsibility of mentors and mentees?
Question 12. Are there principles in the organisation and are respective policies introduced to support the programme implementation? How the confidence policy is implemented?
Question 13. How (and by whom) relations between the mentor and the mentee will be assessed?
Question 14. What will be measures of the mentoring result assessment?
Question 15. What support shall be provided to mentors and mentees when the mentoring relations do not proceed as expected?
Question 16. Will the mentoring programme be promoted? If yes, whether in a formal or an informal way?

In the further part of the study, all the above questions shall be analysed (some of them will be grouped by subject)

Question 1 and Question 2

Re. 1. Has the organisation had any experience within the scope of mentoring in the past?
Re. 2. What form (forms) of mentoring are preferred in your organisation?

If in the past the organisation had the mentoring programmes conducted, it would be worth to start from a deep analysis of documents (e.g. design documentation, evaluation reports) or from talks with persons who were implementing those programmes or who participated in them – a part of them is surely still in the organisation and they would constitute a valuable source of information.

STEP 1. As the organisation, do we have any experience connected with mentoring?
If yes, at this stage it is worth to answer auxiliary questions concerning the following issues:

• What mentoring purposes has the organisation determined, have those purposes been successfully accomplished (are we generally able to assess whether the assumed purposes are accomplished)?
• What was the mentoring form?
• Were the process participants (mentors and mentees) satisfied with the process? If not, what comments did they have?

Thanks to (documentation and human) resources analysed in such a way, we will acquire information on what was a success and what were weak points of previous mentoring.

If not, it is worth to think why mentoring has not been implemented in the organisation so far and what has changed that currently the mentoring process is about to be started.

STEP 2. Mentoring form
Nowadays, mentoring has usually several forms, each of which has its specificity, strengths and weaknesses. The table below sums up the main mentoring forms.

Source: own development based on: Mentoring w praktyce polskich przedsiębiorstw. Analiza danych i dokumentów zastanych (desk-research), Polskie Stowarzyszenie Mentoringu, 2013, https://badania.parp.gov.pl/files/74/75/726/19443.pdf, p. 7-12

An analysis of available mentoring forms should end with indication of mentoring forms (or form, if we decide that it shall be just one) to be implemented in the organisation.

Question 3

Re. 3. What are the programme purposes and scope (specific purposes for specific groups of employees, for the organisation)?

At this stage, it should be decided, first of all, whether the mentoring process is to correspond with the organisation's strategy. If yes, what purposes should it help accomplish? Will they be purposes of the organisation? Or individual purposes of particular participants?
Nowadays, mentoring programmes usually combine these two approaches. On the one hand, they are to accomplish purposes assumed by the organisation, e.g. accustoming new employees to the culture of the organisation, providing "hidden" knowledge assigned to particular jobs, while on the other hand, they constitute also individual development plans of mentees (at least partially). "Lining out" of proportions for these two elements is important already at the stage of mentoring planning. In addition, the space for individual mentoring plans should be defined, while competence models assigned to particular jobs (if the organisation has them) may appear helpful within this scope.

Question 4

Re. 4. What functions and tasks shall be performed by the mentor?

This question is key for further conceptual work. Before we even define who the mentor and the mentee will be, we should indicate roles and tasks of the mentor in the entire process.

As it results from the literature and practice of mentoring, the mentor may perform the following roles:

• Authority – role model, commands respect, transfers hidden rules, roles and values in teaching, inspires, manages the mentee's educational process, provides information, guidelines with use of specialist knowledge, skills and extensive experience
• Good parent – role model providing support, care, interest, explanation, help with developing self-confidence and self-respect
• Advisor – helps the mentee by providing guidelines, advising. Helps the mentee establish its goals, plan their accomplishment, indicates opportunities for development, helps the mentee accept the need for changes, improvement
• Evaluator – monitors progress of the mentee, stimulates to self-assessment, conducts evaluation of its actions, objectively assesses progress and analyses mistakes
• Leader – teaches and assesses, establishes tasks, defines their goals, indicates the best way of their accomplishment, stimulates and encourages to improve results, forms motivation of the mentee, teaches independence and responsibility for performed tasks, supports in introducing significant changes, leads the mentee in discovering its personal and professional aspirations, opportunities for growth
• Wise guide – direct source of information, advise, "first aid"
• Teacher – ensures establishment of particular stages, verification of understanding and actions, help in acquisition and implementation of skills related to self-learning, self-awareness, collection of information, taking actions, dealing with changes
• Representative, protector – appears as a connector with state or voluntary services, informal deputy and representative of the mentee in contacts with institutions, negotiator, helper
• Listener – shows its interest in the mentee, proposes its support, always available for the mentee, listens with sympathy, if needed

We should define which of these roles are key for the organisation, which roles are related to the mentoring form (forms) that we have selected for performance.

We should note some threats that may appear if we do not define what tasks and roles are planned for the mentor, as it may lead to the situation when the so-called toxic mentor represents values rejected by the organisation.

Question 5

Re. 5. Who should be the mentor, the mentee and what shall be the selection criteria?

Not every employee is suitable for the mentor's role. Mentors should be recruited for the programme (selection criteria should be defined), selected and assigned to mentees with use of comprehensive strategy accepted in the organisation, which includes a clearly determined, open process and detailed criteria.

Criteria for mentors may include the following elements: seniority (usually at least 10-year seniority is required), achieved results and professional knowledge (e.g. outstanding manager, leader in some area), participation in mentoring programmes (both as a mentee and a mentor), participation in programmes related to talent development in the organisation, job in a different country than the mentee (refers to mentoring programmes indicating cognition of cultural differences in an organisation as their goals). If the organisation has already some mentoring programmes conducted, an additional criterion may be distinguished for mentors who have already been participating in programmes, referring to the assessment of the mentor's work by organisations and mentees.

In mentoring programmes, mentees constitute usually two main groups: employees who are newly hired or persons who have several years of professional experience and want to develop themselves or are prepared for the assumption of duties from persons who are finishing their career.
In the case of the first group, the criteria for selecting and recruiting to mentoring programme are constituted mainly by new employment or (employment on a new position).

In the case of the second group, these criteria may be diverse and concern results achieved at work, participation in the talent development programme, seniority (usually a period of at least three years), motivation (often application is accompanied by detemination of one's motivation to participate in the programme), as well as often one indicates non-participation in previous mentoring programmes in the organisation as a criterion.

Question 6 and Question 7

Re. 6.What competences of the mentor are deemed key in the organisation?
Re. 7. What competences of the mentee are the most important?

The EU Competence Framework for the Mentor may be found helpful for determining the mentor's key competence, as it defines thoroughly knowledge, skills and competence of the mentor in distribution into the following areas: development of good relations with mentees in the mentoring process, co-operation with the mentee and its support; planning, negotiation and implementing the work-based learning programme, support and motivation of the mentee at work, progress monitoring and feedback, evaluation of the traning process and of one's own contribution into it.

The literature includes many developed sets of attributes, features and competence that should describe the mentor. D. Clutterbuck mentions ten key competencies of the mentor, including:

• professional and business knowledge,
• untinterrupted self-education,
• mentoring relationship management,
• self-understanding (self-consciousness),
• understanding of other people (behavioural awareness),
• interest in development of other people,
• clarity of goals,
• conceptualisation,
• communicativeness,
• sense of humour and proportion.

It is worth to emphasise that subjective criteria, instead of the objective ones, determine whether somebody becomes the mentor, or not. If the mentor is for somebody who experiences support from him/her in his/her personal development – the mentee considers the mentor freely the authority, in inspired by its master, listens to him/her and identifies itself with him/her, so it may determine on its own competencies the mentor should have from the point of view of its personal development.
It is recognised that the perfect mentor is a person who identifies itself with the mentor's role, can motivate well, is a good organiser and can plan well, knows its industry (is a good expert) and is a good teacher (can transfer knowledge and skills), while being also communicative, good listener, commands trust and is able to preserve confidentiality.

Desired competencies of the mentee depend on several factors: one of key ones include expectations and requirements of the organisation in which mentoring is to be implemented, posed for employees on specific positions (they may be formalised as competence models). From the mentee's point of view, the willingness of development, openness, attitude to acquisition of new knowledge are the most important. The mentoring programme's goals should be related to the needs of employees participating in mentoring and expectations of the organisation, as key competencies of mentors and mentees shall depend also on them.

Question 8

Re. 8. How mentors and mentees should be prepared to start the programme implementation?

The mentoring process requires preparation from both sides. Mentors should know the programme's goals, know what objectives the organisation wants to accomplish. Mentors should also know any technical and logistic requirements (e.g. method of preparation and handover of documentation). Communication skills and competencies constitute a very important element from the point of view of mentors' preparation. If possible, it is good to organise workshops/training for mentors.
While commencing the mentoring process, the mentee should know principles based on which the mentoring process would be executed, as well as rights and obligations of the parties.

From the mentee's point of view, it is very important to determine the goals to be accomplished. Prior to the commencement of the mentoring programme, the mentee should initially formulate the goals it wants to accomplish. These goals may be:

• cognitive – related to the acquisition of knowledge needed at work (in their formulation the following questions are helpful: what do I not know, what do I not understand, what is unclear for me?)
• behavioural – related to strenghtening of competencies and skills within the scope of work performance, application of procedures (in their formulation the following questions are helpful: what can I not do?)
• affective – concerning the formation of attitudes and motivations (in their formulation the following questions are helpful: what do I not want to do, what am I afraid of as a challenge?)

Within the framework of preparation for the mentoring programme implementation, future mentees should be provided with participation in training (also e-training), during which mentees will be able to become acquainted with the assumption of the entire programme and to define the goals they want to accomplish.
Preparation of mentors and mentees for the programme implementation should also include the selection of mentor-mentee pairs. The situation when the mentee chooses its mentor is the most beneficial (e.g. during specially organised workshops), as it makes the relation stronger and more effective.

Question 9

Re. 9. What support should be provided by the organisation – how the mentoring shall be organised?

Support of the organisation, particularly its scope, depends on a mentoring type to be implemented in a given organisation. At the stage of planning the mentoring, it is crucial to plan support necessary for the mentoring process: e.g. support of the IT Department, especially if mentoring is to be conducted (at least partially) as e-mentoring. Support of the HR Department is needed at the stage of recruitment to the programme and possible competence test. In general, it should be noticed that the organisation is to create organisational and logistic capacity of conducting the mentoring programme (define when sessions may occur, how documentation should be prepared, etc.).

Question 10, Question 11 and Question 12

Re. 10. How training needs of the mentoring participants shall be defined?
Re. 11. What is the role and responsibility of mentors and mentees?
Re. 12. Are there principles in the organisation and are respective policies introduced to support the programme implementation? How the confidence policy is implemented?

Training needs of the mentoring participants may be defined e.g. with use of the following tools:

• diagnosis of needs conducted by an external party (department staff, e.g. HR or external expert) based on the competence test (with possibility of comparing to the competence model for a given position in the organisation, if developed)
• self-diagnosis of needs conducted by a potential mentee based on the competence test or with use of SWOT analysis (with possibility of comparing to the competence model for a given position in the organisation, if developed)
• with use of the GROW model (goal/goals is/are defined at the first stage of this model).

GROW model is a tool applied in mentoring to plan the process both for the organisation and for individual mentees.
Its name GROW constitutes an acronym indicating four significant elements of the model. At work on development (among others with use of mentoring), the following elements should be considered:

• GOAL – define a goal
• REALITY – diagnose reality
• OPTIONS – define options
• WILL / WHAT'S NEXT? – make a decision and establish a plan

GOAL is a purpose, vision of the desired state for which the mentee wants to head. The mentee's support in the establishment of valuable, ambitious and achievable goals constitutes one of the most important and difficult tasks of the mentor.
A well-formulated mentoring goal (goals) should meet the SMART filter requirements: it should be specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and time-bound (more about filters and methods of goal establishment in the context of learning outcome assessment in the module M2_JM_05)

REALITY – current situation of the mentee, in its assessment the SWOT analysis may be useful, particularly in the context of diagnosing internal and external barriers.

OPTIONS – review of possibilities of action, which shall make goal accomplishment possible. There may appear many possibilities of action and this stage results in generation of the highest number of alternative solutions. At this stage, a number of possibilities is more important than quality and feasibility of each of them. A specific method of action shall be selected from among this wide base of creative possibilities.

WILL / WHAT'S NEXT? – development of an action plan. At this stage actions that must be taken to achieve the assumed goals should be phased. So it should be defined from what we shall start, what would the following steps be, whether there may appear some barriers (what?), what help we expect and need? who can support us at pursuit of the goal? At this stage, strengthening the mentee's motivation constitutes the mentor's long-term task.

Boths goals and thr role and responsibility of mentors and mentees should be included in the mentoring contract. Contract means an agreement (oral or written) concluded by and between the mentor and the mentee that governs their mutual expectations and concerns principles on which their relationship is to be based. The mentor shall be responsible for the contract initiation.

In the mentor-mentee system, three areas of contract may be regarded:

• organisation, procedural (principles related to a "technical" aspect of meetings – determination of their place and dates, duration, use of phone and e-mail contact forms)
• content-related, professional (appointment of goals and subjects of meetings according to the mentor's specific competencies)
• psychological (establishment of principles developing the sense of security of both sides – mutual respect, honesty, confidentiality of the course of meetings, right to have different views, etc.)

Contract should be included in the following items:

1. Explanation of a purpose of mentoring and the mentor's role
2. Motives followed by the mentor
3. Explanation of work methods (e.g. reference to the Kolb's cycle)
4. Establishment of the principles of cooperation (organisation of the process, principles of communication)
5. Information on significance of feedback
6. Provision of confidence (including reference to the confidentiality policy and legal requirements within this scope) and ethical issues (reference fo the organisation's code of ethics, if developed).

Apart from the organisation's codes of ethics, mentors' codes of ethics are also important. They include principles and rules within the scope of tasks performed within the scope of implementing mentoring programmes. Codes of ethics govern the mentors' work usually on three layers: customer care, personal principles, professional relationships.

The developed contract should be approved by both sides, it should be concluded at the beginning and verify on following meetings (mentoring sessions) whether at the beginning and on following meetings the established principles require modification.
At the process planning stage, it should be indicated who is responsible for the contract preparation (there happen mentoring processes, in which the first task is for the mentee and their result is discussed with the mentor). There may occur a situation when the organisation, in which the mentoring process is conducted, develops the contract model. It is either the contract model for individual mentees or the contract model composed of two parts – the first one is constituted by goals of the organisation that are to be accomplished in the mentoring process, the second one is an individual contract model (templated) to be completed by mentees.

The role and responsibility of mentors and mentees depend also on a method of selection of the mentor-mentee pairs. Pair selection may occur as follows:

• the mentee selects the mentor on its own – responsibility for a good match rests on participants, HR Department supports the process within the administrative scope, selection process is quick and corresponds with the mentee's real needs,
• selection based on the compliance of competence, application of this method guarantees that the mentor has appropriate competence and experience compatible with the mentee's developmental goals, the need for involvement of third parties (sometimes external experts – necessity of taking care of ensuring confidentiality and application of legal regulations concerning confidentiality, especially if a person from outside the organisation is hired for the pair selection process),
• selection based on character compliance and needs of the mentee, in this case responsibility for pair selection entirely rests on a responsible person (project coordinators), it is a time-consuming process, but ensuring match on the level of values and beliefs, allows for quicker accomplishment of goals.

Question 13

Re. 13. How (and by whom) relations between the mentor and the mentee will be assessed?

An assessment conducted by the mentor, mentee and/or other persons who were directly or indirectly involved in the mentoring process at a given stage of its implementation, e.g. immediate superior, constitutes an important element of the mentoring process completion. However, already at the stage of the process planning, one has to think why this assessment is to be conducted only at the end of the process? If the mentoring process lasts 10-12 months, it is good to foresee also an assessment during it. Also the assessment method is to be planned: is to be a form in an electronic version, is there prepared an assessment card (what scale is to be assumed - descriptive or scoring, scope of scores?), will assessments be conducted by all participants (if yes, will assessment cards for mentors and mentees be diversified?)

Question 14

Re. 14. What will be measures of the mentoring result assessment - what indicators shall be applied?

Measures of the mentoring result assessments may concern two levels: the very mentoring programme or assessment of results of particular mentees (this element is analysed in the module M2.05. Recording and reviewing the mentoring process).

Within the scope of the very mentoring programme there may be assumed the generation of indices that shall be useful for the organisation, e.g. a number of persons participating in the programme (including mentors and mentees), number of persons who achieved competencies specific for their job (e.g. test of results related to the competence model for particular positions).

Question 15

Re. 15. What support shall be provided to mentors and mentees when the mentoring relations do not proceed as expected?

Diagnosis and elimination of appearing disturbance or undesired behaviours constitute a task for the mentoring process coordinator. At the planning stage, channels for the process participants to report the occurred irregularities to the coordinator should be established. In addition, one should indicate the means to be applied upon stating these irregularities. They may include supervision, group support, finally change of the mentor.

Question 16

Re. 16. Will the mentoring programme be promoted? If yes, whether in a formal or an informal way?

A response to this question is strictly related to the question 5, as the programme promotion strategy should be selected depending on who the mentor and the mentee will be. It is also important to develop the communication strategy to be implemented within the programme. General information on the mentoring programme should be widely announced, with adjustment of communication channels to the specificity of particular employee groups.
Gaining the "programme agents", i.e. representatives of top management who will encourage to participate in the programme, constitutes a good promotional solution. Such an approach ensures also full and real implementation of mentoring in the organisation management and culture.

MENTORING PROGRAMME STEP BY STEP

If you analysed the conditions for mentoring implementation in your organisation with use of questions and guidelines in the previous part of the module, develop a plan to implement the programme step by step

STEP 1. EDUCATE YOURSELF – find out as much as possible about mentoring, if possible, participate in the mentoring training and/or in the mentoring process.

STEP 2. GAIN THE PROGRAMME AGENTS – preferably your superiors and/or other top managers. Their involvement shall translate into an interest in the programme among employees.

STEP 3. SHARE KNOWLEDGE – organise mini training/workshop/presentation to present the mentoring concepts, as this will enable persons who so far have not used that tool of development acquire information and get used to the thought that mentoring will be conducted in your organisation.

STEP 4. PREPARE A PROJECT – itemise mentoring as a business project, defining required resources, mainly human, organisational and financial issues. At this stage, determine a mentoring type to be executed in your organisation.

STEP 5. CREATE A TEAM – the need for appointment of a team shall result from the project description. The team composition shall depend on actions foreseen under mentoring.

STEP 6. DEVELOP CRITERIA IN A TEAM – who will perform the mentor's role, who will be the mentee? How will you recruit to the programme? Is any external support needed (e.g. at the stage of selection of the mentor-mentee pairs)?

STEP 7. CARRY OUT PILOTAGE – at this stage you can make some adjustments in the programme assumptions, verify to what extent the mentoring programme meets the employees' expectations.

STEP 8. EXECUTE THE MENTORING PROGRAMME – remember that it should last 10-12 months, and after this time it is worth to summarise, but, if possible, the programme should be continued as a next edition

Literature

• „Mentoring w praktyce polskich przedsiębiorstw". Analiza danych i dokumentów zastanych (desk-research) [Mentoring in the Practice of Polish Enterprises. Analysis of Existing Data and Documents (Desk-Research)], Polskie Stowarzyszenie Mentoringu, 2013, https://badania.parp.gov.pl/files/74/75/726/19443.pdf, 2018-05-30
• Mentoring. Teoria, praktyka, studia przypadków [Mentoring. Theory, practice, case studies], ed. M.Sidor Rządkowska, Wolters Kluwer Warszawa 2014
• Podręcznik mentora [The Mentor Book], Nawigator Doradztwo Gospodarcze Sławomir Kośmicki, Poznań, 2013, http://navigator.com.pl/files/podrecznik-mentora.pdf, 2018-06-30
• Religa J. (red.), Przewodnik metodologiczny dla mentorów i tutorów [A Methodological Guide for Mentors and Tutors], ITeE – PIB, Radom 2011
• Religa J., Kompetencje europejskich mentorów i tutorów [Competencies of European Mentors and Tutors], „Edukacja ustawiczna dorosłych", 2014, no 2(85), p. 36-45
• Vademecum Mentoringu. Wiedza w pigułce [Vade Mecum of Mentoring. Knowledge in a Nutshell], 2016, Alicja Zajączkowska, Hanna Gałusa, Alicja Gotowczyc, Gdańsk 2016, http://forum-mentorow.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Vademecum-mentoringu_23-05-2016.pdf, 2018-06-05
• VADEMECUM z zakresu zarządzania wiekiem [Age Management Vade Mecum], PARP, Warszawa 2011, www.parp.gov.pl/images/PARP_publications/pdf/18992vademecum45plus.pdf, 2018-06-20